Dell Poweredge R710
Dell support page
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-r710/drivers?lwp=rt
idrac console won't connect
Go to Java installation folder.
Open {JRE_HOME}\lib\security\java.security -file in text editor.
Delete or comment out the following line "jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3".
I found simply removing RC4 from the list was adequate, this is on an R610 with iDRAC 2.91 and Java 8 Update 181.
updating BIOS in ESXI
If you run into the above memory limitation on VMWare ESX, the problem is because the console OS available memory is only 272M by default. Please increase the console OS memory to 800M temporarily and perform the FW update. During ESX server boot up please perform the below steps to increase the memory available. 1. While booting, press 'e' or 'Shift-0' on the VMware ESX line (Grub option display screen). 2. Press 'e' again on the 'uppermem=' line and edit uppermem=819200. Press Enter. 3. Press 'e' on the kernel line (Just below the uppermem line). Edit the kernel line with mem=800M and press Enter. 4. Press 'b' to boot with these options. 5. Perform the FW update.
You can enter the shell by enabling it in the web client under hosts or under f2 then troubleshooting options. In the direct console press 'alt-f1' (to return to direct console press alt-f2). Or you can use ssh.
Copy the update file to the storage and don't forget to chmod it 777 before running and then deleting after.
updating idrac in web gui
download the windows version
open the .exe with 7zip
go to the payload directory and extract the firmimg.d6
on the homepage on the right, choose update or in idrac settings, tab update. Browse for and upload the .d6 file. This can take a while. Once it's uploaded you will see the image with version number. Select next. You will then see an updating screen.
Booting through DOS
Using free tool Rufus was easiest to create bootable ms-dos usb
Buying new hardware
www.serverhome.nl