Users Guide

● Secure environment — By providing secure access to remote servers, administrators can perform critical management
functions while maintaining server and network security.
● Enhanced embedded management — Lifecycle Controller provides deployment and simplified serviceability through the LC
GUI for local deployment, Remote Services (wsman) interfaces for remote deployment integrated with Dell OpenManage
Essentials and partner consoles, and Redfish UI.
For more information on iDRAC, see the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller User’s Guide at www.dell.com/support/
manuals. For more information on wsman, see the Dell Lifecycle Controller GUI User’s Guide at www.delltechcenter.com/lc.
New in this release
The updates supported in this release are:
● Added support for firmware update for Intel P4510 and P4610 SSD drives.
● Added support for iDSDM device firmware update.
● Added firmware update support via HTTPS
● Removed the default URL from the FTP server settings option.
● The default URL on the HTTPS page is downloads.dell.com.
Key features
The key features of Lifecycle Controller are:
● Provisioning—Entire pre-operating system configuration from a unified interface.
● Deploying—Simplified operating system installation with the embedded drivers on Lifecycle Controller. Unattended
installation mode is available for Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 operating systems.
● Download drivers for operating system installation from downloads.dell.com.
● Patching or updating—Operating system agnostic, and reduced maintenance downtime with direct access to updates from
downloads.dell.com. It simplifies firmware updates by maintaining a working version for rollback.
● Servicing—Continuous availability of diagnostics without depending on a hard-disk drive. Ability to flash firmware
automatically, while replacing components such as a Dell PowerEdge storage controller, NIC, and power supply unit. Support
for VLAN in network configuration.
● System erase—Deletes the server and storage-related data on selected components of a server. You can delete information
on BIOS, Lifecycle Controller data (LC logs, configuration database and rollback firmware versions), iDRAC settings, and
storage components on the server.
NOTE: You cannot delete the iDRAC license file.
● Security—Support local key encryption.
● Restoring the server—Back up the server profile (including RAID configuration) and restore the server to a previously
known state. Importing a server license, firmware rollback, and restoring system configuration if there was system board
replacement.
● Hardware inventory—Provides information about the current and factory system configuration.
● Lifecycle Controller logs for troubleshooting.
● CIFS operations—CIFS operations performed from LCUI uses SMBv2 protocol.
NOTE: File transfer operations from LCUI uses SMBv2 protocol but is displayed as CIFS on the GUI.
Feature matrix
The following table lists the Lifecycle Controller features supported on the 12
th
and 13
th
generation Dell PowerEdge servers.
Table 1. Feature Matrix
Features supported Dell PowerEdge 12
th
generation servers Dell PowerEdge 13
th
generation servers
Firmware update
Operating system
deployment
8 Introduction