Dell EMC PowerEdge R940xa BIOS and UEFI Reference Guide Part Number: E54S Series Regulatory Type: E54S001 December 2020 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2019- 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: Pre-operating system management applications...........................................................4 Options to manage the pre-operating system applications.......................................................................................4 System Setup....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 View System Setup............................................
1 Pre-operating system management applications You can manage basic settings and features of a system without booting to the operating system by using the system firmware.
System Setup details The System Setup Main Menu screen details are explained as follows: Option Description System BIOS Enables you to configure BIOS settings. iDRAC Settings Enables you to configure the iDRAC settings. The iDRAC settings utility is an interface to set up and configure the iDRAC parameters by using UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). You can enable or disable various iDRAC parameters by using the iDRAC settings utility.
Option Description NVMe Settings Specifies options to change the NVMe settings. If the system contains the NVMe drives that you want to configure in a RAID array, you must set both this field and the Embedded SATA field on the SATA Settings menu to RAID mode. You might also need to change the Boot Mode setting to UEFI. Otherwise, you should set this field to Non-RAID mode. Boot Settings Specifies options to specify the Boot mode (BIOS or UEFI). Enables you to modify UEFI and BIOS boot settings.
Option Description System BIOS Version Specifies the BIOS version installed on the system. System Management Engine Version Specifies the current version of the Management Engine firmware. System Service Tag Specifies the system Service Tag. System Manufacturer Indicates the name of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). System Manufacturer Contact Information Indicates the contact information of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
Option Description System Memory Voltage Specifies the system memory voltage. Video Memory Specifies the amount of video memory. System Memory Testing Specifies whether the system memory tests are run during system boot. Options are Enabled and Disabled. This option is set to Disabled by default. NOTE: When Enabled the system takes more to boot. The booting time depends on the size of the system memory.
Processor Settings You can use the Processor Settings screen to view the processor settings, and perform specific functions such as enabling virtualization technology, hardware prefetcher, logical processor idling. View Processor Settings To view the Processor Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Turn on, or restart your system. 2.
Option Description DCU Streamer Prefetcher Enables or disables the Data Cache Unit (DCU) streamer prefetcher. This option is set to Enabled by default. DCU IP Prefetcher Enables or disables the Data Cache Unit (DCU) IP prefetcher. This option is set to Enabled by default. Sub NUMA Cluster Sub NUMA Clustering (SNC) is a feature for breaking up the LLC into disjoint clusters based on address range, with each cluster bound to a subset of the memory controllers in the system.
Option Description Option Description Family-ModelStepping Specifies the family, model, and stepping of the processor as defined by Intel. Brand Specifies the brand name. Level 2 Cache Specifies the total L2 cache. Level 3 Cache Specifies the total L3 cache. Number of Cores Specifies the number of cores per processor. Maximum Specifies the maximum memory capacity per processor. Memory Capacity Microcode Specifies the microcode.
Option Description Option Description Model Specifies the drive model of the selected device. NOTE: If no device is installed, it displays Unkown. Drive Type Specifies the type of drive attached to the SATA port. NOTE: If no device is installed, it displays Unkown Device. Capacity Specifies the total capacity of the drive. This field is undefined for removable media devices such as optical drives. NOTE: If no device is installed, it displays N/A.
○ Support for drive partitions larger than 2 TB. ○ Enhanced security (e.g., UEFI Secure Boot). ○ Faster boot time. NOTE: You must use only the UEFI boot mode in order to boot from NVMe drives. View Boot Settings To view the Boot Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Turn on, or restart your system. 2.
Network Settings You can use the Network Settings screen to modify UEFI PXE, iSCSI, and HTTP boot settings. The network settings option is available only in the UEFI mode. NOTE: The BIOS does not control network settings in the BIOS mode. For the BIOS boot mode, the optional Boot ROM of the network controllers handles the network settings. Viewing Network Settings To view the Network Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Turn on, or restart your system. 2.
Option Description Table 1. UEFI iSCSI Settings screen details (continued) TLS Authentication Configuration Option Description iSCSI Device1 Settings Enables you to control the configuration of the iSCSI device. View and/or modify this device's boot TLS authentication mode. None means the HTTP server and the client will not authenticate each other for this boot. One way means the HTTP server will be authenticated by the client, while the client will not be authenticated by the server.
Option Description NOTE: If set to Disabled (OS), the Integrated NICs might still be available for shared network access by iDRAC. I/OAT DMA Engine Enables or disables the I/O Acceleration Technology (I/OAT) option. I/OAT is a set of DMA features designed to accelerate network traffic and lower CPU utilization. Enable only if the hardware and software support the feature.
Table 2. Slot Disablement (continued) Slot number Description Slot 3 Enables or disables or only the boot driver is disabled for the PCIe slot 3. This option is set to Enabled by default. Slot 4 Enables or disables or only the boot driver is disabled for the PCIe slot 4. This option is set to Enabled by default. Slot 5 Enables or disables or only the boot driver is disabled for the PCIe slot 5. This option is set to Enabled by default.
Table 3.
Option Description External Serial Connector Enables you to associate the External Serial Connector to Serial Device 1, Serial Device 2, or the Remote Access Device by using this option. This option is set to Serial Device 1 by default. NOTE: Only Serial Device 2 can be used for Serial Over LAN (SOL). To use console redirection by SOL, configure the same port address for console redirection and the serial device. NOTE: Every time the system boots, the BIOS syncs the serial MUX setting saved in iDRAC.
Option Description CPU Power Management Sets the CPU power management. This option is set to System DBPM (DAPC) by default. DBPM is Demand-Based Power Management. Memory Frequency Sets the speed of the system memory. You can select Maximum Performance or a specific speed. This option is set to Maximum Performance by default. Turbo Boost Enables or disables the processor to operate in the turbo boost mode. This option is set to Enabled by default.
System Security You can use the System Security screen to perform specific functions such as setting the system password, setup password and disabling the power button. Viewing System Security To view the System Security screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Turn on, or restart your system. 2.
Option Description Table 4. TPM 1.2 security information (continued) TPM information Description Clear, all the contents of the TPM are cleared. This option is set to None by default. When TPM 2.0 is installed, the TPM Security option is set to On or Off. This option is set to Off by default. Table 5. TPM 2.0 security information TPM information Description TPM Information Changes the operational state of the TPM. This option is set to No Change by default.
Option Description UEFI Variable Access Provides varying degrees of securing UEFI variables. When set to Standard (the default), UEFI variables are accessible in the operating system per the UEFI specification. When set to Controlled, selected UEFI variables are protected in the environment and new UEFI boot entries are forced to be at the end of the current boot order.
Redundant OS Control You can use the Redundant OS Control screen to set the redundant OS info for redundant OS control. It enables you to set up a physical recovery disk on your system. Viewing Redundant OS Control To view the Redundant OS Control screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Turn on, or restart your system. 2.
Miscellaneous Settings You can use the Miscellaneous Settings screen to perform specific functions such as updating the asset tag and changing the system date and time. View Miscellaneous Settings To view the Miscellaneous Settings screen, perform the following steps: Steps 1. Turn on, or restart your system. 2.
For more information about using iDRAC, see Dell Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller User's Guide at www.dell.com/ idracmanuals. Device Settings Device Settings enables you to configure the device parameters. Dell Lifecycle Controller The Dell Lifecycle Controller (LC) provides advanced embedded systems management capabilities, including system deployment, configuration, update, maintenance, and diagnosis.
Menu item Description Launch Lifecycle Controller Exits the Boot Manager and invokes the Dell Lifecycle Controller program. System Utilities Enables you to launch System Utilities menu such as System Diagnostics and UEFI shell. One-shot UEFI Boot menu One-shot UEFI Boot menu enables you to access the UEFI Boot menu and select an one-shot boot option to boot from.
