Any trick to connect to the DRAC console from a mac?

Question

I have two Dell PowerEdge 2950 with DRAC5 cards, and I'm a mac user, running Snow Leopard.

Is there any trick to benefit from the remote console capability?

I am open to any suggestion, including fancy browser, custom made Java VM, any VM with virtual box at all. Anything except maybe for rebooting under windows...

Solution 1

It's a pain to use directly from the Mac, so I typically have a Windows XP VM available for management tasks or consoles that require browser plugins, etc. VMware Fusion, Parallels, Virtualbox are all up to the task, but another lightweight solution is CrossOver Mac which allows individual Windows apps to be installed and run.

Solution 2

For DRAC5 you don't need to use any virtual machine with Windows or Linux. Just do some simple java configuration (for Java8u31 and later).

1. If you have not already installed Java install it link or try open .jnlp file then Mac open window with proposition to download and install java.
2. You need config java at System Preferences -> Java -> open tab security and add to Exception Site List your DRAC5 web address.
3. Find path to your java home (JRE_HOME) in the tab java -> button view -> column path you can see something like this
   /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/bin/java
   You need to open file /lib/security/java.security and delete or comment out the following line "jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3"
   

You can do it with nano:

sudo nano /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/lib/security/java.security

After that you can download from DRAC web vkvm.jnlp file, run it, accept some warnings and see remote console.

Solution 3

Yes, update the DRAC to the last firmware, than go to console / media -> configuration

There is a drop down menu Plug-in Type. change native to java. Encryption off

Install JAVA for Mac and thats it :)

Comments

[Admin]

To clarify what marcel said, the latest iDRAC7 (Enterprise of course) firmware does in fact provide virtual console to OS X. I have found Safari seems to work best, but you either have to associate the JNLP to Webstart or you have click the files after they download to open the console. Yes you must turn off encryption (which might be a deal breaker in some industries) but I think with IPSec tunnels into the vlan, its as secure.

[nbari]

Many thanks for sharing, this helped me to access a DARC5 on a PowerEdge 2900.

[Roger Jacobson]

It seems that there is now a native Mac app that can connect to a DRAC: getsystemscope.com