Dell™ PowerEdge™ M610 Technical Guidebook
27
II. Lifecycle Controller / Unified Server Configurator
Embedded management is comprised of several pieces which are very interdependent.
 •LifecycleController
 •UniedServerCongurator
 •iDRAC6
 •vFLASH
Lifecycle controller is the hardware component that powers the embedded management features. It is
integrated and tamperproof storage for system-management tools and enablement utilities (firmware,
drivers, etc.). It is flash partitioned to support multiple, future use cases
Dell Unified Server Configurator is a 1:1 user interface exposing utilities from Lifecycle Controller. Customers
will use this interface to configure hardware, update server, run diagnostics, or deploy the operating
system.ThisutilityresidesonLifecycleController.ToaccesstheUniedServerCongurator,press<F10>
key within 10 seconds of the Dell logo display during the system boot process. Current functionality
enabled by the Unified Server Configurator includes:
FeatuRe DescRiPtiOn
Faster O/S
Installation
Drivers and the installation utility are embedded on system, so no need to
scour DELL.COM
Faster System Updates Integration with Dell support automatically directed to latest versions of
the Unied Server Congurator
More Comprehensive
Diagnostics Diagnostic utilities are embedded on system
Simplied Hardware
Conguration
Detects RAID controller and allows user to congure virtual disk and
choose virtual disk as boot device, eliminating the need to launch a
separate utility
III. iDRAC6 Express/Enterprise
For the M610, all features of both the iDRAC6 Express and Enterprise are included with each server. The
iDRAC6 is a managed persistent storage space for server provisioning data and consists of 1GB flash and
VFlash. VFlash oers the hot-plug portability and increased storage capacity benefits of SD while still
being managed by the system. iDRAC6 is currently partitioned to support the following applications:
 •UniedServerConguratorBrowserandSystemServicesModule(SSM)(25MB):TheUnied
Server Configurator browser provides a consistent graphical user interface for bare metal
deployment and is ideal for 1-to-1 deployment. The SSM supports automatic 1-to-N deployment
 •ServiceDiagnostics(15MB):FormerlyontheharddriveastheUtilityPartition,thisisabootable
FAT16 partition for Service Diagnostics
 •DeploymentOSEmbeddedLinux(100MB):StoragespacetoholdembeddedLinux
 •DeploymentOSWinPE(200MB):StoragespacetoholdWindowsPreinstallationEnvironment
 •DriverStore(150MB):HoldsalllesrequiredforOSdeployment
 •iDRAC6rmware(120MB):HoldsthetwomostrecentversionsofiDRAC6rmware
 •FirmwareImages(160MB):HoldsthetwomostrecentversionsofBIOS,RAID,embedded
NIC, power supplies, and hard drive firmware. This partition also holds the BIOS and option
ROM configuration data
 •LifeCycleLog(2MB):Storesinitialfactorycongurationaswellasalldetectablehardware
and firmware changes to the server since its deployment. The Life Cycle Log is stored on the
BMC SPI flash
 •RJ-45Management10/100MbpsEthernetport