We have some Dell PowerEdge 1950’s with Dell’s server remote access device, the DRAC.  Previously, this DRAC system provided remote console using a java applet - worked fine once you had the jvm installed, even on Linux.

I think since DRAC version 5, they’ve replaced this with some custom plugin they’ve written and it’s appalling.  Firstly, whilst there is a Linux version I’ve not been able to make it even install.  Looking at their installer code, it just couldn’t have ever come close to working unless the quality testing department (ha!) were running their browsers as root, though it still wouldn’t work.  So I’m assuming Dell have no Linux QA.

So, I run Windows in a virtual machine and use Internet Explorer.  Well, I get a bit further here.  I can use the remote console - for about 24 hours.  After that it stops working and I need to ssh in and reset the DRAC hardware.  Cute feature huh.  And on top of this, it regularly crashes Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

We’ve spoken at length to Dell about this and they’ve been unable to reproduce it.  We experience it continually with 3 separate DRAC cards (the only version 5 ones we own) and have tested it with many different operating systems and browsers.

I’m really just stunned.  This hardware is there for when your server is broken, or dying, or otherwise inaccessible - i.e: usually in an emergency.  To have to dick around with substandard DCRAP from Dell is ridiculous, especially when the older software worked almost perfectly.

We’ll be going back to Dell to have them sort this out somehow (though we’ve spent a LOT of time already with them), but I guess our options are limited.