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DELL(TM) DIAGNOSTIC DISTRIBUTION PACKAGE FOR MICROSOFT(R) WINDOWS(R)
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This readme file contains information about the Diagnostic Distribution
Package (DDDP) for Dell systems running Microsoft Windows operating
systems.
The Diagnostic Distribution Package offers new levels of ease and
flexibility for creating bootable media for running diagnostics outside of
the customer operating system.
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CONTENTS
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* CRITICALITY
* MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
* USAGE
* KNOWN ISSUES
* ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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CRITICALITY
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Optional
Dell recommends that you review specifics about the update to
determine if it applies to your system. The update contains changes that
impact only certain configurations, or provides new features that may/may
not apply to your environment.
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MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
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These DDDPs support Dell systems running the following Windows operating
systems:
* Windows 2000 Server (includes Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000
Advanced Server) SP1 or later, and Windows Small Business Server
[SBS] 2000, SP1 or later.
* Windows Server(R) 2003 (includes Web, Standard, and Enterprise Editions)
and Windows SBS 2003.
* Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Extended Systems (Standard and
Enterprise).
* Windows XP (Home Edition, Professional Edition, and Professional x64
Edition), SP1 or later.
* Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit versions (Ultimate, Home Premium,
Home Basic, Business, Enterprise).
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USAGE
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After executing the diagnostic package which was downloaded from the Dell
support website, the DDDP application will start automatically after all
files are extracted to the location you specify. You can restart the
distribution package by running "DDDP.exe" from the folder location you
specified when the download package originally ran.
When the application starts, a dialog box is displayed where you can
choose the media type to be created. Supported media types include: USB
flash drives, diskettes (Server versions only), CDs, and a bootable
hard-drive or diskette image that can be used as a Preboot Execution
Environment (PXE) boot image or for remote booting via a Dell Remote
Access (DRAC) card for servers. In addition, the diagnostic partition on
the system (if it exists) may be updated from DDDP. Details for each media
type are presented in the sections that follow. Note that in order to boot
the media you create, you may need to change the boot sequence for your
computer so that the media type you create is first in the boot sequence.
See the User Guide for your system for more information on changing the
boot sequence.
Install to a USB Flash Drive
Selecting this option will bring up a dialog box where you can select a
USB flash drive to install the diagnostics from a drop-down list box.
Flash drives can be hot plugged and will automatically be detected and
added to the list without the need to restart the DDDP application. The
drop-down list includes the drive letter (if assigned) in parentheses
followed by the volume name in brackets "[]" followed by the size and
description of the flash drive.
Selecting the "Cancel" button will return to the main window and nothing
will be written to the flash drive. Selecting "OK" will cause the flash
drive to be reformatted to make it bootable, and the diagnostic files will
be copied to it. All data that is already on the flash drive WILL BE
ERASED.
Local administrator rights are necessary to create a bootable flash
drive from DDDP. Although flash drives up to about 16 GB are supported,
DDDP is only able to create up to 2 GB partitions. Any remaining space on
the flash drive will not be usable until the flash drive is re-formatted
by another tool capable of supporting larger sizes. Note that flash drive
boot functionality is not available on all systems. See the User Guide for
your system to see if this is supported and if so how to change the boot
order to boot from them. Note that not all flash drives will be bootable
even if DDDP can successfully write the diagnostics image to them.
Create a Bootable Diskette Set (Server versions only)
Only 1.44 MB diskettes are supported by this option. Drives supporting
1.44 MB diskettes may be selected by a drop-down list box. USB diskette
drives can be hot plugged and will automatically be detected and added
to the list without the need to restart the DDDP application.
If you click "Cancel", nothing will be written to the diskette drive
and the application will return to the main window. If you click "OK",
then the "Diskette x of y" dialog will be displayed.
This dialog will be updated for each diskette in the set to indicate the
current diskette number and the total number of diskettes in the set. You
may click the "Cancel" button to return to the main DDDP window if you
want to abort the operation. After "OK" is clicked, the diskette will be
formatted and the diagnostic files will be copied to it. All existing data
on the diskettes used WILL BE ERASED.
Create a Bootable CD
By default, this option will write an ISO image file to a user-selectable
location. The full path to the file can be entered directly in the edit
box at the bottom of the dialog, or you can select the "..." button to
bring up a dialog box to select the location and the filename to use. Once
created, the ISO image can be used along with commercial CD creation
software to burn a CD or it may be used with Dell Remote Access Cards
(DRAC 4/DRAC 5) for remote booting of servers through a DRAC card.
You also have the option of burning a CD-R or CD-RW media directly from
the DDDP application by clicking the "Burn Image..." check box. The
checkbox will be grayed out if the system does not have a drive capable of
burning CD-R or CD-RW media. Other media types are not supported by the
application.
If you click the "Cancel" button, then the image file or CD will not be
created, and the application will return to the main window. If you click
"OK", then the image file will be saved to the filename and location
selected. Or, if the "Burn Image..." check box has been checked, then the
"Burn CD" dialog will be displayed.
From the "Burn CD..." dialog, you can select a CD recorder to use to
create the CD from a drop-down list box. After you select OK, the
CD will be erased, if needed, and if the media type is CD-RW. After that,
the diagnostic data will be copied to the CD. This option only supports
CD-R and CD-RW media. You must have a drive capable of writing to one or
both of these media types.
The capability of burning a CD directly from DDDP is not intended to
support a wide variety of different CD burners and configurations. If the
direct burn capability does not work in a particular hardware
configuration, then it is best to create an ISO image and use commercial
CD creation software to burn the image to a CD.
Local administrator rights are necessary to burn a CD directly from DDDP.
Update Existing Diagnostic Partition
Note that a Diagnostic Partition or Utility Partition must already exist
for this option to work. If there is not an existing Diagnostic Partition
on the system then an error message will be displayed to let you know that
an update is not possible. A diagnostic partition may normally only be
created on the hard drive before the operating system is installed. Local
administrator rights are necessary to update the diagnostic partition from
DDDP.
Click the "Update" button to update the diagnostic files on the diagnostic
partition with this version of the diagnostics. Click the "Cancel" button
to return to the main menu without updating the diagnostic partition.
Create a Bootable Image
When this option is selected, a dialog box will appear so that the
location and name of the image file can be selected. The full path to the
image file can be entered directly in the edit box at the bottom of the
dialog or you may select the "..." button to bring up a dialog box to
select the location and the filename to use. Depending on your needs you
may also select whether a hard drive or diskette image will be created.
Normally, the hard drive image type should be selected; however, in some
cases the diskette format might be more appropriate. This will depend on
where the image will be used and what capabilities are supported by that
application. Note that if the image to create will not fit on a 2.88MB
diskette, then the diskette image option will be grayed out.
If you click the "Cancel" button, then the image file will not be written
and the application will return to the main window. If you click "OK",
then the image file will be saved in the filename and location selected.
An image created by this option can be used as a PXE boot image or for
remote booting via a Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC 5 only), you must use
the diskette option. The Hard Drive option will not create a bootable
image that can be uploaded to the virtual flash drive. The files will be
visible but the drive will not boot correctly. You can however run DDDP
on the server with the DRAC 5 and create a bootable virtual flash drive
using the "Install to USB Flash Drive" option. DRAC 4 does not support
bootable images created with this option instead try the bootable CD or
ISO image type instead. See the DRAC documentation for additional
information regarding the use of these features.
Use of the resulting image to PXE boot into the diagnostics requires
additional software and network infrastructure including a TFTP server,
a DHCP server, and a boot loader capable of network booting. Specific
instructions about how to do so on your network are beyond the scope
of this readme file. However, a high-level overview of the steps to set
this up using the pxelinux boot loader is described below. Consult your
documentation or contact your local network administrator for additional
information. The resulting image from this package may not be compatible
with all PXE configurations.
Pxelinux (http://syslinux.zytor.com) is one example of an open source
boot loader capable of booting DOS boot images. If you already have a
TFTP server and a DHCP server configured on your network, you can easily
use pxelinux to boot the hard-drive image created by DDDP. The basic
steps to perform this task are as follows:
1. Download the SYSLINUX package.
2. On the TFTP server, create the directory "/tftpboot" and copy the
files "pxelinux.0" and "memdisk" (from the SYSLINUX distribution) to
that directory.
3. Using the DDDP application, create a HDD image file called "diags.img"
and copy it to the "/tftpboot" directory.
4. Create a directory called "/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg" on the TFTP server.
In that directory, create an empty text file called "default" (with no
extension) and add the following text to the file:
DEFAULT diagnostics
LABEL diagnostics
kernel memdisk
append initrd=diags.img
5. Consult the documentation for your DHCP server and configure the
following scope options:
043 Vendor Specific Info 01 04 00 00 00 00 ff
066 Boot Server Host Name TFTP server>
067 Bootfile Name pxelinux.0
You may also need to configure the following additional options:
013 Boot File Size pxelinux.o file / 512 and put
the resulting number here>
060 ClassID PXEClient
PXE booting should now be enabled. Try booting a client and selecting the
boot time option to PXE boot (usually F12) and the system should boot to
the diagnostic image. Note that the network interface on the system has to
be set to "Enabled with PXE" in order to PXE boot. In the case of built-in
network adapters, this option is configured in BIOS setup.
Using an image file with a Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC) on servers
Image files created with DDDP can be used with DRAC 4 and DRAC 5 for
remote booting. This includes the .ISO image file that can be created
under the "Create a Bootable CD" option.
For the DRAC 4, only the .ISO image type will work. Even though the DRAC 4
supports a floppy image file, it only supports 1.44MB images which are too
small to hold the diagnostics.
For the DRAC 5, the .ISO image type is supported as well as the floppy
image file type. Select the Diskette image type when creating the image.
Note that you cannot create a hard drive image type file and use it with
the virtual flash feature of the DRAC 5. The files will be visible but the
virtual flash drive will not be bootable.
For additional information see the appropriate DRAC user guide.
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KNOWN ISSUES/LIMITATIONS
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1. Local administrator access is required to create bootable USB flash
drives, update the diagnostic partition or to burn CD media from
within the DDDP application. You can still create an ISO image of a
bootable CD and burn that image from commercial CD creation software to
create a bootable CD.
2. Diskettes and diskette images take a long time to boot. Dell recommends
that you use one of the other media types when running diagnostics.
3. Although flash drives up to about 16 GB are supported, DDDP is only
able to create up to 2 GB partitions. Any remaining space on the flash
drive will not be usable until the flash drive is re-formatted by
another tool capable of supporting larger sizes.
4. Dell Diagnostics are only available in the English language.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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See the Dell Support website at "support.dell.com" for the most
current information.
==========================================================================
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of
Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: "Dell" is a trademark of Dell Inc.; "Windows
Server", "Microsoft", "Windows Vista", and "Windows" are registered
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to
either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell
Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names
other than its own.
July 2007