What is DELL EMC System Update (DSU)


DELL EMC System Update (DSU) is an application used to distribute Dell updates for Linux and Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. The DSU distributes:

DELL EMC System Update User Guide can be found here

What is new in this release (Version : 17.12.00)

ChangeLog from previous repository: Here

This release of DELL EMC System Update (DSU) supports the following new features and operating systems:

Known Issues: Note:

1) The OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) upgrade using DSU utility is temporarily disabled. To upgrade OMSA directly using yum, use the instructions in this page (Here)

2) To install OpenManage Server Administrator on Microsoft Windows operating systems, refer the latest Dell OpenManage Server Administrator User’s Guide.

Differences between DELL EMC System Update 1.3 and after

DELL EMC System Update 1.3 DELL EMC System Update 1.4.0 and after
Available only on RHEL/SUSE operating systems Available across different types of Operating Systems
such as Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, RHEL/SUSE
Available as rpm (RedHat Package Manager) Available as Dell Update Package (exe and .bin). RPM version remains available
Download and Install only from linux.dell.com Download and Install the DUP version from support.dell.com. RPM version
remains available from linux.dell.com
Updates available at linux.dell.com (Repository) can only be consumed. DSU 1.4 can utilize Dell EMC Online Catalogs at http://downloads.dell.com/catalog
for both Windows and Linux updates. Support remains for RHEL/SLES updates from
linux.dell.com. Note: It is recommended that for updating Ubuntu systems
that the Ubuntu catalog be used (Ubuntu Catalog)

Installation differences between DELL EMC System Update 1.3 and after

DELL EMC System Update 1.3 DELL EMC System Update 1.4.0 and after
Download and Install DELL EMC System Update
1) wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/dsu/bootstrap.cgi | bash
2) yum install dell-system-update 		DSU DUP Installation (recommended)
1) Download Dell Update Package (DUP) from support.dell.com (Support Site)
2) Execute the DUP and install it on the target system
3) DSU RPM Installation
    1) wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/dsu/bootstrap.cgi | bash
    2) yum install dell-system-update

Supported Operating Systems

Linux (RHEL and SUSE)

Microsoft Windows

Support for Ubuntu operating systems

Starting with DSU 1.4, support for Ubuntu operating systems is pre-enabled and the support is limited. All the DSU commands may function as usual without any issues. For more information
on the catalog that has the updates for Ubuntu operating system, refer Ubuntu Catalog

Note:

1) "rebuilt" versions of the above such as CentOS or ScientificLinux and community distros like Fedora and OpenSUSE are not tested with this repository.

2) Support for Ubuntu is pre-enabled only on 12th and 13th generation of PowerEdge systems.

Preferred Installation method for DELL EMC System Update 1.4

Installation

Installation method if you want to install using DSU (method for installing versions of DSU pre v1.4)

Sample Command listing support from DELL EMC System Update for Windows and Linux

Note: This is only sample command listing. For detailed command listing with shortcuts, please refer section 4 in DSU User Guide

Updating Firmware

The below command will provide a command line interface to update firmware

#dsu

DSU utility version

dsu --version

Displaying the DSU utility version.

Getting System Inventory

#dsu --inventory

    To see the System Inventory

Category based installation

DSU allows category based device updates

Listing supported categories

#dsu --get-categories

    Gets the supported category values

Getting specific category updates

#dsu --category=<CATEGORY1,CATEGORY2,...>

    List only those updates belonging to categories

Non-interactive device updates

#dsu --non-interactive

    DSU supports devices updates in a non-interactive way where all the updatable components will be selected automatically and apply those updates without user intervention.

Getting the Upgradable updates only

dsu --apply-upgrades-only

    To get the list of only upgradable components

Getting the Downgradable updates only

dsu --apply-downgrades-only

    To get the list of only downgradable components

Getting the Equivalent updates

dsu --apply-equivalent-updates

    To get the list including equivalent components

Applying the updates specified in the file list

dsu --update-list=<FILENAME1,FILENAME2,...>

    To apply the updates specified in the file list, if available in configured repository.

Configuration file for DSU

dsu --config=<FILE>

    To provide the path of the configuration file for DSU.

Configure the type of repository

dsu --source-type=<TYPE>

    To configure the source type of repository. The supported type is PDK (Partner Distribution Kit).
    PDK is a format for the Dell Online catalog, such as catalog.xml or catalog.gz

Configure the path of repository

dsu --source=<PATH>

    To configure the path of repository. When the source type is PDK, location of the repository is mandatory.

Package the updates into a bootable ISO or a directory

dsu --destination-type=<TYPE>

TYPE can be : <ISO | CBD>
When the type is --destination-type=ISO :
DSU runs in the interactive mode and the selected updates are delivered as a bootable ISO. Upon boot the components are updated.

When ISO if used along with --non-interactive :
A bootable ISO is created. Upon boot it runs DSU in noninteractive mode. The repository location should be configured using --config=<FILE>

When the type is --destination-type=CBD :
CBD is Custom Bootable DSU. DSU runs in the interactive mode and provides the selected updates along with deployment script.

Note: A Bootable DSU ISO can be made using the Windows version of DSU. The Bootable DSU ISO will include a Linux kernel, when creating use a catalog that has Linux updates using #dsu –catalog-location=<FILE>

Location to save the created package

dsu --destination-location=<PATH>

    To provide the path of the package created using the --destination-type to be saved.

Logging bootable ISO output

dsu --bootable-log-location=<FILE>

    To provide the path of the log file in the target machine when the bootable ISO option is used.

Configuring Inventory Collector binary file

dsu --ic-location=<FILE>

    To provide the path, of the inventory collector binary file to use.

Path to save the inventory XML file

dsu --output-inventory-xml=<FILE>

    To provide the path of the output XML file generated by the Inventory Collector

Get a preview of the applicable updates

dsu --preview

    Displays a preview of the updated system inventory post commit. To be used with --non-interactive.

Install OMSA

To install OMSA using this repository, use the following commands:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Servers

#yum install srvadmin-all

SUSE Linux Enterprise Servers

#zypper install srvadmin-all

 OMSA services should be manually started after installing/upgrading OMSA using DSU repository

Upgrade OMSA

 To upgrade OMSA using this repository, where an OMSA version is already installed in the system, use the following commands.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Servers

#yum --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=dell-system-update_dependent upgrade

SUSE Linux Enterprise Servers

#zypper mr -da; zypper mr -e "dell-system-update_dependent" ; zypper update; zypper mr -ea;

 Note:-To update from local repository (custom), use the OMSA repository name instead of dell-system-update_dependent in the commands.
          In case of zypper upgrade, if there are repositories disabled by you, this command sequence will enable the repositories. You have to disable the repositories again manually.

Return codes

Value Message Name Description
0 Success Any successful operation performed by DSU
1 Failure Any failure in operation performed by DSU
2 Insufficient Privileges DSU not executed using ROOT privilege
3 Invalid Log File Failure in opening a log file or invalid log location
4 Invalid Log Level Invalid log level set by user
6 Invalid Command Line Option Invalid combination of DSU options used. For example, -destination type and -non-interactive cannot be used simultaneously
7 Unknown Option Incorrect option provided
8 Reboot Required Reboot is required for the update to be completed successfully
13 Invalid Source Config (Configuration) Values provided for source location or source type is invalid
14 Invalid Inventory Errors related to Inventory such as filename not present in the location or failed parsing inventory
15 Invalid Category Category value (for ex. BI) may not exist, DSU returns Invalid Category
17 Invalid Config (Configuration) File Configuration file location is invalid or failure in parsing it
19 Invalid IC Location Invalid Location of inventory collector
21 Invalid Destination Destination directory location is invalid
22 Invalid Destination Type Destination type is not ISO or CBD
24 Update Failure Failure in applying updates
25 Update Partial Failure Some of the selected updates failed to apply
26 Update Partial Failure And Reboot Required Some of the updates failed to apply and a reboot required for successful updates

Other supporting documents and links

In addition to this guide, you can access the following guides available at dell.com/support/manuals.

To get the complete list of options of DSU (On Microsoft Windows and Linux), use #dsu --help

Support

A good place for support for this repository is the linux-poweredge mailing list.


File list

Use the following links to browse the contents of the repository

OS independent
OS dependent