How to boot into the BIOS or the Lifecycle Controller on your PowerEdge Server

T-Blog Editor/ April 4, 2020/ Datacenter Infrastructure News, How-Tos and Other Useful Tips and Tricks, Partner Content, Partner Resources, Tekmart Enterprise Hardware Tips

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To enter the BIOS, press a function <F> key. Which function key to press is dependent upon your specific server. General guidelines are as follows:

• <F2> Enables you to enter System Setup (BIOS) .
• <F10> Enables you to enter system services and starts Lifecycle Controller (for iDRAC/Lifecyle Contoller enabled systems)
• <F11> Enables you to enter Boot Manager.
• <F12> Enables you to enter PXE Boot.

Press the desired <F> key once every two seconds until you see confirmation on the screen that you are entering the correct mode.
The <F> key menu is in the right of the screen,as show in figure 1.

Figure 1.Note: On older systems, you may not get confirmation. If you do not receive conformation of the mode on screen, then continue to press the correct key, once every two seconds until the mode is showing on screen.

On newer servers, you only need to press <F2> once when you see the Dell Splash screen. You should see confirmation of the boot mode in the upper right-hand corner.


Other BIOS may include the Remote Access Card or PERC controller. The method is the same. The two second rule still applies. You still start at the Dell Splash screen. The only difference is the 2 key combination. The POST of the server will display the needed two-key character required. <Ctrl>+<e> and <Ctrl>+<p> are popular for many Dell implementations.

Note: The DRAC can also be accessed by pressing <F2>.

The System Setup Main Menu allows to configure:

Option	Description
System BIOS	Enables you to configure BIOS settings.
iDRAC Settings	Enables you to configure iDRAC settings. The iDRAC settings utility is an interface to set up and configure the iDRAC parameters by using UEFI. You can enable or disable various iDRAC parameters by using the iDRAC settings utility.
Device Settings	Enables you to configure device settings (PERC, Network Card)