RSA Authentication Manager 8.3 Dell 630 and 230 hardware appliance loses ability to access keyboard when running PING 4.0 backup remotely through iDRAC

[#1]

Article Number

000036561

Applies To

RSA Product Set: SecurID
RSA Product/Service Type: Authentication Manager
RSA Version/Condition: 8.3.0, 8.3.0.1, 8.2.1.8
Platform: Dell 630 and Dell 230 hardware appliances

Issue

PING 4.0 image backup software can be run from a local DVD or remotely with the PING software disk-mounted through iDRAC.  When tested to run remotely on the newer Dell 630 and 230 hardware appliances, the PING 4.0 software boots and the splash screen displays inside the iDRAC window, as shown:
 

Image description
 

At this point, the keyboard fails to work (nothing typed on the keyboard shows on the display).  Both the virtual keyboard through iDRAC and a physical keyboard that is connected directly to the Dell hardware are both unresponsive.  Because of this, the backup procedure cannot be initiated.
 

Cause

The GRUB boot options included a command to disable Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI), which prevent a device from generating an interrupt using an inbound Memory Write on its PCI bus, thus forcing it to instead assert a device IRQ pin.  In other words, keyboard functionality is lost.

Resolution

To resolve the issue for the boot with the PING-4.00.iso in a virtual drive from the iDRAC on the R630, etc., follow the steps below:

1. Setup the iDRAC and virtual CD drive pointing to the PING-4.00.iso as the boot device (as was currently done).
2. Boot from the PING ISO.
3. On the PING Disk Image / Restore screen, press the tab key to edit the boot options:

Image description

4. The boot options display:

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5. With the arrow key, scroll to the right and delete the string pci=nomsi from the options.
6. Then hit newline to continue with the system boot.  
7. The system will start and run the PING interface which asks the user to enter newline, x or h.