SOLVED: What Order Should A Dell Server Have Its Firmware Updated?

UPDATED Oct 17 2022 If you have a new Dell server, you will almost certainly want to update the firmware (and drivers, and OS and…) but there is a danger in flashing things in the wrong order.

1: Below is the order in which you should install:

1. iDRAC (optional, but a very good idea if you use iDRAC)
2. Life Cycle Controller
3. BIOS – UEFI
4. RAID Controller (often PERC Controllers)
5. Network Adapter(s)
6. Backplane (look under FIRMWARE)

In fact the iDRAC can be flashed at any point but it will take between 10 and 30 minutes to complete so you may want to leave it until the end.

2: Drivers

After the firmware is done, you should go to support.dell.com and pull down the most current drivers.  Dell desktops have a nice driver / firmware detection tool but it does not function on servers so you are forced to download everything, attempt to install and see what says you are already up to date.

Note that you can use the Dell Open Management Essentials tool to determine what is out of cycle, but you should likely just update these two:

• Chipset Driver
• NIC Driver

3: Windows Updates

Now go check your Windows updates to see if there is anything waiting.