I have this information posted on DellTechCenter also, but I thought it was valuable enough to share here again! As you may know, there are several ways to get “raw” drivers for Dell Systems. Here’s a unique (and one of my favorite) way(s) to extract for Windows, VMWare, and Linux! (I also see that Jeff Huston posted on this topic a couple years ago too!)
Many of the most popular Operating System Deployment tools use Plug and Play (PNP) to install hardware-specific drivers during OS Deployment to a Windows system. If you currently use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), take a look at the Dell Server Deployment Pack for ConfigMgr. If you use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), Windows Deployment Services, or any other Operating System Deployment technology, take a look at this process.
This document will walk you through the process of extracting Dell PowerEdge Server drivers so that they can be consumed by multiple OS Deployment processes.
- Obtain the latest "Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation" DVD.
- Burn the DVD to disk, or use a tool such as Virtual CloneDrive to mount the drive as a local drive letter. (We'll call it D: for this document)
- From the command prompt, navigate to D:\server_assistant\driver_tool\bin
- Run make_driver_dir.exe --help to see the help info:
- From the Example above, you can see that we're extracting drivers for the Dell PowerEdge 1855 for Server 2003 (x86)
- To list full detail for platform and OS support, run the following command: make_driver_dir.exe -i d: --info | more
- Note that the platform (model name) and OS are case sensitive (all lowercase). Here is a list of current platform and OS keywords (for an updated list, execute the following from the command prompt (showing models for PowerEdge R810 for example): make_driver_dir.exe -i D:\ -p per810 --info
-
| OS Code | OS Description |
| w2003sbs | Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 2 |
| esx410 | VMware ESX 4.1 |
| iesx400 | VMWare ESXi 4.0 Update 1 HDD |
| rh50_64 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 5 Update 3) x86_64 |
| esx310 | VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4 |
| w2008ebs_64 | Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server 2008 x64 (64 bit Edition) |
| suse10_64 | SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 x86_64 |
| w2008 | Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x86 (32 bit Edition) |
| w2008_64 | Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 (64 bit Edition) |
| w2008sbs_64 | Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 x64 (64 bit Edition) |
| w2003_64 | Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 x64 Edition |
| w2000 | Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 |
| rh50 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 5 Update 3) x86 |
| w2003 | Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 |
| rh40_64 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 4 Update 7) x86_64 |
| suse11_64 | SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 x86_64 |
| rh40 | Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 4 Update 7) x86 |
| Citrix | |
| w2008r2_64 | Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 |
- Execute make_driver_dir.exe -i d: --info | more for the Platform Support Matrix
Command Line
Description
make_driver_dir.exe -i d:\ -d c:\drv -p per900 -o w2008 --extract
Extracts the PowerEdge R900 drivers for Windows Server 2008 x86 to c:\drv\
make_driver_dir.exe -i d:\ -d c:\drv -p per900 -o w2008_64 --extract
Extracts the PowerEdge R900 drivers for Windows Server 2008 x64 to c:\drv\
make_driver_dir.exe -i d:\ -d c:\drv -o w2008_64 --extract
Extract drivers for all platforms that support Windows Server 2008 x64
make_driver_dir.exe -i d:\ -d c:\drv -o w2003_64 --extract
Extract drivers for all platforms that support Windows Server 2003 x64
make_driver_dir.exe -i d:\ -d c:\drv -o w2003 --extract
Extract drivers for all platforms that support Windows Server 2003 x86
- The following image shows the drivers that are extracted (in raw format) when using make_driver_dir.exe command.
- Next, if you’re using ConfigMgr 2007, you can right-click on Driver Packages in the Admin Console, and select New->Driver Package. Select the extracted directory, and you’ll have all the drivers for that model and platform!