Updating your firmware of your Dell hardware is a very useful technique to ensure hardware, compatibility, or patches are maintained throughout the lifecycle of your server hardware.

As a recommendation, updating your firmware prior to any server imaging or re-imaging can always be a cost-effective and time saving adminstrative step.

Luckily, Dell allows you to easily boot into their platform updating tool at startup named USC (Unified Server Configurator).

To access, at the Dell splash screen, press F10.

Set up the Network Properties under USC to use Static or DHCP.

Proceed with the USC Platform Update with “no proxy” setting and catalog setting set to “catalog“.

Warning: Perform all NIC related firmware updates on its own.  Same with PERC controllers.

Windows

ping – Returns ICMP request from host.

telnet - Attempts to establish a telnet connection to specific TCP service port or connection.

netstat – Displays all active connections on a server or workstation that the command is executed from.

traceroute – Will display all hops it takes from destination to source.

Linux

tcpdump - Packet analyzer that intercepts TCP/IP or other kinds packets.

mtr - Combines ping and traceroute.