When trying to open a console from one of my Dell servers using the DRAC 4/P card I got an error: “The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) currently installed is not supported. Please refer to the DRAC 4 User’s Guide for information on installing a supported version of the JVM.”
After some testing it turns out DRAC (Dell Remote Access Card) does not play well with Java 7.
Current versions I’m testing with: DRAC 4/P Firmware version 1.75, Java 6 Update 33, Java 7 Update 5
Solution
As Java6 and Java7 can coexist, the solution is to install Java 6 (if you don’t already have it installed) and temporarily disable Java 7. You can do this from the Java Control Panel found in the Windows Control Panel + Programs.
From the Java Control Panel:
Select the Java tab + View button + Uncheck Enabled for Platform 1.7 (Java 7) and leave Enabled checked for platform 1.6 (Java 6)
You may have to restart the browser (Note that DRAC is only supported on Internet Explorer)
Caveat
If you like me run a 64-bit system (Windows 7) and have 64-bit Java installed you may run into the same caveat I did: Only the 64-bit Java Control Panel is found in Windows Control Panel and only contains settings for 64-bit Java.
To change the Java 32-bit settings you need to open the 32-bit Java Control Panel (I guess another option is to manually add them to the 64-bit Java Control Panel). Go to the 32-bit (x86) Program Directory and run javacpl.exe, in my case:
[code]C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\javacpl.exe[/code]
[Update: How to get DRAC 4/P Console to work with Internet Explorer 11]
This was a very helpful post. I ran into this exact problem – attempting to use my DRAC v 4 and the DRAC web interface telling me my Java version wasn’t supported. Thanks for the help.
I also found that if you are running Windows 7 (64 bit) you simply open IE (64 bit) and the console redirect works fine. I suspect you were running 32 bit version of IE.
Good info. Perhaps some will find it rather troublesome (as i have) to have to go into the Windows CP to disable/enable v6 of the JVM each and every time you have to administer a Drac4. I came across how entering /cgi/vkvm at the end of the address (once logged in) will fire up the remote connection directly so bypassing the error.
Seems to me there is a check going on that prohibits use beyond v6 yet evidently it works.
Access with URL below and pasting in browser URL bbar
https://x.x.x.x/cgi/vkvm
Found this via Google in another forum
There is absolutely no technical reason Java 6 code will not run on Java 7 JVM. The “error” you are seeing is purely some check built into the Drac to verify the version of Java you are running (or that you are running Java at all). It likely was designed to check if no JVM was present, or a version too old ( = 6) {
// do some stuff
} else {
// wrong version
}
excellent reference on the https://x.x.x.x/cgi/vkvm, this saved me sooooo much hassle!!
A life saver. Is there a work-around for media connection as well?
Only wanna tell that this is very useful , Thanks for taking your time to write this.
Great post. Jason’s comment about Java is wrong though. Java is a terrible language because it deprecates features, forcing you to have to continually re-write all Java software. This was not supposed to be the case with Java – it was supposed to be the “write-once, run anywhere” language.
@lfos that is simply not true. Besides the fact that every language has deprecated features, I’m not aware of any public API method in Java that has been straight-up removed (even AWT lives on today and it really should never be used directly). Typically they stay forever, or in the case that they get deprecated, they stay in the API but as deprecated (meaning you can still use them but are advised to use a new replacement). It’s not uncommon to have enterprise applications built on Java 3 still running today but on a newer JVM. You cannot go backwards like Java 7 codebase running on a java 6 JVM, but I’d say 99.999% of the time Java 6 codebase will run with zero issues on a Java 7 runtime. The “write once, run everywhere” mantra has nothing to do with the codebases themselves, it has to do with the target machine’s architecture, ie. x86 compiled binary running on an ARM cpu, etc. Only virtual machine runtimes can achieve that (namely Java with it’s JVM and C# with it’s CLR).
For DRAC4, after all struggle found this solution that it works well with sunjavaruntime1.4.2 or higher. however, I have installed 1.4.2 with worked like a champ…..Hope this helps
Found another trick to allow use of modern browsers (well, IE only in this workaround) with the DRAC4.
Download IETester and install it. It allows web developers to run cross-platform checking of their site. The kicker is that it also has full Java functionality. It will allow you to install the Virtual Media plugin when run from either a IE8 or IE9 (preferred) window. You will find that when you run a separate instance of IE11 (outside of IETester) the plugin is then installed.