I was updating the firmware on some Dell FC630 servers when I came across this. I really thought that the server hung during the update and I was in for a long night of trying to fix it. Wait and see what the fix was…

So using the DellEMC Repository Manager tool, I created a linux based SmartBootableISO that included the desired updates for my hardware. I then connected to the server’s iDrac virtual console, mounted the iso, and booted the server to the iso image. Everything appeared fine as I watched the server boot up. Then I saw it throw the following message:

dracut-initqueue[686]: mount /dev/sr0/ is write-protected, mounting read-only

Then after waiting and staring for about 5 minutes I started to worry. What’s going on? Did it just freeze?

Well… No, thankfully it had not froze.

It was just mounting a file as read-only, which apparently took longer than you would think it would. After waiting even longer felt right, it finally got past this step, and the server proceeded along with it’s boot-up process. The wait time varied slightly between servers, ranging from about 7 to 10 minutes.

So if you happen to see the “dracut-initqueue” message, don’t panic, your server did not hang. Just wait it out… Grab a coffee or go have a restroom break. Use those few minutes to stretch. Your server will continue chugging along shortly.