Accessing the Java Dell iDRAC 6 virtual console in 2021 is very painful; various Java security enhancements have ensured that the legacy iDRAC console connections will no longer be working.
To fix this there is a simple work around – the old encryption algorithms need to be allowed in the java.security file. These steps can be used:
- Take a copy of the existing
java.securityfile and copy it somewhere that you have write access to (eg. the desktop). In my case with the JRE version installed it was located inC:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_181\lib\security\. - Edit the copied file and look for the following lines (note they may not be exactly the same, the main thing is the lines start with
jdk.jar.disabledAlgorithmsandjdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms). These lines are not directly after each other, there will be various comments and possibly other configuration values.
jdk.jar.disabledAlgorithms=MD2, MD5, RSA keySize < 1024, DSA keySize < 1024
jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, RC4, MD5withRSA, DH keySize < 1024, \
EC keySize < 224, DES40_CBC, RC4_40, 3DES_EDE_CBC3. Comment the lines so they should look like this:
#jdk.jar.disabledAlgorithms=MD2, MD5, RSA keySize < 1024, DSA keySize < 1024 #jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, RC4, MD5withRSA, DH keySize < 1024, \ # EC keySize < 224, DES40_CBC, RC4_40, 3DES_EDE_CBC
4. Rename the file java.security in program files to java.security.backup.
5. Copy the edited java.security file (eg. from the desktop) into C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_181\lib\security\.
6. Go to the control panel and then open the Java Control Panel.
7. Go to the security tab.
8. Click Edit Site List.
9. Add the iDRAC URL that you are using to access the console (eg. https://192.0.2.1/)
10. Launch the console and it should be working. If you do not have a file association for the downloaded file, select the option for more apps and then look for another app on this PC. You can then browse to the Java installation directory and use the javaws application inside the bin folder (for me the path was C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_181\bin\javaws.exe).
2 thoughts on “Dell iDRAC 6 Virtual Console”
You will be very happy to learn about this wonderful project -> https://github.com/DomiStyle/docker-idrac6
Dominik built a Docker container to properly run the iDRAC client in a safe and secure manner. He put a small web UI in front of it, or alternatively you simply use RDP. It’s marvelous.
Great article. After relying on old OS’s and browsers to access antiquated IDRAC’s, ILO’s and KVM consoles, I stumbled across VNX Launcher one day. It’s a free package put out by EMC that provides a portable version of an old firefox and java. If you search for it you should find a link from Dell with a download package and installation instructions. Thru lots of troubleshooting, I was able to get ALL of my old java consoles running by commenting out the jar & tls disabledAlgortihms as you have, but was still having TLS issues with a couple of the consoles. After editing the depolyment.properties file and adding ‘deployment.security.TLSv1=true’ and doing the same for 1.1 and 1.2 everything started working.