Dell Hardware — Agentic Stack

An agentic stack that teaches AI agents to manage Dell PowerEdge server hardware — BIOS configuration, iDRAC remote management, RAID setup, firmware updates, and hardware inventory.

Includes a container-based toolkit (racadm, perccli, mvcli, ipmitool, Ansible OpenManage) so operators can manage Dell servers from any OS without local tool installation.

Supported Hardware

• iDRAC9 — PowerEdge 14G, 15G, 16G (R640, R740, R650, R750, R660, R760, etc.)
• iDRAC10 — PowerEdge 17G (R770, R670, T370, etc.)

Quick Start

# Clone the stack
git clone https://github.com/agentic-stacks/hardware-dell.git
cd hardware-dell

# Set up credentials
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your iDRAC IP, username, and password

# Build the container (Rocky 9 default)
docker compose -f container/docker-compose.yaml build

# Or build with Rocky 10
docker compose -f container/docker-compose.yaml build --build-arg ROCKY_VERSION=10

# Start the container (privileged mode for local hardware access)
docker compose -f container/docker-compose.yaml up -d dell-tools

# Or remote-only mode (no host hardware passthrough)
docker compose -f container/docker-compose.yaml --profile remote up -d dell-tools-remote

# Run a command
docker exec dell-tools racadm -r $IDRAC_HOST -u $IDRAC_USER -p $IDRAC_PASS getsysinfo

What's Inside

Container Tools

Tool	Purpose
racadm	iDRAC remote administration CLI
perccli64	PERC RAID controller CLI
mvcli	Marvell/S150/BOSS software RAID CLI
ipmitool	IPMI standard protocol CLI
Ansible + dellemc.openmanage	Fleet-wide server management
dmidecode, lshw, lspci	Local hardware discovery

Skills (17)

Phase	Skills
Foundation	Concepts, Tools, Architecture
Deploy	Container Setup, Initial Config
Operations	BIOS, iDRAC, RAID, Firmware, Inventory, OpenManage
Diagnose	Hardware, Connectivity, Storage
Reference	Known Issues, Compatibility, Decision Guides

BIOS Profiles

Pre-built BIOS configurations in profiles/:

• Virtualization Host — ESXi, Proxmox, KVM (VT-x, VT-d, SR-IOV)
• Database Server — PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle (HT disabled, NUMA-aware)
• HPC / Compute — AI/ML, scientific computing (max throughput, GPU support)
• Storage Server — Ceph, MinIO, ZFS (I/O optimized, HBA passthrough)

Using with an AI Agent

Point your agent (Claude Code, etc.) at this directory. The agent reads CLAUDE.md for identity, safety rules, and skill routing, then navigates to the relevant skill for the operator's task.

# Open in Claude Code
cd hardware-dell
claude

The agent can then help with tasks like:

• "Set up iDRAC on a new server"
• "Create a RAID 6 array with 8 drives"
• "Update firmware on all servers in the fleet"
• "Why is the chassis LED blinking amber?"
• "Export BIOS config and apply it to 10 other servers"

Project Structure

hardware-dell/
├── CLAUDE.md                    # Agent entry point
├── stack.yaml                   # Stack manifest
├── .env.example                 # Credential template
├── container/                   # Dockerfile + docker-compose
├── profiles/                    # BIOS profiles by workload
└── skills/                      # Operational knowledge
    ├── foundation/              # Concepts, tools, architecture
    ├── deploy/                  # Container setup, initial config
    ├── operations/              # BIOS, iDRAC, RAID, firmware, inventory, Ansible
    ├── diagnose/                # Hardware, connectivity, storage troubleshooting
    └── reference/               # Known issues, compatibility, decision guides

Operator Project Structure

When using this stack to manage your servers, your project should look like:

my-server-fleet/
├── .env                         # iDRAC credentials (gitignored)
├── workspace/
│   ├── configs/                 # SCP exports per server
│   ├── firmware/                # Downloaded Dell Update Packages
│   ├── playbooks/               # Ansible playbooks
│   └── inventory/               # Hardware inventory exports
├── profiles/                    # BIOS profiles
└── container/                   # Dockerfile + docker-compose

License

MIT