BLADESYSTEM FIRMWARE UPDATES BEST PRACTICES

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BLADESYSTEM FIRMWARE

UPDATES BEST PRACTICES

Session 3547

Greg Fields

Hewlett Packard Account Support Manager Minneapolis, Minnesota

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My Background

• Title: Account Support Manager

• Years at HP: 26

• Email: [email protected]

• Current job responsibilities: Work with customers who have Critical Service,

Proactive 24, or Proactive Select support in the upper Midwest. Provide proactive support to ensure best practices and to avoid known problems in environments ranging from Superdomes to ProLiants.

Greg Fields

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BLADESYSTEM FIRMWARE

RELEASE SETS

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HP Firmware Strategy Overview

Where we’ve been… • Insight Foundation

• SmartStart

• ProLiant Support Packs • Smart Update Firmware

DVD Where we are… • HP BladeSystems Release Sets on FW DVD • Redefining Firmware Best Practices

Where we’re going! • HP Service Packs for ProLiant • HP SUM, OA & VC

Improvements

• Product Development and

Testing Improvements

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BladeSystem Firmware Release Sets

• HP now releasing firmware release sets

–First release set was January 2010

–Most current and two back are supported

• Customers will be asked to update ONLY if a feature/fix is needed

• If an individual component is released after the current release set is made

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BladeSystem Firmware Release Sets

http://hp.com/go/bladesystemupdates

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• Comprehensive information including:

–Quick start

–Example scripts

–Best practices scenarios

–Troubleshooting

–Step-by-step installation instructions

–A living document

Available on BladeSystem Firmware Maintenance Page http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystemupdates

Firmware Best Practices Implementer’s Guide

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ONBOARD ADMINISTRATOR

UPDATE

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• Back up Onboard Administrator configuration

• Back up Virtual Connect configuration

• Update O/S drivers in Blade O/S

• Search www.hp.com/bizsupport for different the items you are updating to see

if there are any support advisories to which you should be aware

• Read the release notes for the updates

To Do Items Before Updating Firmware

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• To save the settings of the enclosure:

–Start Capture mode of terminal emulation, i.e. Putty Logging

–OA > show all

–Stop Capture mode of terminal emulation and save file

–Also do the same to capture the inventory of the enclosure:

• OA > show config

Onboard Administrator Backup Alternative

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In What Order do you Update Firmware?

Virtual Connect Ethernet firmware >=1.34, or no VC

• Update the OA first.

• Update Blades next. Use the Automatic or Interactive Modes to update any offline only firmware. (If iLO < 1.78 update iLO first*)

• Update VC firmware using the VCSU last.

Virtual Connect Ethernet firmware < 1.34

• Update VC firmware using the VCSU first • Update the OA next

• Update the Blades last. Use Automatic or Interactive Modes to update any offline only firmware. (If iLO < 1.78 update iLO first*)

If an operating system has already been installed:

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• The Smart Update DVD Automatic Mode is the Firmware Deployment Tool (FDT)

–This is on the Smart Update DVD

• Automatic Mode has been designed for those customers who do not have an

installed operating system on their server blades yet or who want an unattended method of deploying firmware in an offline environment

• You have no control over what it will install

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• When using Automatic Mode, all feedback is provided through the UID lights

• Upon completion, the UID light is set to one of two states:

–UID light is OFF

• The update process has completed and the server operating system can be installed or the server

restarted to its previous operating system

• UID blinks only while updating

• It can take a bit before the UID starts to blink

–UID light is SOLID

• A firmware update failure has occurred requiring user attention

Automatic Mode

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What Can Automatic Mode Update?

Firmware Types Supported by Automatic Mode of the HP Smart Update _{Firmware DVD ISO (offline only)}

System ROM Yes

iLO 2 Firmware Yes

Broadcom NIC Firmware Yes

NetXenNIC Firmware Yes, beginning with version FDT 1.70 Power PIC Firmware Yes, beginning with version FDT 1.70 Smart Array controller Firmware Yes

SAS and SATA hard drive Firmware behind Smart Array controllers Yes SAS and SATA hard drive Firmware behind non-Smart Array controllers No Emulex, QLogicand Brocade FibreChannel Host Bus Adapter Firmware Yes

Tape Blade Firmware Yes

Onboard Administrator Firmware No Virtual Connect Firmware No

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Updating Multiple Blades At Once

OA ILO on blade ILO on blade ILO on blade ILO on blade

Using OA USB key port to mount image for

deployment through ILO Virtual Media to multiple blades at once

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Onboard Administrator DVD Screen

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• In Interactive Mode, the HP Smart Update Firmware DVD ISO boots a small Linux kernel and enables firmware updates to take place on a single server using the embedded HP SUM software

• Because of the special boot environment, support for remote servers and hosts

is not available

Interactive Mode

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What can Interactive Mode do?

Firmware Types Supported by Interactive Mode of the HP Smart Update _{Firmware DVD ISO (offline only)}

System ROM Yes

iLO 2 Firmware Yes

NetXenNIC Firmware Yes

Power PIC Firmware Yes

Smart Array controller Firmware Yes

SAS and SATA hard drive Firmware behind Smart Array controllers Yes

SAS and SATA hard drive Firmware behind non-Smart Array controllers No

Emulex, QLogicand Brocade FibreChannel Host Bus Adapter Firmware Yes

Onboard Administrator Firmware Not in offline mode; can use the online mode of the HP Smart Update _{Firmware DVD ISO to update this type of Firmware}

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• Do not mount the DVD ISO image via the iLO vmedia

–This is only supported in Automatic Mode

• Mount the DVD via the dongle hooked to a DVD player or use the USB Key

Utility to burn the ISO to a USB stick

• Do NOT try to attach to the iLO during the iLO update!!!!!!

• You can hook a monitor, keyboard and mouse along with the USB key via the

dongle using a USB hub

Interactive Mode

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• Use the USB Key Creator v1.50 or later to create a USB key of the Smart Update Firmware DVD

• Available at www.hp.com/bizsupport

–Search on “USB Key Utility” or look hp.com under Drivers and Support for a specific

blade. It will be shown Utility-Tools section for the blade when a Windows O/S is chosen.

• In the \hp\swpackages directory you can add:

–.scexe (Linux FW components)

• HPSUM will automatically identify the additions

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• The HP Smart Update Firmware DVD ISO is a collection of HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM), firmware smart components and the latest available driver smart components for Windows that have been tested together to ensure

compatibility

• The Windows driver smart components are provided as a convenience for

those customers who might not want to deploy a full PSP, but need the drivers to perform firmware update operations

• Online updates require an operating system installed on each target server

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• The BladeSystem Firmware Update Bundles are meant to be deployed from a

Windows or Linux workstation, PC, or server to servers running a supported

version of the same operating system

–Deployment from a Windows workstation to a Linux server or from a Linux server to a

Windows workstation is not supported at this time.

• For workgroup-level deployments of up to 20 servers or network-based devices

such as OA and iLO 2, HP SUM should be used to update firmware

Online Mode (2 of 4)

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• Windows: Must have true Administrator login

• Linux: A root equivalent user is needed

• Windows: Must have WMI enabled

• Linux: ssh must be enabled

Online Mode (3 of 4)

See Smart Update Firmware DVD User Guide at:

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• Since Online Mode doesn’t provide the ability to update all possible firmware

types, additional deployment deliverables must be used to ensure all firmware is

updated within a BladeSystem enclosure and to align with the HP BladeSystem Compatibility Chart

• To update the firmware that cannot be updated by Online Mode, use the

Automatic Mode or Interactive Mode

• Beware Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

–Check the Smart Update Firmware DVD User Guide

Online Mode (4 of 4)

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What can Online Mode do?

Firmware Types Supported by HP Smart Update Firmware DVD ISO _{(Online mode, supports both local and remote deployment)}

System ROM Yes

iLO 2 Firmware Yes, both server-based and directly to the iLO Management port

Intel NIC Firmware Not in online mode. Must boot to the HP Smart Update Firmware DVD ISO _{to update this type of firmware} NetXenNIC Firmware Not in online mode. Must boot to the HP Smart Update Firmware DVD ISO _{to update this type of firmware}

Power PIC Firmware Yes

Smart Array controller Firmware Yes SAS and SATA hard drive Firmware behind Smart Array

controllers Yes, some older SATA drives might not be supported if they are for offline only deployment SAS and SATA hard drive Firmware behind non-Smart Array

controllers No

Emulex, QLogicand Brocade FibreChannel Host Bus Adapter

Firmware Not in online mode. Must boot to the HP Smart Update Firmware DVD ISO to update this type of firmware

Onboard Administrator Firmware Yes Virtual Connect Firmware Yes

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• There are multiple ways to update Virtual Connect Modules

• Smart Update Firmware DVD Online Method

• Virtual Connect Support Utility(VCSU)*

• Virtual Connect Manager Interface < 3.0 version

• *VCSU is a Windows, Linux (Redhat 4 & 5, SLES 10 & 11 for x86), and HP-UX

11.31based CLI - Latest release is 1.5.2

• Available at www.hp.com/bizsupport

• Search for Virtual Connect Support Utility

Virtual Connect Updates

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• The "update" action is used to update the firmware on supported VC-Enet and VC-FC modules in the enclosure

– The update process takes approximately 20 minutes for each

VC-Enet module and 5 minutes for each VC-FC module that will be updated (Your time may vary!)

• Do not close the console application if a firmware update is in progress

– If the application is closed before the update completes, it may cause module firmware to not be

updated properly and could result in the module firmware being inoperative

• C:> vcsu -a update –i <Active OA> –u <OA user> -p p<OA password> -l d:\vcfw###.

VCSU Update

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VCSU Update

Actual Update

Status Summary

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VCSU Update Results As Seen From VC Manager

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• Onboard Administrator firmware 1.30 or higher is required on the target

enclosure for VCSU

• During firmware update operations, the modules are unavailable for use

• During a firmware update session, only use a single client to update modules in

a specific remote enclosure

• If the firmware update client is interrupted or loses network connectivity during

the update, reset the affected module and restart the firmware update process

–Power off/on enclosure as a last resort!

• Do not reset or update OA while updating VC!

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• The utility displays a progress message indicating that an update is in progress and the percentage completed

• If a firewall is getting in the way of workstation running VCSU and OA/Ethernet

VC hook PC directly to OA on the back of the enclosure

• If update is interrupted reset VC module

–Power enclosure on/off as last resort!

Virtual Connect Notes (2 of 2)

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Find out more

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Date and time

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