Server firmware strategy and how HPE can help

[Lee_Archer]

Within your organisation, if critical updates were released today would you know where to apply them and be able to deploy them easily?  Server firmware is one of those subjects that isn’t usually top of mind when thinking about operational tasks, which is surprising as it’s a very important process.  Organisations generally fit into one of two groups when it comes to applying updates.  You have the reactive group, who usually update the firmware before the server gets deployed and then wait until they absolutely must update again.  This is usually because they have concerns that updating firmware:

• is a difficult, time intensive process with excessive resourcing requirements
• they can’t afford to have multiple downtime windows for OS and firmware patching
• is a gateway to hardware failures or performance issues
• it provides very little business value

And then you have the proactive group, who might have some concerns but justify a regular deployment with:

• it can be time and resource intensive but using tools and integrations means parts of the process can be automated, centrally managed and incorporated into a single outage window
• hardware failures are a fact of operation and performance can be tested after any changes
• avoiding unplanned downtime, due to the avoidance of known failures, is critical to business wellbeing and success
• provides compliance and security benefits by regularly running through the process

So, which one is your organisation?  Have you ever created a support ticket only to be told the fix has already been released, or your firmware is so far out of date you need to update it first?  It can be frustrating, and any fixes might need to be deployed across your entire server estate as a preventative measure, so a single server issue could become a big process to resolve.  However, to address this you need firmware reporting and the ability to target updates.  You need to address the whole estate so need an easy process with as much automation as possible.   

As an organisation you need to have a firmware strategy that takes full advantage of the available tools to fully benefit and fit your operational goals and business requirements.  HPE technologies can help organisations create and maintain these strategies.  HPE OneView offers a simple and straightforward way to manage your infrastructure.  It’s a low-cost high value solution to server infrastructure management.  However, if you don’t want to use HPE OneView you can use HPE iLO Amplifier Pack (iAP), but check that the hardware and operating systems are supported.  Both solutions provide reporting, the ability to configure firmware baselines for servers and both provide easy to use online and offline methods for firmware deployment.  However, HPE OneView offers so much more.

Firmware and driver updates for HPE servers are released often and the Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) or Synergy Service Pack (SSP) images are released a couple of times a year.  These images are a collection of the latest firmware and drivers that cover product and generation ranges.  But these standard images can also be used as the starting point for creating custom images, should what you need not be available or if later versions of firmware or drivers are required.  Custom images can be created in several ways.  You can unpack an SPP or SSP image and use Smart Update Manager (SUM) to add what you need and create a new image, you can use HPE OneView to create a custom image by adding hotfixes to an uploaded image or you can use the custom SPP site for ProLiant servers.

If you are managing servers with HPE OneView or using iAP you already have a powerful tool that can really help to direct your firmware strategy.  Once the image has been uploaded to the appliance’s firmware repository, this baseline can be specified in the server profile for HPE OneView or via Firmware and Drivers in the iAP web interface, which streamlines this basic but important part of the deployment process.  Once specified you can use OS tools, like Smart Update Tool (SUT), to stage and deploy firmware and driver updates and the running of this tool can be built into the OS patching process so only one downtime window is required.  If the server is off when the baseline is applied the server will be powered on and any updates applied from the image automatically.

However, there are several other ways to drive the firmware and driver update process so, if you aren’t using HPE OneView or iAP, you can still install updates but you will have to understand the process and develop any integrations yourself.  The most common way to update firmware is to attach an SPP image to the iLO and either boot from it or run SUM.  But to automate this process you might need to glue bits together with scripts and it could take a while to complete.  Alternatively, you could figure out what updates you need and create a script to only install these.  It’s quicker than running SUM but requires work to identify what updates are required and to test the deployment.  The process of doing it yourself gets a little harder as firmware comes packaged for different operating systems.

So, the simple takeaway points are don’t forget how important a firmware strategy is and what it can offer your organisation.

• Firmware is key but it’s not perfect which is why there are so many updates.  Was the firmware checked the last time a hot swap drive was replaced?

And take advantage of the tools.

• An important point is that all the tools are free to deploy and use.  You will need iLO Advance licenses and HPE OneView does require licenses to manage servers but it can monitor and report on firmware without a purchase.  HPE iLO Amplifier Pack also enables the use of HPE Infosight for Servers so we can provide you with proactive and tailored information based entirely around your server infrastructure.

Get in touch

If you have any questions, need more information before you get started, or you’d like to pick our brains to discuss anything with our specialists, please get in touch today. 

Lee Archer
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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