topic Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed in Operating System - Microsoft

Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

Mikael Rönnbäck — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:55:01 GMT

I assume this is due to the system config required by Hyper-V, but when processor virtualization is enabled in BIOS we can no longer do online firmware flash of System ROM.

Is this by design from HP when using Windows server 2008 and what is the recommended update path ? Manual update via firmware-boot-cd ?

Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

Igor Karasik — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:31:18 GMT

We use Hyper-V on BL460 and we can do online BIOS update

Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

Mikael Rönnbäck — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:33:39 GMT

Ok, interesting, I have both BL465c and DL385 with Hyper-V which cannot be flashed, and BL465 and DL385 without Hyper-V that can be flashed.

Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

Igor Karasik — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:14:38 GMT

Seems to be only AMD related problem :-)

Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

Mikael Rönnbäck — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:33:28 GMT

Yes, you may have a point there, but I can't verify it unfortunately since we have only AMD servers... :-)

Still, thanks for the comments.

Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

NXS — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:36:02 GMT

Use the FW maintenance CD or HP BladeSystem Firmware Deployment Tool and boot on this CD
Because to activate the new bios you still need to reboot the server

Re: Unable to do online System ROM firmware flash when Hyper-V is installed

Mikael Rönnbäck — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:06:10 GMT

Well thanks for the suggestion, but I already know I have to reboot afterwards, and you're quite missing the point of online flash.

The reasons for doing an online flash are that you can do it... online... :)

Meaning you can flash firmware and then reboot, once instead of twice. Which reduces downtime, which in turn is critical in many cases in our business.

Additionally, it also requires less manual input, it's kind of tedious having to go around with a boot CD to several thousand servers, when you could do online flash of all other components anytime, and of the System Rom whenever Hyper-V is not used.

So, thanks but no, manual updates are really not an option here, either online flash will work or we will most likely not be upgrading firmware. :)