topic Firmware-Upgrade MSA2012i in Disk Enclosures

Firmware-Upgrade MSA2012i

mull — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:44:39 GMT

Hi,
we have a MSA2012i Dual-Controller with 12 146GB SAS-HDD´s. Now we want to expand the MSA2012i with 2 shelfs. When we shutdown the MSA we will make a firmware upgrade with the newest fw.
Is it better do plug off all cables from the MSA? What is really important when i flash the fw of the MSA?

Re: Firmware-Upgrade MSA2012i

Chris Ciapala — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:23:06 GMT

You should avoid heavy IO when making upgrade, but you don't need to disconnect cables. Procedure is simple and since you have dual controllers, there will be no interruptions to IO traffic.
Make sure to turn off 'scrub' before upgrading and check if you have any HD firmwares to apply.
A word of warning - in my case, partner upgrade didn't work, I had to manually ugrade both controllers, so check carefully versions after upgrade.

Re: Firmware-Upgrade MSA2012i

mull — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:27:35 GMT

Hi Chris,
many thanks for your answer. That helps a lot!
We dont have heavy IO because i turn off the Virtual Machines of the SAN. We also expand the MSA2012i with 2 shelfs in this step.
Mull

Re: Firmware-Upgrade MSA2012i

Patrick Terlisten — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:26:52 GMT

Hello,

no heavy IO is a good idea. Theoretically you can leave the VMs running, as long as the timeouts are long enough. Check that the "Independent cache performance mode" is disabled. If enabled, partner firmware upgrade is not possible. If ICPM is disabled, check that partner firmware upgrade is enables.

Best regards,
Patrick