topic Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM? in BladeSystem - General

Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

MichelNL — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:22:52 GMT

Hi there,

I'm updating my BL460c's with the blade blaster CD.

On some machines (in the iLO) I get after the update the following:

System ROM: I15 02/29/2008; backup system ROM: 06/28/2007

In the OA I only see the 06/28/2007.

It seems that the update doesn't go very well..

Does anyone what's going wrong?

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

JKytsi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:55:04 GMT

Hi the BIOS update updates only the primary ROM, there is a backup ROM available if something goes wrong in the update process so server can boot.

That's why You have two different versions. If You want both to be lates, you have to update BIOS twice.

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

MichelNL — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:05:16 GMT

I will try that, thx! :)

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

Matti_Kurkela — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:17:07 GMT

Maybe nothing's wrong, the OA just might not have received the new information yet.

All the modern Proliant servers have two sets of Flash EEPROM for firmware storage: ROM A and ROM B.

In the factory, both sets are initialized with the standard firmware version.

The first time you upgrade the system firmware, only the ROM A is upgraded. If it is not bootable, the system can fall back to ROM B (either automatically, or you can force the fallback with DIP switches on the system board - see the hardware documentation).

The second time you upgrade, the ROM A is left as-is and the ROM B is upgraded and marked as the "active" version. This way, you should always have a way to return to the previous version, if the newest upgrade turns out to be bad.

If you want to upgrade both ROM A and ROM B to the same version, simply run the upgrade procedure twice. However, you should be *very* *very* sure about the quality of the new firmware before doing that.

MK

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

MichelNL — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:20:16 GMT

In that case I hope HP is sure of there firmware CDs... ;)

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

MichelNL — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:50:31 GMT

I did one server 3 times now, but still the same problem?

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

JKytsi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:36:40 GMT

Well ...then we go with the normal routine check.

What is OA firmware
What is ILO firmware

If not latest, update (ILO first)

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

MichelNL — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:29:07 GMT

2.21 and 1.50

I always update them. :)

Re: Difference between ROM and back-up ROM?

JKytsi — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:59:26 GMT

Okay =) Last try ...

If You can take blade offline for a moment, try this.

SSH to OA IP address

type
reset server [bay number for the blade]
answer yes

Wait for a moment and see what happens.