Updating firmware on HP Aruba 2920 48G POE+ (J9729A) gone wrong

[Miles_K48]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if you could help me, I have just bought the company a new switch (HP Aruba 2920 48G POE+) and I was going about configuring it with various LACP trunks and then I though I should probably update the firmware. I don't have a TFTP server setup so I decided to do it through the Web GUI. I uploaded the file fine onto the secondary flash and it updated. I then rebooted the switch, opened a telnet session with it and told it to boot from the secondary flash. That worked fine util I tried to use the Web GUI, every time I click on something it cant load the content (as show in screenshot), the device view has also disappeared in the status section. The status section will open everytime I reload the Web GUI on my browser (Safari, also tried in Chrome and Firefox) but then it cant load anything else. Looking at the version it now seems that it didn't properly update and it has keep my version at WB.15.17.0013 but updated my BootROM to WB16.03 however the firmware version installed on my switch uses BootROM WB.15.05...

I then booted back from the primary flash and it has the same effect. Telnet sessions still work fine and traffic still goes through it. 

Any suggestions on how I can get around this?

Thanks

Miles K

[Miles_K48]

Here is the screenshot...

[Miles_K48]

UPDATE:

I ,anaged to use my Mac as a TFTP server and I have installed the latest firmware on the Primary flash. However the System, CPU Util is bouncving between 70%-90%> Would there be a reason for this?

Thanks

Miles K

[Marcus J]

Hi,

WB.16.xx software is flawed, i have had several cases with HP regarding this.

Use WB.15.17.0013 and you'll be fine!

/Marcus

[parnassus]

Hi,

don't know how accurate could be the Release Notes regarding which Web Browser supports Switch's web agent...but, speaking about Apple Mac OS X operating system, Release Notes reports Mozilla Firefox (since old version 24!) only. So stay with an updated version of Mozilla Firefox if you can instead of using Safari.

Since you cited specifically BootROM WB.16.03...I think you tried to update your Switch firmware from WB.15.17.0013 to WB.16.02.0012 (latest as of today). Did - on your initial upgrade step - you wait for your Switch to reboot twice (see Release Notes about that)?

Release Notes reports this note about that:

"IMPORTANT: During the software update, the switch will automatically boot twice. The switch will update the primary BootROM, then reboot, and then update the secondary BootROM. After the switch flash memory is updated and the final boot is initiated, no additional user intervention is needed. Do not interrupt power to the switch during this important update."

Refer to HPE ArubaOS-Switch Basic Operation Guide 16.02 (September 2016) for details (sheet 139 onward) about best practices, recommandations and precautions related to updating the Switch software to a newer version.

It seems that a known common CPU spikes issue was recognized and fixed starting with version now archived WB.16.02.0008 (for branch WB.16.02), now on previous releases list WB.16.01.0007 (for branch WB.16.01) and now on previous releases list WB.15.18.0011 (for branch WB.15.18): is your Aruba 2920 suffering from that issue or its CPU doesn't show spikes but does show an average high level of utilization instead?

[Miles_K48]

Thanks for the quick reply

Ah ok I will stick to Firefox from now on then.

Yes I did see that in the Release Notes and it rebooted itseldf twice and gave me the result I stated earlier. It was quite strange. I followed all of the procudures I could find. However now I am on the lateest verison of the firmware (WB.16.02.0012).

It will maintain a 70%-90% CPU utilisation for the first 4 or so minutes of being booted up but then after that it wil stay at anywwhere been 0% and 17%. The biggest spike I have seen was a jump to 52% from 3% but it came back down to 3% in a few seconds.

[parnassus]

Could it be a regression related to the issue CR_0000190925 [*] declared as fixed since (now archived) WB.16.02.0008?

[* ] CR_0000190925 Symptom/Scenario: A 100% CPU usage spike occurs every 10 minutes caused by the HTTP task calling the Entropy function.

I recall a similar thread some weeks ago (was July), read about it here.

[Michael Patmon]

Hello.  Single 2920 with stacking enabled?  There is an issue in WB.16.02.xxxx with the WebUI not loading properly on standalone 2920's that have stacking enabled with no stack formed (i.e. a one member stack).  To work around you can disable stacking (no stack enable) or form a stack if you have another 2920 you plan to use.  WB.16.01 and earlier does not have the issue.  This should be fixed in the next WB.16.02 release. 

As for CPU usage there is a low priority key generation task that runs on boot.  Other tasks may preempt it so there should not be any system impact while it runs.  More info at the link below.

 Hope that helps. 

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c01979056

[parnassus]

Interesting...shouldn't be the stack feature disabled by default in any case (a part when the Stacking Module is yet inserted before the Switch is powered on for the very first time)?

Also the Customer Advisory c05173338 (which is specifically Aruba 2920/Aruba 5400R zl2 related) can be of help.