Frimware upgrade in bl860c i2( offline)

[WW393114]

Hello, i need help regarding firmware upgrade in bl860c i2. actually custmoer has purchased bl860c i2 server and wants raid 1 in that. but by default this controller wont support raid 1. and also there is no offline tool to upgrade firmware. so we need to install os first then upgrade firmware by whihc os wil be deleted again we need to install os. which is a very big problem. can any one help me in this regard???

[Matti_Kurkela]

Why is it a problem to install the OS twice??? I would see it as a good opportunity to practice/test your OS installation procedures before installing the real production OS.

MK

[WW393114]

we have around 13 server's here.. i dont think so for installing 13 server's doing it 26 times is a good practise..

[kris rombauts]

The new generation Integrity blades are not also updated using HP SUM like many other HP products. HP SUM runs on a remote pc/server with Linux or Windows and you point HP SUM to the IP or DNS name of the Onboard Administrator in the blade enclosure where your blades are located in. Pls have a look here :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4204753&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4186428&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=54

or :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4186428&prodNameId=4204753&swEnvOID=54&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-a6c58496febe4d1abf2e92f49b


There is no need to install an OS on the blade, this is a off line method.


HTH

Kris

[kris rombauts]

seems i made a typo , to early on a Monday...

The new generation Integrity blades are not also updated using HP SUM like many other HP products.

'not' should have been 'now' ....



but i guess the information was clear enough :-)

[Clarete Riana]

Yes, you can use HP SUM to upgrade the firmware. Also, you can create a RAID 1 unit on the inbuilt controller that comes with BL860c i2 blades. You can use an utility called DRVCFG to do this.

[Torsten.]

I asked this question to HP and they say customer don't want to have a offline tool ...

[Torsten.]

In fact the update tool is for offline used, but the files are 4times packed; so you need a running hp-ux to unpack them:

zip -> gzip -> shar -> depot ...

files
/usr/conf/osifm
/usr/conf/osifm/P410i.pdf
/usr/conf/osifm/SAUPDATE.doc
/usr/conf/osifm/fwupdate.nsh
/usr/conf/osifm/install_instructions.txt
/usr/conf/osifm/rel_326_build_00.doc
/usr/conf/osifm/runnsh.efi
/usr/conf/osifm/sandman_326b00.bin
/usr/conf/osifm/saupdate.efi
/usr/conf/osifm/shellenv.efi

[Torsten.]

This is new and directly for EFI:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4186432&swItem=MTX-7cd12ca9253f49eca45dc1dcae&prodNameId=4204762&swEnvOID=4001&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=2

[Matti_Kurkela]

From your original post, it seemed you were talking about one blade only. No problem.

It's really easy to move disks from one blade to the other, since the disks are in hot-plug frames. So use that to your advantage.

Plan:
1.) Install OS on one blade, add the files & tools necessary for firmware upgrade.

2.) Upgrade firmware on the first blade.

3.) Move the disk with the installed OS + upgrade tools to another blade.

4.) Upgrade firmware on that blade.

5.) Repeat steps 3 & 4 as many times as necessary.

You did not mention the OS you're planning to use. If there is a system disk cloning utility available for your OS of choice, this is an ideal situation to use it.

(I think it might be possible to use the BL860c's internal RAID controller in this fashion too, so a dedicated cloning utility might not be necessary. But I haven't tried it so far.)

Plan:
1.) Install the OS with all the necessary options for production use + the cloning utility.
Put an empty disk on the second slot of this first blade.

2.) Use the cloning utility (or the RAID controller) to clone the OS from the first disk to the second.

3.) Move the second disk to another blade, and equip the empty slots on both blades with empty disks.

4.) Use the utility (or the RAID controller) on both blades to clone the OS installation again.

5.) Repeat steps 3 & 4 in increasing numbers: on the third round, you can have 4 blades running the cloning process in parallel; on the 4th round, 8 blades; etc. You'll get the necessary number of disks with an installed OS very quickly.

6.) Once you have enough system disks with the OS installed, install one system disk on each blade, adjust the host names & network settings if necessary, and establish system disk mirroring for disk fault tolerance.

A nice side effect of this procedure is that all the installations are guaranteed to have identical configuration, since they're all clones of the single initial OS installation.

MK