new way of updating blade enclosures ??

[katie1]

Hi at the bottom of this page
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class.html#tab3_content

there are 2 links for firmware bundles 1.7 for the c class enclosure
these 2
* HP BladeSystem Online Firmware Bundle for Windows v1.70
* HP BladeSystem Online Firmware Bundle for Linux v1.70

one for linux one for windows ,

my questions
1)why 2 versions when it is firmware , or is is drivers too ?

2)and does this update every thing firmwares and psp packs and drivers too, and also interconnects etc

3)and do i just mount this from ilo on one of the blades and it updates everything, i read the docs but they are not clear..

4)do firmwares have to be on a certain level before using these

5)thanks and anybody used these bundles yet i believe they started with version 1.6 bundles originally..

and if only one blades needs updating can this bundle be used or should fw cd and psp pack be used for that one blade..

I will appoint points for each question so feel free to make 5 separate replies :)

[Michal Kapalka (mikap) · Accepted solution]

hi,

there are 2 links for firmware bundles 1.7 for the c class enclosure
these 2
* HP BladeSystem Online Firmware Bundle for Windows v1.70
* HP BladeSystem Online Firmware Bundle for Linux v1.70

that's normal, this mean that the firmware update is executed from OS that is online and running, and this is very well if you have installed only linux machines on the blades.
and the same is for windows.

HP have lot of customers and each of them use some OS.....

mikap

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

check this therad from ITRC :

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1311658

a specially advices from : "Terri Harris" and the last post of "Adrian Clint"

there is a very usefull link for a docu :

"HP BladeSystem ProLiant firmware management best practices General overview"

mikap

[katie1]

I read the best practices but its still not clear ,and brings up more questions..

so this does not install any drivers or psp utilities
now does this mean psp cd has to be run on each blade at a time or can it be run on them all some how if so how ?

what about interconnects etc.are they updated ?

3)and do i just mount this from ilo on one of the blades and it updates everything, i read the docs but they are not clear..so where to mount the image and how..?



and if only one blades needs updating can this bundle be used or should fw cd and psp pack be used for that one blade..

I will appoint points for each question so feel free to make separate replies :)

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

in my opinion, there are 2 views on the blade :

1, BLADE CHASSIS : c7000 ==> OA / ILO Virtual connect .....

2, BLADE servers ( HALF/FULL size ) ==> OS drivers and also HBA/NIC ..... firmware.

mikap

[Markku Luosto]

Katie1,

As mikap described earlier, you are confusing some update procedures.

1. Blade chassis firmware updates
- Onboard Administrator
- Virtual Connect
Can be updated via management PC update software or Web client.

2. Blade server hardware firmware updates
- BIOS
- HBA
- etc
Easy way to update single blade firmware is "HP BladeSystem Firmware Deployment Tool", just boot from CD and it will be ready in 10 minutes. CD can be mounted either locally to each blade (chassis CD or SUVI connected CD) or remotely via iLO virtual CD.

3. Blade server operating system updates
- PSP
- drivers
- Management agents
Updating depends on OS and software, usually removes the existing software package and installs a new version. Installation is done remotely, software package or CD. CD can be connected to the host operating system by the same way as in section 2.

With best regards,

-make

[The Brit]

I have to say, I agree with Katie. This whole process is supposed to make things simpler, yet is seems to get more complicated by the minute.
I imagine there are people out there who have the luxury of running "single-OS" enclosures, but I imagine that most are mixing OS within their enclosures (after all, wasn't that one of the big selling points??)
Personally, most of my enclosures contain various mixes of OpenVMS, Windows & Linux, which means I have both proliant and itanium blades in the same enclosures.
It would be really nice to have a single package which would take care of everything, including OA's and IC modules, etc, and this "HP Bladesystem Online Firmware Bundle" thing seemed to be heading in this direction, but I also seem to have misunderstood.
I assumed that the Windows/Linux options were related to the OS of the server you were running the firmware update from!!?? (Apparently not!)

Also, if you go to the "Downloads" page, you will see the following: "For BladeSystem Matrix, please do not use the latest firmware and firmware set downloads provided here. Please go to BladeSystem Matrix - Compatibility instead." So what does this actually mean?? Who, specifically, does the "BladeSystem Matrix" apply to?? (I thought we were all using "BladeSystems"!!)

Based on the discussions so far, it seems that, in my case, I have to download both the Windows and the the Linux version, and apply both. This will still leave me with my Itanium blades to do as a separate item ??

Am I wrong ??

Dave.

P.S. As you will probably have guessed, I am not a "PC" guy.

[katie1]

Moderators is it possible we can get HP support in on this and get a definitive answer to these questions,

can any body do a step by step for a mixed OS enclosure, anybody done it yet.?

or are we all still using firmware maintenance cd's and psp packs and reinserting the OA and interconnects..
to get everything rolling..??

because this is a lot of work with a few C7000 class enclosures..

feel free to break it up into separate answers as points will be awarded for each answer, but please reply if you know not just a good guess, thanks..:)

[Ken Krubsack]

I have to agree with katie1 as well. It sounded to me like this 1.70 fw bundle would do the whole enclosure - OA's, VC's, all the blades, EVERYTHING. From our testing it only appears to hit the blades themselves - the OA/VC upgrade is still a separate step. Plus, I'm not sure if the capability to add additional upgrades into the pack exists, as you can do if you create a USB key from the regular firmware CD - you can add the SCEXE files and they'll be found when you boot from the USB key.

[Michael Leu]

Hidden at the very end of the Compatibility tab at
http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystemupdates/
you find a link to the document 'HP BladeSystem Firmware Management Best Practices'
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01857420/c01857420.pdf
maybe this helps...