fw upgrade on msa1000 from 2.38 to 7.00

[Stephan Hendl]

I have a msa100 with one controller only. Recently we've bought a second controller. After inserting it (what should be done tomorrow evening) the newer firmware should be copied to the older controller. After that I want to perform an upgrade to version 7.00 active/active via flashutility on Linux.

My question is: after upgrading to 7.00 active/active is also possible to connect servers via one path only like we have it today? What about the configuration data of the two RAID units and the lun masking?

thanks
Stephan

[Torsten.]

If you insert another controller into the array, the existing controller will clone his own firmware to the new controller.

Trying to get from 2.38 directly to 7.00 will most likely render this box to a heavy room heater only ... don't expect to see your data again (at least from the servers point of view).

Upgrading this array from active/passive to active/active will very likely require driver and configuration updates on all connected servers.

Please refer to the documentation first:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodClassId=-1&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64255&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=377751

[Stephan Hendl]

If I cycle power off, insert the second controller/fc switch and cycle power on again then - if I've understood the documents right - the newer firmware should overwrite the older one. Is that right?

At this time I've connected only two servers each with one fc hba (one emulex and one qlogic). So I have to upgrade from 2.38 to 4.48 a/p, 5.20 a/p and after that to 7.00 a/a?

Is it possible to connect a server with only one hba to a MSA1000 with active/active firmware installed and see all the old data?

[Torsten.]

The array will ask about cloning the firmware while it is starting, but this is IMHO the worst method to do an upgrade.

How do you know what firmware is installed on your new controller?

You should read this first:

http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00863886/c00863886.pdf

http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01183956/c01183956.pdf

If there are additional disk shelfs installed, you need to check/update them too.

[IBaltay]

Hi,
1. if you are using the old gadzoux embedded switches, they are not compatible neither with the 5.20, nor with the 7.x firmware
The brocade 2/8 embedded works fine, but it has to be upgradedd to the 3.2.1c firmware
2. Flashing is completely different from the standalone switch. It can be flashed, but will be commited just after the reset.
3.If your MSA´s uptime was long, then the safiest is to have some spares disks with you during the upgrade, because after the "long run" the reboot can damaage them
4. the full backup before the upgrade is MUST
5. 5.20/7.x are incompatible with the previous versions and you cannot rollback without the restore (offline rollback) to the previous versions