Support Pack for Proliant Firmware Update over PXE

[rtackett]

I've been following this thread with great interest and I am very interested in setting this up for our RDP servers.  The biggest problem I can see right now is that I don't fully understand the entire process.  I've looked through the old 9.30 firmware instructions on doing this but I'm clearly missing something since the best I can get is to the kernel panic where the root= boot option is not correct.  Is anyone willing to put together a step by step guide on how to do this for RDP?  I'm using the 2012.10.0 SPP if that's useful as a starting point.

[Peter Capriccio]

Can you clarify what you mean by "how to do this for RDP"? I'm assuming you mean something like "how can I configure the RDP server to allow clients to boot the SPP?" or do you mean adding the SPP as an RDP task?

[rtackett]

Actually, I mean, I would like to add the PXE boot option to allow this to boot.  Here's what I think I understand so far:

1. Put the ISO for the SPP in a folder on the RDP server.

2. Extract the /system directory off of the SPP ISO and place in a folder.

3. Create a folder inside that folder called pxelinux.cfg and create a file named 'default' inside that folder.

4. Edit 'default' so that it has the boot configuration with the following information:

label sos
  MENU LABEL Automatic Firmware Update Version 2012.10.0
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img media=net rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=514288 init=/bin/init loglevel=3 ide=nodma ide=noraid pnpbios=off vga=791 splash=silent showopts TYPE=MANUAL iso1=smbfs://userid:password/ipaddress/spp_iso/2012.10/HP_SPP_2012.10.iso iso1mnt=/mnt/bootdevice

5. In PXE Manager, create new boot option as Linux x64 with user files and direct it to the above folder.

6. PXE boot server and choose that option.

7. Work out a job that leverages this boot option that can then update the server automatically.

I'm definitely missing something because this doesn't actually work.

[Peter Capriccio]

I can't speak for using SMB/CIFS to share out the ISO file, but several folks have posted the required workarounds -- see "sascha08_3"'s message 48 in this thread.

Also, it has been a long time since I used RDP, but from what I remember, it includes its own "pxelinux.0" (or equivalent) file and menu mechanism, so I don't think you need to create a "default" file, but just incorporate a boot entry into it (I could be way off on this -- you've been warned :). When the client boots from the menu entry, it is going to request the kernel (ie: SPP2012.10.0/vmlinuz) and initrd (ie: SPP2012.10.0/initrd.img) files via tftp, so they need to be present and readable underneath the root of the tftp daemon's default directory (or additional paths specified, depending on the implementation).

As for the overall steps, I would make the following modifications:

1. Put the ISO for the SPP in an SMB/CIFS shared folder on the RDP server.

2. Create a folder underneath the tftp root directory (ie: SPP2012.10.0) and copy the "initrd.img" and "vmlinuz" files from the /system directory of the SPP ISO and place in this folder.

3. In PXE Manager, create new boot option with the following information using the "system/isolinux.cfg" file from the SPP ISO as a template:
 

label vsos
  MENU LABEL Interactive Firmware Update Version 2012.10.0
  kernel SPP2012.10.0/vmlinuz
  append initrd=SPP2012.10.0/initrd.img media=net rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size= init=/bin/init loglevel=3 ide=nodma ide=noraid nopat pnpbios=off vga=791 splash=silent hp_fibre showopts noexec32=off numa=off nox2apic TYPE=MANUAL AUTOPOWEROFFONSUCCESS=no iso1=smbfs://userid:password/ipaddress/spp_iso/2012.10/HP_SPP_2012.10.iso iso1mnt=/mnt/bootdevice 

4. PXE boot server and choose that option.

5. Work out a job that leverages this boot option that can then update the server automatically.

Hope this helps,

Pete C.

[rtackett]

Step 3 is where I'm confused.  When you say to create the configuration file based on that file, are you saying that I need to create a folder called pxelinux.cfg and then a file inside called default with that boot information in it?

[Peter Capriccio]

Okay, I guess I don't understand the RDP mechanism -- normally on a *nix PXE server, you place the boot files under the root tftp directory/folder, and since there are usually multiple kernel and initrd images, you would separate them using folders (or you could just give each one a unique name under the root folder). Doing a little searching, it would seem that for custom PXE entries, RDP requires not only folders for the images, but also unique pxelinux.cfg folders and "default" files for each boot item.

So, I *think* you would want to do something like this, but it may depend on what version of RDP you are running (can you supply that information?):

Using this article as a reference, starting at step 2:

  How to Remotely Install Red Hat 5.3 and Automatically Install the Symantec Management Agent with Deployment Solution 7.1

1. Put the ISO for the SPP in an SMB/CIFS shared folder on the RDP server (or is there a specific place in the Deployment Share it should go?)

2. Create a folder structure underneath the deployment tree to contain the PXE boot file, "default" file, and the kernel/initrd files -- for example:

  {Deployment-Share-Tree}\SPP2012.10.0\PXE\Boot

and copy the "initrd.img" and "vmlinuz" files from the /system directory of the SPP ISO to this folder. Also, copy the file "pxelinux.0" from the Deployment Share to this folder.

3. Create the folder:

  {Deployment-Share-Tree}\SPP2012.10.0\PXE\Boot\pxelinux.cfg

4. Within the above folder, create a file named "default" with something similar to the following information using the "system/isolinux.cfg" file from the SPP ISO as a template:
 

default vsos
prompt 0
timeout 0
label vsos
  MENU LABEL Interactive Firmware Update Version 2012.10.0
  kernel SPP2012.10.0/vmlinuz
  append initrd=SPP2012.10.0/initrd.img media=net rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size= init=/bin/init loglevel=3 ide=nodma ide=noraid nopat pnpbios=off vga=791 splash=silent hp_fibre showopts noexec32=off numa=off nox2apic TYPE=MANUAL AUTOPOWEROFFONSUCCESS=no iso1=smbfs://userid:password/ipaddress/spp_iso/2012.10/HP_SPP_2012.10.iso iso1mnt=/mnt/bootdevice

 5. In PXE Manager, create new boot option as Linux x64 with user files and direct it to the above folder

6. PXE boot server and choose that option.

7. Work out a job that leverages this boot option that can then update the server automatically.

I've never done this before, so I may be just talking out of my hat...

Pete C.

[Michael Leu]

FYI the new SPP 2013.02.0 is out with this new feature:

• Contains PXE Directory information and sample files about PXE booting the SPP ISO for improved qualification cycles, resource usage, maintenance windows, and downtime

Download here: http://www.hp.com/go/spp

[Peter Capriccio]

FYI -- SPP 2013.09.0(B) has been released (why is it a "B" release without a prior non-"B" release for this version?). There are some minor script changes, but nothing that seems to break the current methods for enabling PXE boot.

If you are interested in skipping the EULA/language selection screen in interactive mode, I've attached a patch file with the modifications to the "/opt/hp/hp-phoenix/srv/www/langsel.htm" file that I used for this release.

[Michael Leu]

For the new SPP 2013.09.0(B) there is already a hotfix needed if you have these systems

• DL380p Gen8 server
• DL360p Gen8 server
• ML350p Gen8 server
• SL230s/SL250s/SL270s Gen8 server blades
• BL460c/WS460c Gen8 server blade
• DL160 Gen8 server
  Advisory: SPP Hot Fix - HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) - CUSTOMER ACTION REQUIRED - ProLiant System ROM Components Included in HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) Version 2013.09.0(B) Require a Power-Cycle After Installation (c03928033)  

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?

spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c03928033-1%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

@Peter: Thank you for the patch file. I guess the "B" release stands for Beta ;-)

[Jim Choate]

Great thread, but I'm trying to locate exactly what method folks are using to accomplish this? I've seen directions for hosting the ISO over NFS, and the latest SPP documentation has the files hosted using httpd - just confused on where to actually start and which method to use.

-jim