Upgrade To XCS 6.220

[Marcus Schack]

Here is the web site where you can request the licenses.

https://webware.hp.com/licensinghome/hppwelcome.asp

[AZayed]

Thanks all for reply, it seems like it's a big project need planing. However. I'm going to study my SAN env. and specify the part needs to be updated. But is this upgrade can be in one downtime or I should plan it on multiple weeks ??

Can I do it online??
Am I going to lose connection with the database ??

Any white paper about upgrading SAN env. ??

Thanks

[Steven Clementi]

"But is this upgrade can be in one downtime or I should plan it on multiple weeks ??"

This really depends upon the size of your environment. Sounds like it might be a small environment.. 1 EVA? 2 san switches? several hosts?

There are some things you can probably do a "pre-requisited" that would not require any downtime.


"Can I do it online??"

Most of the upgrades we are talking about do not require any downtime at all. Some obvious downtime would be if you needed to update drivers on servers, certain XCS versions, etc.


"Am I going to lose connection with the database ??"

See above answer. Short of not knowing all the details... maybe... maybe not.


The longest upgrade for you will be the SAN Switches. I would suggest you do those 1 week.... then the rest of the environment a week later.

It will take long because you can not jump right to 6.2.x. or 6.3.x, you will ned to go from 5.0.x to 5.2.x to 5.3.x to 6.0 to 6.2, etc. Each upgrade takes about 20 minutes... per switch.


Steven

[Marcus Schack]

As Steven has pointed out it will take time and there will be some times when you will loose connection to the EVA.

Start with upgrading the HBA firmware on your servers. Since you should have two per server, there should be no access loss. Then work on the switches. That will take the longest but if you do two or three updates per weekend, then you will have a week to ensure that all went well. The EVA comes last. Here I would recommend that you do not do it on line. Yes, it is possible, but if you can get an outage, it will be easier. I am including a few documents that might help.

[Marcus Schack]

EVA Disk Drive Firmware Upgrade Procedure

[Marcus Schack]

URL for Storage White Papers

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/erl.aspx?docreg=WW&segment=large&lc=en&cc=us&query=yes&doctype=white+paper&keywords=%22array%22&numberitems=100

URL for SAN Design Guide

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=115&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=470490

[AZayed]

Hi Steven,
How are you doing?

Now we are considering to perform the upgrade in this month. Now, I'm updated my CV to latest version but I'm still waiting to get my Lic from HP because the old one not working with CV9.

But regarding the following :

It will take long because you can not jump right to 6.2.x. or 6.3.x, you will ned to go from 5.0.x to 5.2.x to 5.3.x to 6.0 to 6.2, etc. Each upgrade takes about 20 minutes... per switch.

It seems that hardest part of the upgrade is the SAN switches. I didn't find any upgrade guide on HP website. Also, I downloaded the latest version of FW witch 6.2.2c for Windows but it look like it's for Linux.

So, can you provide me with best practices ?

Should I update first SAN switch the the second SAN switch ? or should I do them in sequence ?

Do you recommend to upgrade the SAN switch during working hours? The servers can access the data from another switch

Thanks a lot.

[Steven Clementi]

"How are you doing?"

Good, and you?

"Now we are considering to perform the upgrade in this month. Now, I'm updated my CV to latest version but I'm still waiting to get my Lic from HP because the old one not working with CV9."

You only have 60 days to get and install the new licenses before you lose management functionality from Command View. You should have waited on CV until you have licenses in hand, or know for sure that you are getting them.


"It seems that hardest part of the upgrade is the SAN switches. I didn't find any upgrade guide on HP website. Also, I downloaded the latest version of FW witch 6.2.2c for Windows but it look like it's for Linux.

So, can you provide me with best practices?"

I do not know if there is a "best practice document" specifically for this, but the short story is... and the release notes state this(Usually)... you can not upgrade your switch unless you are 1 revision away. You WILL need firmware packages for all of the in-between versions from your current version to the latest in order to upgrade.

The Brocade SAN Switch OS (firmware) runs a light Linux type Operating System. The file format is the only different between downloads... one is a Windows zip file, the other is a gzip or linux based zip utility.

The upgrade goes something like this...
1. Unzip the archive file to your FTP server
2. Telnet to or Web Browse to your SAN Switch, run firmwaredownload (or go to the Admin page/firmware tab)
3. Specify the required ftp credentials and path to the package
4. away it goes.


"Should I update first SAN switch the the second SAN switch ? or should I do them in sequence?"

If you truely have 2 separate SAN Fabrics, then you should do 1 fabric at a time. Get it totally up to date, wait a little while to see if there any issues, then work on the second fabric.

"Do you recommend to upgrade the SAN switch during working hours? The servers can access the data from another switch"

This is a perfectly feasible plan. I have done upgrades in during business hours with no issues 8no issues do to the upgrade anyway). This is not to say that you will not experience any issues. You always need to take precautions.


Steven

[AZayed]

Hi Steven,

Thank you I'm doing great.

I need to download every version of the FW. But the website doesn't have all the FW. e.g. my FW version now is : 5.1.0d and the next version on the website is : v5.3.1a

As a test I have SAW 4/16 I tried to upgrade it from v5.3.0 to v6.1.0f it failed and it request to upgrade first to v6.0.0 before continue. Now v6.0.0 is not online.

So, how can I get all the required FW?

Also, my main Switch have zoning, Am I going to lose this configuration?

Thanks

[Uwe Zessin]

You need to call HP so they put 6.0.0 for you on an FTP server. For some reason they have removed it.

The configuration including zoning should not go away - I've done upgrades for some years now and never had a problem, but I have always did a 'configUpload' before and after a firmware upgrade.