P2000 G3 disk firmware upgrade procedure.

[MikeA4]

I have a P2000G3 FC/iSCSI DP AW568A SAN.  It is currently running firmware bundle TS230P008.  I have 24 EG0600FBDBU disks with the HPD6 firmware.

Last month, advisory emr_na_c03306319-2 was released that recommended upgrading the drives to HPD7.  I would also like to upgrade the controller firmware to TS240R037.

It looks like the controller upgrade is easy using the Online ROM Flash Component.  The release notes recommend checking the drive  module firmware versions and upgrading them before upgrading controllers to TS240.

That leads me to upgrading the firmware on the drives.  The Download Drivers, Software and firmware for the HP P2000 G3 MSA FC/iSCSI Dual Combo Controller SFF Array page only lists the HPD6 firmware.  

My first chat with HP Support ended up with them telling me to download the Online ROM Flash component for a Windows server.  I was then to create a USB key drive and boot the SAN storage controller with that.  

My second chat with HP Support told me to take the same file and extract the contents and flash the drives with the HCBRX46H.PD6 file using SMU.  The drive firmware files for the P2000 usually have a FLA extension so I'm not sure if this would work.

We have a lot invested in this SAN and I really don't want to break it.  Does anybody have a recommendation as to where to get the HPD7 firmware and the process to apply it to the drives?

[hvhari]

Hi,

Here is the general advisory on this. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=4118559

Updating via SMU is the right method for the disks connected to MSA/P2000. I need to check further for the link of firmwares for MSA/P2000 for this disk.

[gsb_2]

I would upgrade to  the FW TS240R037 first. I tried to update some disk firmware on my P2000 G3 when it was on the previous version and had some trouble and wasn't able to complete it.

When you are upgrading to TS240R037 just be patient. It repeats some messages over and over and looks like it is hung up but it does finish.

Good luck,

Greg

[Torsten.]

Upgrading the controller firmware using the windows/linux component is the prefered method.

In fact this utilty started from windows/linux host transfers the image via ftp to the first controller, updates and restarts this controller (quick). Then it enables PFU and updates/restarts the second controller (slow). So in summary it takes a lot of time (around 90min) - be patient!

There are alternate methods, but this is recommended...

Then for the disks you need to find the rigt firmware file for each disk model, use SMU, select the file and all appropriate disks and start. This should be done while the array is offline (no host access).

If you have a lot of different disk models, you need to find a lot of firmware files :-((

According to the release notes it is still supported even for G3 models to update the firmware using FTP:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/pubsw-linux/p296738768/v77801/659521-006_P2000G3_TS240R037_relnotes.html#s_Installing_fw_wFTP_MSA

Disable PFU, then update the firmware on the controller one by one (see notes). This will take around 10 minutes per controller.

[MikeA4]

I'd like to thank everyone who replied.

I managed to talk to an HP tech who talked to a L2 tech.  There is no HPD7 firmware for the EG0600FBDBU drive on the P2000 G3 yet.

[grimson]

HPD7 is now available;

SAS Firmware HDD

We had problems after booting the P2000 G3 with several disks not recognised for a while. (vdisk temporary in quarantine until rescan etc.);

Fixes;

This version prevents an initialization handshake issue that could result in the controller not recognizing that the drive is installed. This results in the drive being reported as bad or missing.

I would really update all these HDD's because when rebooting this P2000 and your vdisks become quarantined ..although temporary .... it's no fun :)

Other SAS update;

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4118575&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=4118559&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4064

[jdixon]

I assume there are no problems upgrading disk firmware not part of a raid or presented to anything during business hours?