Applying Offline Firmware without HP SUM or Firmware DVD ?

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

I've got an issue on a DL380 G7, where HP support are requesting that I upgrade the SAS Backplane Firmware from 1.14 to 1.18.

Unfortunately the server in question is on a closed network, and remote site, which means that booting up off the 3GB Firmware ISO via ILO virtual media, is pretty much impossible...

I've tried creating cut down versions of the Firmware DVD, and custom HP SUM ISOs which just have the required firmware however, they're still coming in at around 500MB which makes booting over a WAN link pretty hard.

The actual firmware update itself (CP019633.scexe) is only 170KB.  Is there anyway that this can be applied without using HP SUM - like a good old fashioned DOS Boot floppy or similar ?

Cheers,

Rob

[scharchouf]

you can choose to update you server using ftp repository under HPSUM

Install the last version :
http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/products/service_pack/hpsum/index.aspx

Launch HPSUM when ask choose FTP HP

[Torsten.]

In theory you just need to boot any kind of live linux, the run the *.scexe file from the prompt. Such linux may have only a few MB.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Thanks Torsten

I've been trying to go down the LiveCD route for some time now, but just can't get the firmware update to run, probably as I haven't got some pre-reqs somewhere...

If I use the Tiny Core Linux (a 9MB boot ISO) I can get to the point where I can run the firmware, but it this fails with an error similar to:

Channel Interface Driver not Installed

I suspect this is due to the cut down kernel in Tiny Core Linux not having the hpilo module.

So, I reverted back to making a cut down RHEL 6.5 Live CD, which does have the hpilo module, but when running the the firmware file I get:

# ./CP029633.scexe

./CP029633.scexe: line 92: .: CPINIT: file not found

./hpsetup: error while loading shared libraries: libcpqci.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

After manually unpacking the offline package, setting the LD_LIBRARY as per the contents of the CPINIT file and then running hpsetup I get:

Program can only execute in maintenance (offline) mode.

I think I've managed to work out that the hpsetup program is checking the contents of a file /var/cpq/sc-offline.dat to see whether the server is in offline mode, but can't figure out what the contents of the file might need to be to get it to run...   Any ideas ?

[Torsten.]

Hard to tell without any test equipment.

Maybe I would start with the original SPP and remove everything in hp/swpackages - this will reduce the size by ~ 2.7GB. Most of the other stuff you don't need too.

[Rob Leadbeater]

I'm going to give that another go now Torsten...

On my previous attempts the server would just hang during the boot, so I'm guessing I removed a bit too much from the /hp/swpackages directory...

[Jimmy Vance]

Downlaod the latest HP Scripting Toolkit for Linux. It contains a boot kernel (SLES based) that has all the HP drivers in the initrd image.  It contains a script to make a bootable USB key that you could then boot over virtual media.  If you go witht he usb drive key method, copy your required .scexe files to the key you created (I usually make a sepereate directory, but not needed).

After booting from the key:

mount /dev/sdX /mnt/floppy  # X being the device ID, usually "a"

cd /mnt/floppy or cd /mnt/floppy/dir_created

sh filename.scexe

Toolkit

http://www.hp.com/go/toolkit  Click the download button and the files will be near the bottom of the page

[waaronb]

Ditto on that last reply.  I've used the HP USB key thing to make a smaller bootable image and then put just the scexe update file needed on there.

I also think it would work to take the normal ISO and remove all of the cp*.exe and cp*.scexe files except whatever you need.  Those take up most of the space probably.  I'm not 100% sure that would work, but in theory it seems like it should.

If it looks at the XML files in there and sees another update it might need, worst case I can think of is that it would simply fail if it tried to run that scexe.

[Jimmy Vance]

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waaronb wrote:

Ditto on that last reply.  I've used the HP USB key thing to make a smaller bootable image and then put just the scexe update file needed on there.

---

The Scripting Toolkit is more than just the HP USB key utility.  The USB utility does make a bootable key that you can copy other files to. The Scripting Toolkit initrd has all the HP drivers including the iLO chif driver needed by the firmware .scexe files.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Thanks for the suggestions to use the Scripting Toolkit.

That's allowed me to create a much smaller boot ISO (still 100MB+ but that's more practical than 3GB) however I'm still getting the error about not being offline when trying to run the firmware update.

# sh CP019633.scexe

Value is false

Program can only execute in maintenance (offline) mode.

#

I suspect I just need a flag file setting somewhere to tell the firmware update that it can run, but I can't figure out what...  Any more suggestions ?