Smart Array firmware update - how?

[Andrew Horne]

Hi Michael,

I think you missed my message above, I tried that and I get an error message. They really know how to get me wound up, I almost had steam coming out of my ears yesterday!

Any thoughts on that error message?

Cheers,

Andy..

[Mike Bollman_1]

ahh..sorry about that I missed your above message. I am honestly not sure what is going on then. I tested this procedure with the same file yesterday on a dl380G2 w/5i and it worked no problem. I wonder if perhaps there is something wrong with the floppy drive itself? Are you getting this error on both of the 360's? Also, I did some more checking and apparently HP has killed the ability to update firmware from 7.0, as you have already seen. They did however come out with a firmware cd. Allegedly it is a third cd (smart start, management, firmware). I personally have not seen this cd yet. Here is a link to where they talk about it:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/romflash.html

sorry I could not be of more help on this one.

[Andrew Horne]

Hi Michael,

Yes I've seen that web page. The error is the same on two different boxes with either of the floppy copies of the file, if other folk hadn't had it working I would say the file on the web was corrupt.

I'll keep digging,

Cheers,

Andy..

[David in Tennessee]

In the 7.0 Smart Start media kit, it is the CD with the yellow label titled "Proliant Firmware Maintenance" that is bootable and allows you to either update from the CD-ROM or from a file on another media. For instance the latest rev for 5302 array controller is not on the CD (a previous version is on the CD). You build a data floppy from the HP site with the latest Smart Array update for your controller and then use the "Supplemental Disk" tab on the maintenance CD to read the data from the floppy.

[Andrew Horne]

Hi David,

The new server arrived with the 'Proliant Essentials Foundation Pack'.

This doesn't contain a 'Proliant Firmware Maintenance' CD.

I have tried using the 'Supplemental Disk' facility from earlier Smart Start CDs as mentioned above. I received errors as stated above.

I have upgraded firmware many times previously using bootable floppy disks and also using the Smart Start supplemental disk method.

This version of the firmware update will not work with my current Smart Start CD.

Thanks,

Andy..

[Andrew Horne]

I have this working now and have applied the update to a number of servers.

The problem was resolved by using Smart Start 6.40, the previous versions I used reported an error message and starting with version 7.00 there is no 'Maintenance' option....

The only reason I have a copy of Smart Start 6.40 is due to purchasing a Smart Array controller and the CD came with it.

I'm pleased to have resolved this but not happy that it takes almost ten times as long to update the firmware using Smart Start. Compared to using a boot disk Smart Start takes an age to load.

Bring back the boot disk option folks!

Cheers,

Andy..