Update hard drive firmware on ProLiant ML350 G6

[afishyfella]

Dear HPE Friends,

I have a ProLiant ML350 G6 server that was put into services on 5/24/2011. Natually the warranty is out and my customer is dragging their feet on purchasing a new server. At any rate the server is rebooting nearly every morning at the same time and throwing POST errors. After some research I found that the HDDs need their firmware updated. I've lived my entire tech carrer in the Dell world and on top of that I've never had to update firmware on HDDs that are in a RAID configurations. Would someone out there be so kind as to provide me with the proceedure to update the firmware on the HDDs with out destroying the RAID configuration or loosing any data. This server belongs to a medical clinic and is very crucial to their practice. I have very little opportunity for down time so I have to have my game plan down cold. Can someone help with the steps and any management software that might help with this task? I've searched and searched but cannot find anythng that provides me step by step instructions and provides me with reassurance that I will not loose data. See below for specs.

ProLiant ML350 G6
Smart Array P410i
5 Hard drives total
2 HDDs  in 1+0 Raid
3 HDDs in RAID 5
Disk Model Number HPDG0300FARVV
Representative Serial Number PFWWX9E
Drive Type SAS

[Big_Banana]

Just download the appropriate SmartStart CD. Burn to CD or make a USB thumb driver (use the HP app)
Booting from either will give you the option for manual or automatic updating. Sweetness is it will do all your firmwares, BIOS, raid card, neural card,... if desired.
Cheers!

[krasinka1409]

The last SmartStart CD was released 2011. The mentioned hard drives have the latest Firmware from 2013, so the smart start does not contain it. Actually the ML350 G6 supports the "Service Pack for Proliant":

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=3884318&swItemId=MTX_3f6b4074ed734dc3baf007612d&swEnvOid=4184

It contains also the needed Firmware, but you will not be able to download it without active coverage. 

As a workaround, you may download the HDD Firmware only, available here (for windows) :

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_12c0400bd0844917a3b969ec18

Please note, that nobody will provide reassurance that no data will be lost. Firmware updates can lead to differet issues, so HPE recommeds to back up you data before installing any updates. 

[afishyfella]

krasinka1409 

Thank you for responding. I understand about not offering reasurance of not data loss. Perhaps I should've said please help with best practice proceedure. I should be ablet to updtate the RAID firmware the same way, right? Also is there any order in which I should do updates. For example, update BIOS, RAID firmware, then HDD firmware? Have you ever seen anyone loose data doing any of these tasks?

[afishyfella]

I've got the BIOS and the HDD updates. I'm a bit confused on what Storage Controller update to use. Its a Smart Array P410i Controller. The current driver is hpciss2.sys (6.26.0.64). Could this one be the right one.

[krasinka1409]

Hello, 

I am working for HPE 7 yeard already and have ssen many things :-D 

Nevertheless, datalosl after FW upgrade is a really rare thing . There is no spcific oder between the different components. 

The only recommendation is to install Drivers first, and than the firmware. 

You are right with the Controller Firmware - this is the latest one. You may install the latest driver first and after that, the firmware. Here is the driver: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_0fd4dfeb438a4358a34bfffd39