Blade C7000 firmware upgrade

[City_Blue]

Guy's

i am looking at upgrading the firmware for the enclouser and the blades

is ther any white papares or lists of things that should be done

onboard admin firmware
switch firmware and so so we are uptdae accross the board.

or will jyts doing the onbaord administrator do the trick

cheers

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

Please see the c-class bladesystem firmware compatibility matrix:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class-compmatrix.html

First check your blade BIOS/firmware levels, update if necessary. This may require blade reboots.

Then update the iLO2 firmware to the level required by the new OA firmware. No reboots needed at this point.

If you have any I/O modules that contain firmware, check them too.

The OA firmware should be the last of the upgrades.

If you update the OA firmware before the iLOs or I/O module firmwares are at the required level, the OA will display warnings and may fail to communicate with the respective component if the difference is too great.

MK

[City_Blue]

can all these be done from the firmware CD?

or do they have to be done individualy?

cheers

[Raghuarch]

you can update all the firmware at once if you use Firmware Maintenance CD.
You need to reboot the server. and it is one server at a time.

[Terri Harris]

There is now a HP BladeSystem Firmware Deployment Tool (FDT) that will update all the blades (System BIOS & iLO) without having to do it manually. Two issues:

1. The FDT will reboot the blades as needed.

2. You need to first update the OA fw to 2.32 before running the FDT. And as Matti warned in a previous reply, flashing the OA before doing the blades iLO & System BIOS updates can cause red flags/warnings to appear on blades.

If blades are in production and you need to selectively update, then manually update by doing System BIOS, iLO, then OA in that order. Only the OA update is not disruptive - although there are online flashes for iLO & BIOS depending on your OS. But blades still need to be rebooted for updates to take effect.

Note: the Firmware CD does not include FC HBA (QLogic or Emulex) updates.

[City_Blue]

can you download the FDT? or is it on the firmware CD

thanks

[City_Blue]

found it

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=1842750&prodNameId=3288156&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-21225c8a3ed34918a6a460b5ff

[The Brit]

Question,

Will the Blade Firmware Deploment Tool work on Itanium blades also, and does the Firmware CD include FW for Itanium components?

Dave

[kris rombauts]

Hi Dave,

at this time the tool does not include the Integrity blades.


HTH

Kris

[Gilberto R. Rosales]

Hello!

I, too, have been charged with upgrading the firmware on our c7000. I need to upgrade OA, ILO, and Virtual Connect. Before doing so, what are the dependencies/predecessors, if any, on upgrading these components. Also, will upgrading the firmware necessitate upgrading the firmware for blade components such as the BIOS, HBAs, NICs, etc? Additionally, will updating the firmware on the Blades/c7000 necessitate updating any software drivers for my Windows and ESX servers? I know this is a vauge question but I'm hoping to obtain a response from someone who has knowledge/experience.

BTW - Please forgive me as I am a newbie to this hardware. Please do not take any offense in the way I've worded my reply. I'm trying my best to execute! =)