Brocade firmware updates

[mark_uksouth]

Hi all,
Quick question..
I've 2 fabrics running 4100's as primary's with 4012 attached. All firmware is v5.0.1.b
I'm looking at upgrading to v5.3.0.
Now its recommended that you only jump a max of 2 major updates, so my plan is as follows.
Fab A 4100 upgrade to v5.1.0d, 4012's upgrade to v5.0.5c
Repeat for Fab B
Fab A 4100 upgrade to v5.3.0, 4012's upgrade to v5.3.0
Repeat for Fab B

I've downloaded the frimware paq's from the HP site and extracted them, there's a whole bunch of rpm's how can i tell which one i need to specify for upgrading?

[Luk Vandenbussche · Accepted solution]

The procedure is smart enough to know which rpm it has to install.

The easiest way to update is through an FTP session.

[mark_uksouth]

So I should just dump all the rpm's into the ftp location and it will know which one to use?

Thanks

Mark

[mark_uksouth]

I've just dumped the firmware into my ftp site, tried to firmwaredownload by selecting just the root folder (v5.0.5c), it's errored on cannot access package list (.plist) file.
All the .plist files are in sub folders (sbin,SWBD10,SWBD12, etc) according to the readme you have to specify the .plist file.
How do I determine which subfolder is the correct one for my switches?

Thanks

Mark

[Torsten.]

For older versions you need to specify the release file too, e.g.

/v5.0.5/release.plist

for newer versions you don't need. e.g.

/v5.3.0/

At the moment I can't remember on what release this switched.

[mark_uksouth]

All switches are v5.0.1b.
Problem is I don't know what release.plist file in which sub folder to specify.
The readme and release notes do not give any information.

Cheers

Mark

[Stephen Kebbell]

As Torsten said, you just specify the main folder, e.g.
/v5.0.5c/release.plist

The firmwaredownload routine will automatically select the correct subfolder, you do not specify that.

Regards,
Stephen

[mark_uksouth]

I'd like to do that but on the HP downloads there is not a release.plist in the root folder.
The only files in the root are .rpm's.
All the release.plist files are located in subfolders (sbin, SWBD12,SWBD21,SWBD22, etc etc)
And i do not know how the folder is referenced to the switch model?
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, strange..:-(

Mark

[mark_uksouth]

Ahh,
Ok, i've run /v5.0.5c/release.plist and it looks like its working.
Strange how you specify a file that does not exist in the root folder..
But anyway thanks for your help gentleman..

Mark

[Torsten.]

Don't ask why it works this way, but it does ;-)

The switch will complete the "SWBD.." part of the path, because it is aware of its own model name.

So it "disassemble" the path given by you, include the "SW..." part and reassemble the path.

This is changed in newer releases - now it is using the "SW..." **and** the "release.plist" by default, so you only specify the "main" path:

"/v5.3.0/"
(IIRC it is important to extend the last "/")

[mark_uksouth]

Thanks Torsten,
I'll remember that for the future upgrades.
Another quicky, i've upgraded a 4012 in an empty chassis as a test. All has upgraded successfully, the only thing missing is the trunk back to the 4100 running v5.0.1b.
I assume that it's because the primary needs to be the same or newer on firmware?
If this is the case then it's no problem as I'll be upgrading the primarys first in proiduction anyway.

Mark

[Bill Rothanburg]

Mark,

Ideally, you should keep all of the switches running the same version if possible. This is not always possible, such as with a 3800 or 12000 switch.

Your plan of upgrading the 4100s first and then the 4012 is sound.

You won't be able to upgrade directly to v5.3.0 from v5.0.5c. You will need to upgrade to a v5.1.x or v5.2.x release first.

Also, upgrade to v5.3.0a. It has some UI fixes if you use the WWW Browser interface over v5.3.0.

Bill

[Sheldon Smith]

Yeah, when the Brocades first went to the embedded Linux and the tree of .RPMs, it took me at least TWO HOURS to finally figure out that when "firmwaredownload" asks for a filename, you don't give it a filename!
If it had just asked for a directory, there would have been no confusion.

By the way, in the past, I have gone from 5.0.3b to 5.2.1b, then to 5.3.0a. I would expect you could go from 5.0.1b to 5.2.1b as well.

[Mark Smithers]

For whats it's worth, when trying to update these switches to this firmware version, I also had to have the FTP server running on a machine in the SAME subnet as the switch. I tried this on several (8!) switches all with the same results - if the FTP server was NOt in the same subnet, then it would fail with the same error messages as above!

[Danel_1]

hi ,

You can upgrade to 5.1.0x
and after to 5.3.0b the latest version.

Thanks

DDanel