Can't upgrade Brocade 48000 firmware

[Tim Lines]

I need to upgrade the firmware in my HP-branded Brocade 48000 switches to make the guys at EMC happy. I can't do this because firmwaredownload aborts. The steps to recreate this look like:

1. Download v5.3.0c.tar.gz from HP website
2. Untar it on ftp server.
3. Log in on Brocade. ]
4. Run firmwaredownload.
5. Firmware download aborts.

Transcript of firmwaredownload:
Script started on Wed Jan 09 09:46:46 2008
broca:admin> firmwaredownload

Server Name or IP Address: 159.49.42.6

FTP User Name: tlines

File Name: /sw/vendor/Brocade/v5.3.0c

FTP Password:



This command will upgrade both CP blades. If you want to

upgrade a single CP only, please use -s option.



You can run firmwaredownloadstatus to get the status of this

command.



This command will cause the active CP to reset and will require

that existing telnet, secure telnet or SSH sessions be restarted.



Do you want to continue [Y]: y

Firmware is being downloaded to standby CP. This step may take up to 30 minutes.

Firmware download failed on standby CP - Unable to access the package list file. Check whether the switch is supported by the requested firmware. Also check firmwaredownload help page for other possible failure reasons. (0x12)

Please use firmwaredownloadstatus and firmwareshow to see the firmware status.

broca:admin> logout

Connection to seavvsanswa.alaskaair.com closed by foreign host.

(?)techsup1:/sw/home/tlines 249$ ^D

[Tim Lines]

Found the answer on Brocade's website: for old versions of the firmware you have to append release.plist to the ftp filename. /sw/vendor/Brocade/v5.3.0c/release.plist worked.

[Tim Lines]

appended release.plist to ftp directory name. This necessary if you're running sufficiently old versions of the firmware.