MSA Flash on OpenVMS

[Jefferson Humber]

Last night I updated my OpenVMS development systems MSA to v.4.48, so far so good.

All of my LUN's (System Disk included) are housed with the MSA, so I made a system disk on a JBOD in my DS25. This allowed me to boot my Alpha without mounting any SAN disks. I then ran the MSA_UTIL to flash the controllers.

Did I need to boot off the DAS-JBOD ? Could I of booted off the SAN still and flashed from an MSA housed volume ?

I have always felt uncomfortable about doing this, since most things in life can't be flashed and used at the same time. However, the MSA doesn't appear to use the new firmware until it has been rebooted.

When I come to do my production system in a couple of weeks time, can I flash the MSA from a system disk running within it.... safely ?

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

P.S There seem to be many new commands under the new version of the firmware... any news on a new CLI manual ?

[Uwe Zessin]

It's been some time since I did an MSA upgrade myself. I've a dim memory that booting from a different disk was a requirement.

[Jefferson Humber]

Uwe,

I thought this too, but can't find it written down anywhere.... Even chapter 5 (OpenVMS) of the MSA installation manual doesn't really clarify it.

It seems strange that Windows has an 'Online' version of the flashing tool ?

Maybe the the internal JBOD approach is safer after all.

[Uwe Zessin]

I'll see if I can find some time to look over some old stuff...

It's my understanding that Window's "offline" method means booting from CD and "online" is the same as a flash with VMS' MSA_UTIL except that a Windows box typically does not boot from a SAN.

[smittw]

Jeff
Do you have the procedures to upgrade msa firmware using msa_util.

You have to run msa_util 1st
$run msa_util
msa_util> set cont ???
what is the device name we should use

We can not seem to conn to an msa.\

We are doing this with the system up.

Bill Smitt

[Jefferson Humber]

William,

See the other reply I posted for a link to the F/W upgrade procedure for OpenVMS.

The MSA controllers should show as GGA devices (if memory serves me correctly). Make sure you can see these under OpenVMS, if you can't check through WWIDMGR from the SRM console to prove FC comms.

Jeff