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Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

 
stepcz
Occasional Collector

How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

Hello dear colleagues,

I have some new Gen10 ESXi hosts and cannot figure out, how to perform online firmware update with OneView. I feel like a dummy but I really don't know, what should be the correct procedure here. 

Environment: Oneview 5. ESXi 6.7U2 host on Gen10 hardware, installed from HPE vmware ISO (VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-Update2-13006603-HPE-Gen9plus-670.U2.10.4.1.8-Apr2019.iso).

What I did:

- Installed ESXi, joined vCenter, setup networking etc etc.

- Oneview - Set up a server profile with firmware baseline 2019-09 and "Firmware and OS drivers using Smart update tools" option for the host. This caused an error:


"Firmware and drivers update using Smart Update Tools cannot be done with the selected SPP and the Smart Update Tools version detected on the server XYZ.
Install Smart Update Tools version 2.4.0.0 or newer and retry the firmware update by selecting an SPP that contains a Smart Update Manager (SUM) version of 8.4.0 or newer"

- Someone advised I have to upload and install SUT package on the server via esxcli software vib install sut-esxi6.7-offline-bundle-2.4.0.0-31.zip, which I did (+host reboot). Then I configured the SUT to AutoDeploy mode and set a staging directory to VMFS volume with enough space.


- Updated the server profile in Oneview to trigger firmware deployment again and it started doing something! Status in OV changed to Staging, then later to Installed pending reboot. Great news.
- I rebooted the host (it was in Maintenance all the time) - and nothing happened. The message was still Pending reboot, sut /status reports:
User Action Needed......................: Reboot the system or execute -activate command to complete the system reboot.
All packages in Inventory report have State: Complete.

- Did second reboot just in case - no change. Issuing sut -activate will respond with

"Reboot detected. Use -verify command to move the state to activated".


sut -verify appears to hang and probably is not doing anything, while status in Oneview remains Installed pending reboot.

 

Can anyone help me here, what should be the correct procedure? This should be a pretty straightforward and common operation, yet I can't get it to work and HPE documentation and KB are not helpful

Thanks!

6 REPLIES 6
MCSAP
Frequent Advisor

Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

Stepz,

 

Please share with the forum if you find success with doing this activity.  I've had OV running for 9+ months and have been unable to get clear direction on how to upgrade Gen10 via Server Profiles.  Success rate has been 1 server out of the 18 we have in our landscape.  Don't get me started on the backwards support of Gen9 and 8.  Unfortunately, HPE is still very immature with their product, documentation and solution.  Seemless and automated this process IS NOT.

On paper, OneView should push down the updates to the ILO 5 and then run the FW upgrades from there.  I don't know why there is even mention of having an iSUT proxy anywhere.  They continually disappoint with this server/blade management utility.

Suvamay
HPE Pro

Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

Start SUM from another system and add the same iLO node. SUM deletes all the completed task queue items at the end of the routine. Or shutdown SUM that is running and start SUM on the same system where the update was performed.

Clear the iLO Task Queue entries using the iLO GUI after confirming all the components are updated.

After twenty four hours, this will no longer occur; iLO deletes the completed task queue items at the end of twenty four hours.

 

then run the command in isut ==> 

sut тАУset mode=AutodeployReboot

Regards,

 

I'm an HPE employee.
[Any personal opinions expressed are mine, and not official statements on behalf of Hewlett Packard Enterprise]
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ChrisLynch
HPE Pro

Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?


@MCSAP wrote:

Stepz,

 

Please share with the forum if you find success with doing this activity.  I've had OV running for 9+ months and have been unable to get clear direction on how to upgrade Gen10 via Server Profiles.  Success rate has been 1 server out of the 18 we have in our landscape.  Don't get me started on the backwards support of Gen9 and 8.  Unfortunately, HPE is still very immature with their product, documentation and solution.  Seemless and automated this process IS NOT.

Sorry your experience thus far has been less than expected.  Gen10 and iLO5 are different than Gen8/9 and iLO4.  iLO5 has a repository were SPP contents can be copied to and then installed.  Firmware for certain components can be done when the server is activated (another word for rebooted, as the firmware payload is staged in UEFI to then install during boot).  iSUT is needed for components like disk drives, drivers and system level utilities.


@MCSAP wrote:

Stepz,

On paper, OneView should push down the updates to the ILO 5 and then run the FW upgrades from there.  I don't know why there is even mention of having an iSUT proxy anywhere. 


Again, that is because if you want to perform firmware and driver updates while the server is powered on, iSUT is required.  There needs to be a component within the OS to coordinate the installation, as iLO does not have direct access to the OS, let along to initiate a process within the OS.

We do document firmware management in our HPE OneView Online Help.  Here is the specific chapter that describes the process.  Here is the chapter that goes through the specific process to use server profiles to upgrade server components.  This documentation is not only available on any OneView appliance (virtual machine or HPE Synergy Composer), but also in our Enterprise Information Library.

 


I am an HPE employee

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MCSAP
Frequent Advisor

Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

Thanks Chris for the updated doc links.  I've not upgraded to 5 yet so maybe things have become more mature.  That being said...

Feedback/comments:

1 - OneView should be able to push down the FW packages to ILO5 regardless of OS and or power state of the Server

2 - OneView should be able to "apply" said FW packages via Service Profile with an option "apply at reboot".

3 - OneView is touted as HPE's answer to fully automated management "engine" - yet we are required to bolt-on SUT/iSUT in order for this process to be fully automated/seamless (when it works).  Why wouldn't the functionality of whatever SUT or SUM does be baked into OneView from the get-go?

The necessity for an external SUT or iSUT daemon is a pain.  It can't be installed via vCenter Update Manager, nor can it be scripted automated installation (maybe that has changed). 

ChrisLynch
HPE Pro

Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

Thanks for your feedback.  There are a few incorrect comments below that I want to make sure you are aware of:

 

1 - OneView should be able to push down the FW packages to ILO5 regardless of OS and or power state of the Server

We do.  Gen10 and iLO5 can have firmware components pushed to the iLO Repository.  This does require a minimum version of iLO5 firmware, as it was not introduced at Gen10 launch, but later.  iLO5 1.30 is the specific version.  And if you attempt to update firmware using a newer SPP that contains iLO5 1.30 or newer, we will first upgrade iLO to that version, then will trigger the SPP update.

2 - OneView should be able to "apply" said FW packages via Service Profile with an option "apply at reboot".

Again, we do.  A reboot of the server will activate the firmware when populated in iLO Repository.

3 - OneView is touted as HPE's answer to fully automated management "engine" - yet we are required to bolt-on SUT/iSUT in order for this process to be fully automated/seamless (when it works).  Why wouldn't the functionality of whatever SUT does be baked into OneView from the get-go?

There is no path into the OS in order to install drivers and certain legacy firmware components.  And putting SUT/iSUT within OneView is unfortunately not an option.  Without OS communication, you cannot push out those types of components.  iSUT can be installed using VMware Update Manager (VUM).  We have had a distribution point for quite a long time that you can easily add to VUM, called vibsdepot.hpe.com (it is based on our Linux Software Distribution Repository, downloads.linux.hpe.com.)  The external SUT instance is required for Gen8 and Gen9 as there are VMware architectural limitations that prevents SUT from being installed within ESXi.  Gen10 redesigned that, so we can now embed iSUT within ESXi.  You can also use the HPE custom image, which contains iSUT now.

 


I am an HPE employee

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CO-Team
Member

Re: How to update firmware on Gen10 ESXi hosts with Oneview properly?

Chris I apologize you have to take the brunt of my gripping.  As if it weren't hard enough to keep track of the caveats, you've added yet another to the compatability/functionality matrix. 

Show of hands (kudos)...who would like to see this process, soup to nuts, in a YouTube video?  Show me how to upgrade firmware seamlessly on an ESXi 6.7 u2+ host using OneView 5.0.  What is required?  What configuration settings are needed (iSUT)?  How the server profile firmware should be set?  Maybe two videos...one for Gen 10 and one for Gen8/9.