firmware upgrade on eva4400 - few questions

[iinfi1]

hi all,

I have a few questions on eva4400. We have SuSe Linux 10 sp1 and sp2 servers on x86_64 and Itanium platforms.
HP have recommended a firmware upgrade on our storage as they are very old. Could someone please throw light on what changes need to be done on the OS level for the OS to identify the LUNS upon boot after the firmware upgrade.

[Modris Bremze]

Consult the HP support on this, however, I think that firmware update doesn't touch LUN IDs, so everything should be the same after the update.

[iinfi1]

thank you for your reply.
for 1 week HP were telling us that they dont need any change at the OS level. Now they say they need a HBA driver upgrade.
they sent us a utility (hp configuration collector) to collect data from all servers, and strangely it validates windows servers correctly and doesnt validate linux servers thru ssh password authentication.
it asks for a username and password where i type a normal user's credentials while SU username and password i type root. the validation always fails.

[AnthonySN]

it must be a firewall issue.

https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=T4256-63133

[iinfi1]

i changed the below parameter from no to yes and it started working.

cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep Pass
PasswordAuthentication yes


Is the default NO or YES.
in CentOS i found the line commented.

[iinfi1]

HP have recommended HBA firmware/Driver/MPIO versions to be updated to the latest ones.
can someone plz guide me to the procedure as I have never done it before. SuSe Linux 10 SP2 on x86_64 and Itanium systems.
I am searching in google,HP site but I am not able to get a proper documentation for the same.
please help

[ecuellar]

CommandView v9.3 Download:
https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=CommandViewEVA9.3


HSV v6.220 Download:
https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=T4256-63122

HSV v6.220 Release Notes:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01721444/c01721444.pdf

HSV v6.220 Updating Product Software Guide:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02104123/c02104123.pdf

Upgrading Disk Drive Firmware Read Me First:

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01501780/c01501780.pdf <>


Drive Firmware Bundle Download:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3351789&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=3302267&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=54

[iinfi1]

thank you. i will check these.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Heya, yeach check out the updating software guide, that may have some information for you in regards to the OS side. It will also tell you if you can do the EVA4400 XCS firmware upgrade online or offline.

Are you going to upgrade the firmware yourself?

Please tell us which server and which FC HBA you have installed Solaris on.

Then we can hopefully find the right drivers/firmware for those and in there should be the installation instructions :)

[iinfi1]

well.
storage firmware hp is going to do it.
before that they are asking us to do an upgrade of HBA drivers at the OS level.
dont think i m qualified to do this. but i am curious to know the procedure.
hence posted here.
i am reading quite a bit, i dont have test servers to do it. even the test is acting as a nfs for production.
so gona throw the ball back to HP's court

[iinfi1]

04:00.0 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2432-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 1705
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 50
I/O ports at 4001100 [size=256]
Memory at b0084000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Expansion ROM at b0040000 [disabled] [size=256K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [4c] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
Capabilities: [64] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/4 Enable-
Capabilities: [74] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [7c] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=16
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [138] Power Budgeting

04:00.1 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2432-based 4Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 1705
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 59
I/O ports at 4001000 [size=256]
Memory at b0080000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Expansion ROM at b0000000 [disabled] [size=256K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [4c] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
Capabilities: [64] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/4 Enable-
Capabilities: [74] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [7c] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=16
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [138] Power Budgeting

[iinfi1]

if hp refuses again i have do it.
lets c

thanks a lot for your time

[Johan Guldmyr]

yeah, for HP to upgarde firmwares on everything but XCS and disk drives you have to pay them.

if you have a proliant server you can upgrade the firwmares with the firmware maintenance DVD. for the drivers you can use the proliant support pack if that is available for your OS.

http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h_pagetype=s-001&h_lang=en&h_cc=us&h_product=12169&h_page=hpcom&cc=us〈=en&h_client=S-A-R163-1

go there and put in the HP server model (like DL380 G5), chose the right kind, then the right os and in there you can find the individual drivers and firmwares.

[iinfi1]

thanks

btw should the upgrading of the server hba drivers and storage firmware be done simultaneously? or I first do the hba upgrade and then later hp will come and do the storage firmware upgrade?
any clues?
thanks again

[ecuellar]

Use the maintenance DVD to upgrade the hba on the server, then have HP do the firmware on the eva. The eva will need to be shutdown for the firmware upgrade.

[Johan Guldmyr]

iinfi: no, you cannot do them at the same time. I don't know actually which is preferred. I suppose you want to upgrade drivers first. If you upgrade firmware first you will have drivers for a firmware that may not be included..

ecuellar: how do you know this? Afaik the EVA firmware upgrade can be done online if you have below a certain amount of vdisks/total space?

iinfi:
It says in the updating guide if you can do the upgrade online or offline. When HP contacts you I guess they will discuss this.
If you run replication there are limitations around that too.
Also, make sure your command view is on a supported level with the new firmware. That also needs to be done before the HP guys come out. Have you looked on the SAN-switches? Are they on an old version too?

[iinfi1]

i m not sure about the SAN switches. All i am told to do by the infra guy in our premises is to upgrade the HBA drivers at OS level as HP will not do anything related to OS
we run SuSe Linux 10 SP1 and SP2 or x86_64 and Itanium platforms.


this was HP's response.
Your EVA firmware is old [XCS09004000] and should be upgraded to XCS953400
For that HBA firmware/Driver/MPIO versions should be updated to latest on all OSs

[Johan Guldmyr]

OK. Yeah, your firmware is old. 0953400 is actually pretty good.

Turns out you do have to do a power cycle with that so it is offline. But yah, read the updating guide and release notes :)

Check out your CV version as well. Turns out you need to have CV 9.1 at least (seen as 9.01 in Command View when you click on the help link in the top right corner).

If you want to check the SAN-switches:

You can log on to HP SPOCK http://h20272.www2.hp.com/ - go to "other hardware" click on switches, then on B-series (Brocade) or C-series (Cisco) connectivity stream. In there for each switch type you can see the recommended firmware and the last firmware that is supported.

[iinfi1]

thank you for all the replies.

in normal circumstances do we update the HBA and upgrade the eva firmware at the same go.
if i update the HBA today and HP come after one week, will the new HBA drivers be able to see the LUNs if the storage is not updated at the same time?

[Johan Guldmyr]

Generally speaking, it's probably best to upgrade the hbas first.

Did you read the 09534000 software updating guide?

I haven't read it in a while but I believe this should say in what order you should upgrade things.

[iinfi1]

thanks.
i interacted with a few people and read some docs about the same.
os drivers and hba
san switches
command view
eva firmware

in the same order sud be upgraded/updated and sud preferably done at the same time.