Keeping firmware up-to-date

[Troels Arvin]

I'm used to administering Linux on Dell servers. With Dell servers, it's rather easy to keep firmware for the various server sub-systems up-to-date; a utility inspects the hardware and downloads packages with firmware newer than what's currently installed: http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/

Can the same thing be done with ProLiant servers? - I.e. installing the latest firmware without having to boot on special media?

[Sheldon Smith]

After a quick snoop at the ProLiant SmartStart pages - http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/smartstart/index.html
I see something called "HP BladeSystem Online Firmware Bundle for Linux" - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=1842750&prodNameId=3288156&swEnvOID=2078&swLang=8&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-f5a3f45e211147b09dfd00b3ba&mode=3

Don't know if there's anything about it that would prevent it from working on a 'standard' (non-blade) server or not.

[Troels Arvin]

Thanks, but I wouldn't dare use it on a non-blade system.

[Modris Bremze]

Firmware Maintenance CD or Online ROM flash?

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/management/smartstart/FWCDUsersGuide.pdf

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00683436〈=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=428936

[Gerardo Arceri]

What i do and it has given me excellent results is use the Online Update feature of the Firmware CD.
Basically what we do is

#mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /var/tmp/FW.iso /mnt/fw
#cd /mnt/fw/hp/swpackages
#./hpsum /romonly /silent


you can check the logs it leaves on /var/hp/log/localhost.

As i understand it,the only thing that will not get upgraded with this method is the firmware on HP branded HBAs (Qlogic/Emulex)

Hope it was helpful!