Applying Offline Firmware without HP SUM or Firmware DVD ?

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

I've got an issue on a DL380 G7, where HP support are requesting that I upgrade the SAS Backplane Firmware from 1.14 to 1.18.

Unfortunately the server in question is on a closed network, and remote site, which means that booting up off the 3GB Firmware ISO via ILO virtual media, is pretty much impossible...

I've tried creating cut down versions of the Firmware DVD, and custom HP SUM ISOs which just have the required firmware however, they're still coming in at around 500MB which makes booting over a WAN link pretty hard.

The actual firmware update itself (CP019633.scexe) is only 170KB.  Is there anyway that this can be applied without using HP SUM - like a good old fashioned DOS Boot floppy or similar ?

Cheers,

Rob

[scharchouf]

you can choose to update you server using ftp repository under HPSUM

Install the last version :
http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/products/service_pack/hpsum/index.aspx

Launch HPSUM when ask choose FTP HP

[Torsten.]

In theory you just need to boot any kind of live linux, the run the *.scexe file from the prompt. Such linux may have only a few MB.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Thanks Torsten

I've been trying to go down the LiveCD route for some time now, but just can't get the firmware update to run, probably as I haven't got some pre-reqs somewhere...

If I use the Tiny Core Linux (a 9MB boot ISO) I can get to the point where I can run the firmware, but it this fails with an error similar to:

Channel Interface Driver not Installed

I suspect this is due to the cut down kernel in Tiny Core Linux not having the hpilo module.

So, I reverted back to making a cut down RHEL 6.5 Live CD, which does have the hpilo module, but when running the the firmware file I get:

# ./CP029633.scexe

./CP029633.scexe: line 92: .: CPINIT: file not found

./hpsetup: error while loading shared libraries: libcpqci.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

After manually unpacking the offline package, setting the LD_LIBRARY as per the contents of the CPINIT file and then running hpsetup I get:

Program can only execute in maintenance (offline) mode.

I think I've managed to work out that the hpsetup program is checking the contents of a file /var/cpq/sc-offline.dat to see whether the server is in offline mode, but can't figure out what the contents of the file might need to be to get it to run...   Any ideas ?

[Torsten.]

Hard to tell without any test equipment.

Maybe I would start with the original SPP and remove everything in hp/swpackages - this will reduce the size by ~ 2.7GB. Most of the other stuff you don't need too.

[Rob Leadbeater]

I'm going to give that another go now Torsten...

On my previous attempts the server would just hang during the boot, so I'm guessing I removed a bit too much from the /hp/swpackages directory...

[Jimmy Vance]

Downlaod the latest HP Scripting Toolkit for Linux. It contains a boot kernel (SLES based) that has all the HP drivers in the initrd image.  It contains a script to make a bootable USB key that you could then boot over virtual media.  If you go witht he usb drive key method, copy your required .scexe files to the key you created (I usually make a sepereate directory, but not needed).

After booting from the key:

mount /dev/sdX /mnt/floppy  # X being the device ID, usually "a"

cd /mnt/floppy or cd /mnt/floppy/dir_created

sh filename.scexe

Toolkit

http://www.hp.com/go/toolkit  Click the download button and the files will be near the bottom of the page

[waaronb]

Ditto on that last reply.  I've used the HP USB key thing to make a smaller bootable image and then put just the scexe update file needed on there.

I also think it would work to take the normal ISO and remove all of the cp*.exe and cp*.scexe files except whatever you need.  Those take up most of the space probably.  I'm not 100% sure that would work, but in theory it seems like it should.

If it looks at the XML files in there and sees another update it might need, worst case I can think of is that it would simply fail if it tried to run that scexe.

[Jimmy Vance]

---

waaronb wrote:

Ditto on that last reply.  I've used the HP USB key thing to make a smaller bootable image and then put just the scexe update file needed on there.

---

The Scripting Toolkit is more than just the HP USB key utility.  The USB utility does make a bootable key that you can copy other files to. The Scripting Toolkit initrd has all the HP drivers including the iLO chif driver needed by the firmware .scexe files.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Thanks for the suggestions to use the Scripting Toolkit.

That's allowed me to create a much smaller boot ISO (still 100MB+ but that's more practical than 3GB) however I'm still getting the error about not being offline when trying to run the firmware update.

# sh CP019633.scexe

Value is false

Program can only execute in maintenance (offline) mode.

#

I suspect I just need a flag file setting somewhere to tell the firmware update that it can run, but I can't figure out what...  Any more suggestions ?

[sflanders]

Did anyone figure out how to resolve the issue of this message?

./CP014353.scexe

Value is false

Program can only execute in maintenance (offline) mode.

I'm running into that problem as well and haven't been able to find a resolution.  My issue is that ILO always just says it "Drive backplane data is not available."  I was able update all the other firmware (bios, ilo2, etc) to the latest without issue. Regardless of what harddrive i put in my HP DL380 the drives always blink in blue.  The server recognizes all the drives fine and they run fine but it would be nice to get ILO2 working for the drives as well.  Any suggestions.

[sflanders]

Finally figure this out.  Turns out when you mount the usb stick it mounts the data in multiple places.  I was executing from "mnt/bootdevice", when i switched to "mnt/boot" the program ran fine.

[HP systems insight mana_1]

To update the SAS backplane of a ProLiant G6 or G7 server:

Create a bootable USB stick of SPP2013.09.0 (newer ones do not discover the SAS backplane):

Copy in USB>:\hp\swpackages the files needed to update it:

- CP019633.scexe    SAS Backplane 2.18

- CP019687.scexe    SAS Expander firmware 2.10

Boot from that stick and it will discover a SAS backplane on a DL / BL G6 or G7 server.

Attention! It might propose to update the Emulex or Qlogic HBA as well all though it will downgrade it if already updated with SPP2014.02.0, SPP2014.06.0 or 2014.09.0 + Maintenance Bundle.

I use this method > 1 year and works fine.

After update remove power cords for 2 minutes.

BTW: SPP2014090+ detects only half of the FW components in Pre-Gen8 servers => good method to verify idf PMC, PXE ROM, local disks are well discovered and updated by later SPP.

[Torsten.]

>> Create a bootable USB stick of SPP2013.09.0 (newer ones do not discover the SAS backplane):

I added SAS expander firmware 2.10 and SAS backplane firmware 1.16 and 1.18(D) to SPP2014. It found SAS expander and SAS backplane version 1.16 to be used for update, but not 1.18?

Strange ...