How to update firmware on redundant ROM

[Tom Wolf_3]

Hello.

We just updated the ROM firmware on our Proliant BL469c G1 from version 2010.10.25 to 2011.05.02 via the HPSUM GUI that came with SPP 2012.08.0.

From the SMH we see that the redundant ROM is still running the old firmware version 2010.10.25

I don't see information in the HPSUM user guide about how to update firmware on the redundant ROM.

Could someone please explain how we would do this via the HPSUM GUI.

Thanks in advance.

Tom Wolf

[PGTRI]

hi,

That's a good question. You can try to switch to redundant rom in RBSU and after that to perform the update. But why do you want to do this. The reason behind the redundant rom is to save the current rom as backup.

Thanks

regards,

[Matti_Kurkela]

The redundant firmware is not "running" in any sense of the word: it is just held in reserve, in case the active firmware turns out to be unusable for any reason. (I think you can use the DIP switches on the system board to switch to the redundant ROM if the primary ROM does not even get you as far as the BIOS settings.)

The normal update procedure will not touch the current active firmware: instead, it rewrites the redundant firmware and after the writing is completed, it switches the redundant firmware to the active state and vice versa.

It follows that if you wanted to update both ROMs, you would only need to update one firmware, reboot, and then run the same firmware updater *again* . There is no need to manually switch to the other ROM at any point - the upgrade procedure already does it for you.

(I did this once, years ago, after the new firmware version had been running for months, to satisfy myself that the old version with a particularly irritating bug was *gone* from the system, and to verify that I could bring both firmware sets to the same version if necessary. It worked.)

But please consider this: the fact that you could install the new firmware using the normal procedure is proof that the old firmware was/is at least good enough to allow you to successfully update to the new firmware - and that is all you really need.

If the new firmware turns out to be unbootable, you can switch to the redundant firmware and the server will still be functional. But if you update both firmware sets and the new version turns out to have a fatal bug, you'll have turned the server into a very expensive brick.

[PDP-Fan]

Let's see this from another perspective...

Assume that your primary ROM is broken and you switch over to the backup ROM. Then your server will work again, but you have a defective software in your (now) backup ROM.... there is a good reason to update that.

The question is how... when you switch back to the backup ROM which is now the defective one, your server will get into the same trouble as before. Then you can't update the ROM.

This is not just pure theory, it's exactly what's happening on my BL460 Gen9 right now. I got it working again by switching the ROMs but now I need to update the faulty section that has become the backup ROM.

Does it really switch the ROM automatically at the update? I will see right now, as I'm updating the same version again in the hope that the redundant ROM will be fixed...

Update:
Yes it does! After running the BIOS update a third time (?) both ROMs are now up-to-date. You just have to select the FORCE option at manual updates. Otherwise it will skip it.