Updating harddrives with SIM

[Dwayne Skinner]

We've noticed that our harddrives aren't including in updates when using SIM to update firmware/software/drivers. Does SIM not have this capability? There are online ROM updates available for download from HP that allow you to update harddrives while the server is up and running. They don't take affect until after the server reboots but it can still be done.

[Rob Buxton]

No it's not available via HPSIM / VCA.
You either do them via the online download or via the SmartStart Firmware CD.

It would be nice if they extended some of this functionality to the NICs, FC HBAs and Disks. But it looks like they draw the line at hardware that's integrated into the server.

[Leo Plewa · Accepted solution]

With the newest VCA for windows the disk drive firmware shows up in the VCA.
Unfortunately not for Linux.
(May be in a future release?)
And for newer drives where an online update component is available, the VCRM downloaded it and that could be updated via the VCA, for older drives only the model and firmware is shown.
It would be nice to see the NIC firmware not only in the SMH but also in VCA with the option to upgrade it.
But this is not (yet?) implemented.

[Dwayne Skinner]

I've downloaded and installed the new VCA agent, however, I don't see any harddrive firmware in my repository. In the past I've had to install a VCA agent and point it to the repository before SIM would go out and download the components for that particular type of system. For example, I couldn't get any Linux firmware/drivers/software until I had pointed a Linux box to the repository. My question is this: Now that I've installed the new VCA do I need to wait and let SIM populate the repository with the new information and then expect it to download the necessary firmware? Essentially, it doesn't see any firmware for the harddrives in the VCA I can't update it using SIM.

[Leo Plewa]

As this feature is very new i do not know if HP delivers all the necessary informations for the VCRM for all the drives (at least at this time)
I saw it automatically for one kind of drive, but not for others.
Maybe it is possible to download the online versions for windows to the VCRM repository for all the HDD you need to get it work.
In the attachment you will see a screenshot how it looks for me.
BTW: I am using the SIM 5.3 with VCRM 2.2 on a Windows Server 2003 system

[Dwayne Skinner]

It sounds like your right. Its so new we may not see much in the way of disk drive firmware. We'll just have to wait until more of this is implemented.