VCA Disk Drive Firmware Support

[Rancher]

Beginning with VCA version 2.2.0.820, the documentation stated that is would have support for disk drive firmware inventory and deployment. Did this not come about, or am I not looking in the right place to update my drive firmware via VCA?

[NJK-Work]

That's interesting, because I remember seeing it there, but I just went to check and now it is gone (at least on the few servers I checked). I wonder if it was there for a while and then got removed with a later version.

Nelson

[NJK-Work]

I wonder if it is because I am using custom reference packs and they do not have have any disk information in them...

[Rancher]

I thought I saw it there at one point also and I am not using custom reference packs (too sophisticated for me!) I hope they bring it back, it would be much easier than doing it through iLO!

[Graeme Bray · Accepted solution]

I'm almost (note almost) positive that it requires WBEM to be installed. From what I can tell, it does not look like it has to be the source of the data though.

I've got it installed on a DL580 G2. I can see it even with SNMP as default source.

Now, if someone could tell me how to get it so SNMP is always default (There may be a replication task somewhere) then that'd be great.

[Rancher]

Well, I'll be! Graeme, you are right. I installed WBEM on one of my test servers and the firmware showed up. I am assuming that if I need newer firmware, it will show in the VCA. I think it used to.
I don't use WBEM and like to have my servers as "clean" as possible. I must have installed it at one point and that is when I saw the firmware options. I guess it will be part of my installs from now on.

I am with you! I would like for SNMP to be set as default as well!

[NJK-Work]

Same here. I have been removing all my WBEM installations which explains why I no longer see it.

Nelson

[David Claypool]

You need the "Online ROM Flash Component for [Windows or Linux]" for the appropriate drives. See http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=jWx&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=%22Online+ROM+Flash+Component+for+Windows%22+%2Bdrives&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

This only applies to SAS/SATA drives; parallel SCSI (e.g. Ultra2, Ultra3, Ultra32, etc) does not have the ability to do online flash.

Once you have the firmware in your Version Control Repository, you would need to create a custom Support Pack that contains the firmware and then apply it to your devices.

[Rob Buxton]

They still show up here for some servers. But there does seem to be quite a lack of Online FW Updates for disk drives.
It may be that FW is only being released for the newer drives.
For some servers here that have two similar (RAID 1), but not identical drives I see firmware for one and not the other.

[TechGuru]

Hi all,

I think Diskdrive firmware is visible only in 32bit systems with WMI.

not visible in x64 and IA64 systems.

[Nicolai Rasmussen]

Is it configurable which data source the VCA uses to "discover" the installable disk drive firmwares? - Because I have a BL460c G6 with Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP2), with VCA v2.2.1.830. - So it does work on 64bit operating systems.

I also have a DL380 G6 with Windows Server 2008 x64, with VCA v6.1.0.842 - that ALSO shows the option to upgrade firmware on local drives. VCA v6.1.0.841 is in the PSP (8.40) and THAT version doesnt show the drive firmware upgrades.

However, after installing VCA v6.1.0.842 I often get a timeout loading the SMH. This I've seen before on older VCA versions, and this problem seem to have returned in v6.1.0.842...

Killing the vcagent.exe process and restarting the service used to help on these timeouts. However that doesn't seem to be the case with VCA v6.1.0.842.

[TechGuru]

1) VCA only take the Diskdrive firmware data from WMI. So, no other source available to configure!

2) 2.2.1.830 was a 32bit VCA running on a 32bit or 64bit OS. But in 841 there are VCA for x86 and VCA for x64 speparetly. hence Diskdrive was not visible with x64 VCA. which is fixed in 842..! as you noteded.

3) For VCA Timeout issue, SMH timeout can be set to 30 or 45 secs , since VCA might take that long to get inventory from VCRM.

[Nicolai Rasmussen]

Logapriyan, thanks for clearing that up :)

Now I just notice with VCA v6.X that I don't see Controller firmware in the VCA inventory...

I've had to downgrade our machines to VCA 2.2.2.835. - This seem to be working, so I'll keep it there until they fix that in v6.X.

[Pete2010]

I can't seem to find VCA v6.1.0.842 , I only see VCA ver. 6.2.0.841 , can someone reply with the link?

Thanks