UCS Firmware Upgrade's GUI

[K P SIM]

Hi:

I need someone to confirm the following reagrding UCS firmware upgrade via UCSM GUI:

q1. Is there a way to Update UCS Firmware endpoint, let says Adapater via UCSM GUI chassis by chassis

OR

We can not select blade by blade in certain chassis. It has to be ALL BLADES in ALL CHASSIS.

q2. The same question with the Activate Firmware.

I have fogotten as I have done a couple of UCS firmware upgrades but mostly offline hence all blades in all chassis with VMs putting in Maintenance Mode already, etc.

Thanks.

SiM

[richard.pugh]

Yes, the adapter bios can be upgraded on a chassis by chassis, blade by blade basis.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[K P SIM]

Richard:

Thanks.

The reason customer asked is because they want to upgrade balde by blade in 1 chassis follows by blades in another chassis.

I want to be really sure here. As I know, blade BIOS is typically done via a Host Firmware Package tied to a Service Profile and I know this can be done on a blade by blade basis.

Maybe I should clarify my question further: Rationale is to achieve zero or minimal downtime in clustered FI environment.

Q1.

Can  "Update Firmware" option update Blade Adapter firmware blade by blade, chassis by chassis which means I can select rather than All Blades in All Chassis?

Q2.

Can "Activate Firmware" option activate firmware for IOM a first in say chassis 1 follows by IOM b in chassis 1? Then, I will move on to IOM a and b in chassis 2, etc?

Thanks.

SiM

CIMC Firmware, I am OK as it is not disruptive.

[richard.pugh]

I will try my best to answer your questions below. Keep in mind that upgrading the bios firmware is disruptive to the server blade and an upgrade plan should be architected ahead of time. For a VMware environment running in UCS, I have found that migrating (using maintenance mode) of 1 or 2 hosts is the best method. Once the host(s) are in maintenance mode, I update the firmware and reboot.

Q1.

Can  "Update Firmware" option update Blade Adapter firmware blade by blade, chassis by chassis which means I can select rather than All Blades in All Chassis? - [Richard] - Yes, you can go into firmware management and select which blade you want to update individually.

Q2.

Can "Activate Firmware" option activate firmware for IOM a first in say chassis 1 follows by IOM b in chassis 1? Then, I will move on to IOM a and b in chassis 2, etc? - [Richard] - The IOM firmware will activate once the FI's are updated and rebooted. The IOM cannot run a higher version of firmware than the FI. The process of doing this is to update the IOM by placing the firmware onto them, then updating the subordinate FI --> once the subordinate is updated then make it primary and update the old primary now subordinate. During each FI update, the corresponding IOM will reboot and update.

[Robert Burns]

KP,

1.  No.  It's granular down to the blade, but not Chassis.  Unless all blades in the Chassis were part of the same updating template, there wouldn't be a way to update/activate on a Chassis by Chassis basis.

2.  No.  The IOM FW must match the FI's.  So the method to do is would be to update all IOM FW (set startup version only), then activate your secondary FI.  This would activate & reboot all left or right IOMs that were attached to it.

If an IOM boots up with a different FW than it's parent FI, it will automatically re-download the image to match it. 

Regards,

Robert

[Keny Perez]

Hi,

I hope this helps illuestrate how you can do it and the order...

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10281/prod_installation_guides_list.html -> Root link

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/video/upgrade/14to20/upgrade_20_a.html -> Part I

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/video/upgrade/14to20/upgrade_20_b.html -> Part II

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/video/upgrade/14to20/upgrade_20_c.html -> Part III

Even though this talks about the upgrade from 1.4 to 2.0, this may give a good idea about the upgrade process that might answer your questions as well

Regards,

-Kenny