Good day! All,
Welcome back!, Today i will share with you all the steps we followed to update Firmware for Virtual Connects on either c7000 or c3000 Enclosures.
Before you think of updating Firmware its very much necessary that you take a backup for the Virtual Connect domain
We have 2 ways to accomplish the task
1. Using HP Support pack(HP SPP)
2.Virtual Connect Support Utility - (vcsu-1.9.0)
Assumption is that you are having 2 Virtual Connect Interconnect Modules in bay 1 and bay 2 for redundancy... If not the case then you are looking at lot of downtime because this Firmware updates on each Interconnect Module takes about 20-25 approximately .
So the next question would be how much of downtime is required if we have 2 Interconnect Modules and using VCSU Utility, well i did updates for close to like 20 Enclosures and we always saw like 5-10 Pings packs drops.The beauty with VCSU utility is that it first finishes the standby Interconnect Module and then it fails-over and when doing Active Interconnect Module we have seen the packet drops.
Option 1: Using HP SPP i already posted a article on how to apply Firmware for a Windows Server, the steps are the same just that while Adding Node you type in the IP Address of the Virtual IP of Interconnect Module and chose the right type as below.
If anyone has a question did we ever update Firmware using the HP SPP then the answer is yes only 1 time for like 20 Enclosures and believe me that is not fun at all.. After you hit enter and say re-mediate then you are like watching the browser with no update and no proper information, hopefully in near future this may change but till i writing this article the safe bet would be using VCSU utility..
Option 2: Virtual Connect Support utility
1. Just search the HP site and download the latest Virtual Connect Support utility , the version we used was 1.9 , its just next next and you should be able to install the tool
2. On the desktop you will see shortcut, if not just browse to this location C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard Company\Virtual Connect Support Utility and right click on VCSU-CommandPrompt and say create a short cut on the desktop.
3. Go out to HP site and download the Firmware for interconnect modules, usually a BIN file.
4.Click the VCSU-CMD and then type the following command
vcsu -a healthcheck -i IP Address of OA -u Username of OA -p Password of OA -vcu Username of VirtualConnect Manger -vcp Password of Virtual connect Manager
ex. vcsu -a healthcheck -i 192.168.1.1 -u localadmin -p password -vcu Administrator -vcp password
Before you proceed to update the firmware make sure the health check result is all passed, if not re-mediate it first and then only proceed further.
5. Now type the following command to update the firmware..
vcsu -a healthcheck -i 192.168.1.1 -u localadmin -p password -vcu Administrator -vcp password -l "Bin file you just downloaded"
You will prompted with yes/no option to proceed, just type yes..
Lesson we learnt is that after clicking yes it goes fast with Percentage and around like 20 % for like 15-20 mints it just stops so just be patient and don't close the window.. this is when we have seen that it does the Firmware update on the stand by Module and then fail-overs to Active module and if you have started any continues Pings you will see the packet drops now..
After like 40-45 mints if everything goes well you will see something like this..
Welcome back!, Today i will share with you all the steps we followed to update Firmware for Virtual Connects on either c7000 or c3000 Enclosures.
Before you think of updating Firmware its very much necessary that you take a backup for the Virtual Connect domain
We have 2 ways to accomplish the task
1. Using HP Support pack(HP SPP)
2.Virtual Connect Support Utility - (vcsu-1.9.0)
Assumption is that you are having 2 Virtual Connect Interconnect Modules in bay 1 and bay 2 for redundancy... If not the case then you are looking at lot of downtime because this Firmware updates on each Interconnect Module takes about 20-25 approximately .
So the next question would be how much of downtime is required if we have 2 Interconnect Modules and using VCSU Utility, well i did updates for close to like 20 Enclosures and we always saw like 5-10 Pings packs drops.The beauty with VCSU utility is that it first finishes the standby Interconnect Module and then it fails-over and when doing Active Interconnect Module we have seen the packet drops.
Option 1: Using HP SPP i already posted a article on how to apply Firmware for a Windows Server, the steps are the same just that while Adding Node you type in the IP Address of the Virtual IP of Interconnect Module and chose the right type as below.
Option 2: Virtual Connect Support utility
1. Just search the HP site and download the latest Virtual Connect Support utility , the version we used was 1.9 , its just next next and you should be able to install the tool
2. On the desktop you will see shortcut, if not just browse to this location C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard Company\Virtual Connect Support Utility and right click on VCSU-CommandPrompt and say create a short cut on the desktop.
3. Go out to HP site and download the Firmware for interconnect modules, usually a BIN file.
4.Click the VCSU-CMD and then type the following command
vcsu -a healthcheck -i IP Address of OA -u Username of OA -p Password of OA -vcu Username of VirtualConnect Manger -vcp Password of Virtual connect Manager
ex. vcsu -a healthcheck -i 192.168.1.1 -u localadmin -p password -vcu Administrator -vcp password
Before you proceed to update the firmware make sure the health check result is all passed, if not re-mediate it first and then only proceed further.
5. Now type the following command to update the firmware..
vcsu -a healthcheck -i 192.168.1.1 -u localadmin -p password -vcu Administrator -vcp password -l "Bin file you just downloaded"
You will prompted with yes/no option to proceed, just type yes..
Lesson we learnt is that after clicking yes it goes fast with Percentage and around like 20 % for like 15-20 mints it just stops so just be patient and don't close the window.. this is when we have seen that it does the Firmware update on the stand by Module and then fail-overs to Active module and if you have started any continues Pings you will see the packet drops now..
After like 40-45 mints if everything goes well you will see something like this..
Well updating Firmware on Interconnect modules are not that cumbersome but certainly needs some planning and if there is critical applications which cant even with stand 5-10 ping drops then you need to be very careful.. Also on a Unix Server we lost nic connectivity and had to be rebooted to have it fixed.. i know this is weird so just play safe when taking downtime always unexpected happens so if we do the maths out of 20 Enclosures we did Firmware update of which we had 320 Blades(20*16 blades) 1 such incident, you do the percentage.
Hope this helps someone!!!
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