UCS C220-M3S CIMC Firmware Upgrade Problems

[Jason.Green4918]

I am working on a project to upgrade the CIMC firmware on all our older C220-M3S servers. The current version of firmware on the servers is either 1.5 (4d) or 1.5 (4e). At the time I began the project the most up to date version of firmware is 2.0.8d.

To upgrade the firmware I am logging into the CIMC page and performing the "Install CIMC Firmware through Browser Client". Once I begin the update process, I end up getting "Error 2001: Service not available". After I get that error, the CIMC page is unavailable. I can ping the static IP address of the CIMC adapter, but I can not connect to it in any way (through web, ssh, IPMI, etc). 

I have tried my upgrade three different ways on different servers, all with the same results:

- direct upgrade from 1.5 (4e) to version 2.0.8d

- upgrade from 1.5 (4e) to version 1.5.7f which is last version of the 1.5 series.

- upgrade from 1.5 (4e) to 1.5 (4g) which is the very next version.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a lot of servers to upgrade and so far I am 0% successful.

Thanks!

Jason

[Kirk J]

The preferred method to upgrade the firmware on these is via the HUU, which is a bootable ISO file that can be mounted via the CIMC KVM.  It normally takes care of the CIMC, BIOS, adapters, raid controller, and HD firmware.  You want to have matching firmware, and not just an update for the CIMC alone.

Please see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/lomug/2-0-x/b_huu_2_0_3.html for general HUU process.

Prior to 2.03i, HUU, there was the potential for a CIMC memory leak, so you may want to reboot the CIMC prior to kicking off the update process,as I've seen the mem leak issue cause a number of upgrade failures.

If you do run into a mem leak condition (ping only, no web or SSH), you will have to power off server and remove power cables for 30 seconds or so to reset/reboot the CIMC.

If you have a lot of stand alone rack servers to manage that can reach a common point on the network, you might want to consider the IMC supervisor, that allows for remote firmware management of the rack servers (M3 and above)

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/integrated-management-controller-imc-supervisor/tsd-products-support-series-home.html

Thanks,

Kirk...

[Jason.Green4918]

Thank you Kirk!

Your info is about what I was expecting. The memory leak issue does sound like what I am dealing with on my end. The problem I have now is my client won't allow me to take the servers offline for another couple months. Obviously the server is fine and the OS can be reached via RDP, but remote management via CIMC is not possible. I'll have to press the issue.

And thank you for the info on the IMC Supervisor software. I'll have to see if we have one out there in the environment now that I can work from. 

Jason