Unable to upload two firmware images to UCSM

[mathew.goddard]

I'm prepping for a UCSM upgrade from 3.2(3g) to 4.2(1f) but I'm having trouble uploading the firmware packages to the system. FYI, the domain uses 6200 series Fabric Interconnects.

I downloaded the relevant 'A', 'B' and 'C' packages from Software Central. Using 'Firmware Management -> Download tasks' ** I tried to upload the 'B' package but it failed with the error "Cannot execute image unpack (Invalid image)". Next I tried the 'A' package and that one was successful. Then I tried the 'C' package and that one produced the same error as with the 'A' package.

It can't be a disk space issue, since the 'A' package is larger than the 'B' package and it uploaded just fine.

Am I doing something obviously wrong here? Do I perhaps need perform the infrastructure update to 4.2(1f) first before it will let me uploaded the 'B' and 'C' packages?

For reference, the image filenames are:

• ucs-k9-bundle-infra.4.2.1f.A.bin
• ucs-k9-bundle-b-series.4.2.1f.B.bin
• ucs-k9-bundle-c-series.4.2.1f.C.bin

** I'm not sure why Cisco calls this a 'download' task!

[Kirk J]

You may have an issue with the bootflash partition.

I don't believe the reboot e2fsck option shows up until 4.04k-ish version, so you will need to open a TAC case.

Resolving /bootflash partition issues will usually require rebooting with console connection, breaking into the bootloader, and invoking the dplug file previous uploaded by TAC.

If you don't have access to TAC (i.e. no contract), you may want to see if a reboot of the FI resolves.

Kirk...

[mathew.goddard]

Thanks for the reply!

Do you happen to know whether or not the 'B' and 'C' packages are required to be in place before a system upgrade? My working theory was that I'd be able to upgrade UCS itself with the 'A' package and then I'll be at 4.2(1f) and better able to resolve potential bootflash issues.

(Side note: we don't even have any blades in this system currently; just C-series rackmounts.)

[Steven Tardy]

No. Only 'A' is needed to upgrade UCS infra.

The 'A' bundle is "infra" which consists of UCSM (gui/cli) and Fabric Interconnect Nexus firmware and blade chassis IO Module firmware.

The 'B' and 'C' bundles are only server 'B'lade and server 'C'hassis (rack-mount) firmware.

[alirafaleiro]

- Supports Cisco UCS B-Series Blade and C-Series Rack Servers, the S3260 storage server, Cisco UCS Mini, and the Cisco HyperFlex hyper-converged infrastructure

- Programmatically controls server, network, and storage resources, with a unified, policy-driven management, so they can be efficiently managed at scale through software

Read More: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/index.html

[Gerald Gans · Accepted solution]

Hello,

make the Infra update first and then you can upload the firmware for the blades and go on with that. Did work for me for updating from 4.1 to 4.2.1f.

Cheers

[wleistra]

Its a bug, workaround is the same as several described here.

https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvw20761

[fred.vandonk]

The issue is that the 4.x infra package is over 1Gb and when you try to upload them through "local" it fails.
Instead setup a simple FTP server and use the "remote" option to copy the infra files to the FI's. 
I just completed that on my 6248's from 3.2.x to 4.x with  no issues.