C210 M2 firmware upgrade problems

[Gordon Ross]

I've got a couple of C210 M2s which I'm trying to update the firwmare with.

I downloaded the latest firmware (ucs-c200-huu-1.4.3p.iso) from CCO. I logged into the management card and went Admin->Firmware Management. I select "Install CIMC Firmware through Browser Client", pointed it at the .ISO and waited. And waited. And waited.

If I'm lucky, it eventually times out. If I'm unlucky, the management card hangs, and the only way to recover is to remove the power cables from the server.

Am I being stupid, or just unlucy ?

GTG

[Robert Burns]

Gordon,

You're not being unlucky - you just have a case of "not-reading-the-manualsies"

HUU = Host Upgrade Utility.  It's a bootable ISO that will upgrade all the endpoints including CIMC, adaptors and BIOS.

The method you're trying to use via the CIMC GUI is for upgrading only the CIMC or BIOS images. For this method you would not use the HUU image, but rather the CIMC ISO (separate download) only.

Regards,

Robert

[Gordon Ross]

But there's no other firmware download options on CCO, just the ISO. So one naively assumes that the CIMC can read ISOs.

GTG

[Robert Burns]

Gordon,

I stand corrected.  Seems we've stopped putting the zipped CIMC/BIOS FW on CCO as of 1.3.  I'm going to ask our Product Management team about this.

For now you'll need to boot HUU and upgrade the components in this manner.

Regards,

Robert

[Gordon Ross]

*Sigh*

GTG

[Robert Burns]

Is rebooting the server an issue for you? (to boot the HUU image) ?  The only downside to using HUU is its requires a reboot to update the CIMC FW.  With the old method you could do this out of band without impacting the server operation.  Updating the server BIOS still required a reboot of the server with either method.

If so, private message me and I'll see if I can provide the CIMC FW image to use with the CIMC GUI as a once-off until I have the CIMC/BIOS FW images restored on CCO like they were previously.

Regards,

Robert

[Gordon Ross]

Taking a walk to the server isn't a deal breaker at the minute. I bought these C210s as test/eval boxes. (My Cisco account manager wants me to switch from HP ProLiants to Cisco UCS)

I'll let you guess out what my thoughts are on the subject...

GTG

[Robert Burns]

Gordon,

You can still perform the upgrade remotely - there's no need to "walk to the server".  The HUU image is mounted using Virtual Media - located on the KVM window.  Just mount the HUU image from your KVM, power up the server and it should boot into the HUU utility (if not, force it to boot to virtual CD using F6 during boot)

Cisco C-Series provide full KVM including virtual media mounting by default, no license required which isn't the case with HP iLO.

Regards,

Robert

[Robert Burns]

Ok, I found an answer.

The CIMC & BIOS images are bundled with the HUU image.  You will need to browse the HUU ISO and launch the index.html file.

There you should see a screen with a link to extract the two images individually.  This extracted CIMC image can be used with the CIMC GUI to update the FW.

Regards,

Robert

[asafayan]

Hi Robert,

Are we not able to download the standalone CICM firmware and perform a CIMC upgrade without service impact?

TIA,

Amir

[Robert Burns]

No, as per my previous post, you have to download HUU, and extract the standalone CIMC update from there and peform the update from a running CIMC GUI.  This update could be done without any impact to your guest OS.

Regards,

Robert