UCS upgrade 3.2(2f) to 4.0(4)

[DeanAllen8605]

Hi.

I'm looking at upgrading a rather large environment from UCS 3.2(2f) to 4.0(4)

I'm just looking for some release notes or documentation about the upgrade process.

It's mostly a VMware environment on B-series, but there's some native (not virtualised) C-series too.

I tried to talk to TAC, but they just told me to come to these forums, so here I am.

All I need is a link to an official upgrade guide to get it through change control.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Dean

[DeanAllen8605]

And I quote, from TAC .... "we are just frontline agent, we have no technical backgrounds and are unable to answer your questions".

What does the T in TAC stand for?

[neilmart]

Hey Dean, 

There must be some confusion with your phone call to TAC Frontline...The agents answering do not have any technical knowledge, but simply get a case open for you and route the case to the correct team...which you would want a case opened with keywords UCS-B Upgrade > configuration assistance. 

I can reach out to you tomorrow in office and see where the breakdown in communication was. 

Best, 

Neil Martin 

Server Virtualization TAC

[neilmart · Accepted solution]

Hey Dean,

Review the 4.0 release notes https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/notes/CiscoUCSManager-RN-4-0.html

Upgrade from 3.2(2) is supported. Make sure your Host Firmware is up to 3.2 before upgrading infrastructure to 4.0.

One of the biggest things you need to verify is Hardware Compatibility between Firmware, Hardware, ESXi version and Drivers. 

https://ucshcltool.cloudapps.cisco.com/public/

You will download and upload infrastructure firmware, auto install infrastructure firmware and then proceed to host firmware. Short clip on auto install:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/ucs-manager/videos/4-0/upgrade_infrastructure_with_auto_install.html

Full guide:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/ucs-manager/GUI-User-Guides/Firmware-Mgmt/4-0/b_UCSM_GUI_Firmware_Management_Guide_4-0.html

Best Regards, 

Neil Martin   .ılı.ılı.

Technical Consultant Engineer

Unified Computing Systems and Server Virtualization

SUSE Certified Administrator  

In Enterprise Linux 12

Vmware Certified Professional  

Data Center Virtualization 2019

[DeanAllen8605]

Thanks a lot Neil. That document was all I was looking for. I just couldn't find it myself.

I'll have a look through it and get back in contact if I have any more questions.

Regards,

Dean

[neilmart]

No problem, Dean! Happy to assist.

Cheers,
Neil

[Leo Laohoo]

CIMC upgrade takes between 60 to 70 minutes outage.  During the upgrade the physical box is powered down.  

So I did an upgrade from 3.0 to 4.0(2g) and here's the breakdown:
HUU gets copied into the CIMC = 24 minutes
<Click "Update All">
CIMC firmware = 13 minutes
LOM & SSD = 5 minutes
BIOS = 4 minutes
BIOS finishes and when "Click Yes" to continue, takes another 1 minute before PING DROPS #1
PING DROPS #1 (CIMC stops responding to ping) is about 4 minutes
CIMC responds to ping for another 3 minutes
PING DROPS #2 is about 4 minutes
After this CIMC starts to respond to ping and begins to "power up" the WLC.

The outage time wasn't included in the Release Notes so it came as a rude surprise for us.

[DeanAllen8605]

@ Leo Laohoo
Thanks for the info. Still in planning stages at the moment. 50+ vCenters. Several hundred physical hosts. Your input is greatly appreciated.