Using a higher level firmware package than the current UCSM version?

[Walt Dowdle]

It's probably been asked before, but I could not find an answer.

Can I upload and use a blade firmware package that is higher than the UCSM version?  I.E., my UCSM is at version 2.2(3d), but I want to install a blade firmware package of 2.2(5b).

Is this supported without first upgrading UCSM and fabric interconnects?

[Wes Austin · Accepted solution]

Hey Walt,

It is not supported to have your blades at a higher level firmware than your infrastructure, so you will want to upgrade the UCSM/FI/IOM before you upgrade the blades. Here is some helpful documentation:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/firmware-mgmt/gui/2-2/b_GUI_Firmware_Management_22/b_GUI_Firmware_Management_22_chapter_010.html

You can use this to cross reference your HW and SW to make sure they are compatible with on another:

http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/ucs/interoperability/matrix/matrix.html

Let us know if you have further questions.

HTH,

Wes

[Walt Dowdle]

Thanks for the quick reply Wes.  That's what I figured but thought I'd check.

[Qiese Dides]

Hi Walt,

It is not supported to have your blades higher then your infrastructure level. However, it is possible to upload the blade firmware version and upload your blades before the infrastructure. This is due in rare circumstances (to avoid certain bugs), however it is not recommended to actually run your blades on a firmware higher then the infrastructure.

Regards,

Qiese Dides

[Walt Dowdle]

Thanks, I'll definitely look to upgrade the infra components first then.

[Qiese Dides]

Also Walt,

If you want a great guide on how to do a manual upgrade I can email you one or attach it.

Regards,

Qiese Dides

[Keny Perez]

Walt,

Just to add a little bit more of information to my colleague's answers.. this is not supported unless you are running 2.2.4 or higher were we added a new feature called Server Pack where your servers can be at a higher level than the rest of the infrastructure

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/notes/ucs_2_2_rn.html#pgfId-282711

Release 2.2(4b) adds support for the following:

• Server Pack—This feature allows you to support new server platforms ^* on existing infrastructure without requiring a complete firmware upgrade. In this model, new B/C server bundles enabling the new servers will be supported on the previous infrastructure A bundle. For example, Release 2.2(5) B/C server bundles are supported with Release 2.2(4) infrastructure A bundle as highlighted in Table 2 . New features introduced in the B/C bundles may only become available after upgrading the A bundle to the respective version.

The Server Pack feature provides the additional flexibility of adding new server platforms to active UCS domains without incurring the operational overhead of upgrading firmware across the whole domain.

^* The feature will apply to select server platforms.

Maybe you can take advantage of that in the future :)

HTH,

-Kenny

[Walt Dowdle]

Thanks Kenny, that is very good to know, and yes I bet I can take advantage of that somewhere down the line ;)

[Keny Perez]

cool, if answered, can you mark the thread as such for future users to see you got the info you needed :)

-Kenny