Standalone UCS-C240-M4 ESXI upgrade from 6.5 to 6.7

[alanraczek11]

Hi all-

Looking to upgrade 4 UCS-C240-M4 servers to ESXi 6.7 U3. We have this as firmware and BIOS:

BIOS : C240M4.4.0.1d.0.1005181458
CIMC Firmware Version : 4.0(1e)

I am looking for a matrix that would tell me the firmware, BIOS needed for this version of ESXi (6.7u3). These servers are also running vSAN. Just want to see if I really need to upgrade the firmware and BIOS (working remotely and being there in front of the machines is not an option). From what I gather I would use the HUU to upgrade firmware and BIOS, but logging into CIMC my screen looks like this:

I have seen other screen shots on the Internet but mine looks nothing like what I see out there. I downloaded the HUU as an ISO but frankly don't know what to do with it. Lastly I am not sure how to do the actual OS upgrade to 6.7U3 as these machines are unmanaged by UCS.

Been searching these groups but can't seem to find what I need. Ty.

...Alan

[Kirk J]

Greetings.

If you are planning on doing an offline upgrade of ESXi, the Cisco customized image is at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=OEM-ESXI67U3-CISCO&productId=924

To map the ISO, you will want to launch the KVM button in the upper right of your window.

You will get an option to use HTML or Java based.  If you can get past the myriad of security and 'are you really, really, really sure' prompts, the Java version of the KVM when you are using virtual media, like the HUU, is going to be more stable.

Highly recommend not using remote/VPN connection between your web browser session and the actual CIMC.  You will be much better off if you have some sort of jump server in the same LAN as the CIMC's network that you run the CIMC web browser session from, and that has local copy of the HUU ISO.

Once you enable/activate virtual media, then you will map the .ISO as a virtual DVD.

Depending on your configured boot order, you may need to hit the F6 key at post time, and then choose the Cisco vKVM DVD/CD.

The HUU process takes about 45 min to run.

A general HUU guide is at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/lomug/2-0-x/3_0/b_huu_3_0_1/b_huu_2_0_13_chapter_011.html

The UCS HCL tool matrix tool is at https://ucshcltool.cloudapps.cisco.com/public/#

Make sure you choose  something like the below set of options:

Thanks,

Kirk...

[alanraczek11]

Kirk-

No, you are right. I will be using Remote Desktop to my lab machine and executing it all from there. That is how I did all the Hyperflex upgrades the other day. We have 2 sets of Cisco UCSC-C240-M4 servers, 3 are Hyperflex, 4 are vSAN. I'm now doing the vSAN.

Thank you.

[alanraczek11]

Kirk-

So the offline "bundle" is a zip file? From what I can gather this is what I do-

- download HUU iso

- download VMware custom Cisco vSphere 6.7 u3 zip file

- power off VM's

- perform CIMC updates

- Basically follow steps in this link doing "update" instead of "install"

https://www.vladan.fr/how-to-upgrade-esxi-6-0-to-esxi-6-5-via-offline-bundle/

Sound okay? Also would vSAN get affected by this upgrade? We have 4 hosts and I plan to take one host down at a time, turning off all VM's on the host I am working on. Let me know how this sounds.

[alanraczek11]

Sorry, just thought of this as the HUU guide said I should check the drivers after IMC upgrade, do I need to do this? I would assume the customized image has the drivers.

Thanks.

...Alan

[Kirk J]

The customized image will have updated drivers, but that was just a point in time when the the ISO was compiled.

You will want to check the HCL tool, but for VSAN you definitely want to follow what vmware lists for VSAN specific HCL.

Kirk...

[alanraczek11]

Real sorry to ask, I've been beating my head against the wall searching for VSAN hardware compatibility but having

a hard time. I came to a ReadyNodes page but that isn't helping me. Maybe I am using improper search terms. I don't see

why the servers would not support VSAN, technically our Hyperflex servers are the same machines and I just upgraded those

no problem, although I know that's not VSAN.

...Alan

[IC2317]

Hi Alan,

1) Firstly, Check https://ucshcltool.cloudapps.cisco.com/public/#  to find out the recommended firmware versions based on the hardware and OS version you have.

2) Secondly, before upgrading esxi hosts please check if current VSAN supports upgraded ESXi version. Use https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php for this.

3) For VSAN, I would highly recommend use VMware comparability Matrix for Firmware/Driver Version compatibility also. Use link, https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io.

VMware has very nice article(https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1027206) to identify the currently installed firmware/driver versions. 

4) To Upgrade ESXi, You may use Cisco Customized image for 6.7 to upgrade ESXi. Upload that customized image to VMware Update manager patch repository, create new Upgrade Baseline and then use that baseline to upgrade all hosts in the VSAN cluster.After Upgrade check if the drivers are as mentioned in VMware compatibility matrix, if not then install the recommended versions separately following below steps for each component.

For example,Please use below commands to get currently installed version on NIC because that is one of the important component in VSAN because underlying its storage accessed on network.

# esxcli network nic get -n vmnicx(This is will display you the current installed versions in NIC)

# vmkchdev -l | grep -i vmnicx(You till get output like below)

000:16.0 1000:0030 15ad:1976 vmkernel vmnicx
In this example, the values are VID = 1000, DID = 0030, SVID = 15ad,SDID = 1976.

Now based on this values, use link https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io and put the values of VID,DID etc in this link and click submit.You will get the VMware tested firmware/driver versions there and based on that you can choose the required version. You can use that same approach for other hardware components also, like RAID controller etc.