Summary Of Firmware Downloads On Director Models; Summary Of The Firmware Download Process For Directors - HP AA979A - StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8V Administrator's Manual

Summary of firmware downloads on Director models

You can download firmware to SAN Director 2/128 and 4/256 SAN Director without disrupting the
overall fabric if the two CP blades are installed and fully synchronized. Use the haShow command to
confirm synchronization. If only one CP blade is powered on, the switch must reboot to activate firmware,
which is disruptive to the overall fabric.
During the upgrade process, the Director fails over to its standby CP blade and the IP addresses for the two
logical switches move to that CP blade's Ethernet port. This might cause informational ARP address
reassignment messages to appear on other switches in the fabric. This is normal behavior, because the
association between the IP addresses and MAC addresses has changed.
CAUTION: To successfully download firmware you must have an active Ethernet connection on each of
the CPs.
If your fabric is set to the extended edge PID format and you want to downgrade to an older Fabric OS
version that does not support extended edge, you must change the PID to a supported format. Refer to
Appendix A for more information about PID formats.
Use the haShow command to verify that the CPs are synchronized prior to running a firmware download.
If the CPs are not in sync run the haSyncStart command. If the problem persists, review
"Troubleshooting firmware
the issue, contact HP.

Summary of the firmware download process for Directors

The following summary describes the default behavior of the firmwareDownload command (without
options) on SAN Director 2/128 and 4/256 SAN Director.
After you enter the firmwareDownload command on the active CP blade:
• The standby CP blade downloads firmware.
• The standby CP blade reboots and comes up with the new Fabric OS.
• The active CP blade synchronizes its state with the standby CP blade.
• The active CP blade forces a failover and reboots to become the standby CP blade.
• The new standby CP blade (the active CP blade before the failover) downloads firmware.
• The new standby CP blade reboots and comes up with the new Fabric OS.
• The new active CP blade synchronizes its state with the new standby CP blade.
• The firmwareCommit command runs automatically on both CP blades.
NOTE: After you start the process, do not enter any disruptive commands (such as reboot) that will
interrupt the process. The entire firmware download and commit process takes approximately 15 minutes. If
there is a problem, wait for the time-out (30 minutes for network problems). Disrupting the process can
render the switch inoperable and require you to seek assistance from HP.
Do not disconnect the switch from power during the process, because the switch could become inoperable
upon reboot.
download" on page 165. If the troubleshooting information fails to help resolve
Fabric OS 5.2.x administrator guide 155