Installing And Maintaining Firmware; About The Firmware Download Process - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

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Installing and maintaining firmware

This chapter provides procedures for installing and maintaining firmware. Fabric OS 6.0 provides
nondisruptive firmware installation.
This chapter refers to the following specific types of blades inserted into either the 4/256 SAN Director or
DC SAN Backbone Director (short name, DC Director):
• FC blades or port blades contain only Fibre Channel ports: FC4- 1 6/32/48, FC10-6, and
FC8- 1 6/32/48. FC8-32 & FC8-48 aren't supported in 4/256 until 6.1.0.
NOTE: The FC8-32 and FC8-48 Director blades aren't supported in the SAN Director 4/256 until the
release of Fabric OS 6.1.x.
• AP blades contain extra processors and specialized ports: FR4- 1 8i and FC4- 1 6IP
NOTE: The FC4- 1 6IP Director blade is not supported in the DC Director until a future Fabric OS release.
• CP blades have a control processor (CP) used to control the entire switch; they can be inserted only into
slots 5 and 6 on the 4/256 SAN Director, and slots 6 and 7 on the DC Director.
• CR8 core blades provide ICL functionality between two DC Directors. they can be inserted only into
slots 5 and 8 on the DC Director.

About the firmware download process

You can download Fabric OS to a Director, which is a chassis; and to a non-chassis-based system, also
referred to as a switch. The difference in the download process is that directors have two CPs and
non-chassis based systems have one CP. Use the firmwareDownload command to download the
firmware from either an FTP or SSH server by using either the FTP or SCP protocol to the switch. Or on the
DC Director you can use the USB device that shipped with your unit.
The new firmware consists of multiple files in the form of RPM packages listed in a .plist file. The .plist file
contains specific firmware information (time stamp, platform code, version, and so forth) and the names of
packages of the firmware to be downloaded. These packages are made available periodically to add
features or to remedy defects. Contact HP to obtain information about available firmware versions.
All systems maintain two partitions of nonvolatile storage areas, a primary and a secondary, to store two
firmware images. The firmwareDownload command always loads the new image into the secondary
partition. It then swaps the secondary partition to be the primary and reboots the system. After the system
boots up, the new firmware is activated. firmwareDownload then copies the new image from the
primary partition to the secondary partition.
In a dual-CP systems, the firmwareDownload command by default, sequentially upgrades the firmware
image on both CPs using High Availability (HA) failover to prevent disruption to traffic flowing through the
switch. This operation depends on HA status in the switch. If the switch does not support HA, you can still
upgrade the CPs one at a time, using the firmwareDownload –s option. This option allows you to
enable or disable autoreboot, and autocommit modes, on both Director and switch. On directors, this
mode enables you to upgrade a single CP. Refer to the
page 180.
If you are using a 4/256 SAN Director or DC Director with one or more AP blades: The
Fabric OS automatically detects mismatches between the active CP firmware and the blade's firmware. The
auto-leveling process will automatically update the blade firmware to match the active CP. At the end of the
auto-leveling process, the active CP and the blade will run the same version of the firmware.
If the firmware download process is interrupted by an unexpected reboot, the system will automatically
repair and recover the secondary partition. You must wait for the recovery to complete before issuing
another firmwareDownload command.
"Testing and restoring firmware on directors" on
Fabric OS 6.x administrator guide 165