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

7

Installing and maintaining firmware

This chapter provides procedures for installing and maintaining firmware. Fabric OS 6.1.0 provides
nondisruptive firmware installation.
This chapter refers to the following specific types of blades inserted into either Director platform:
• Port blades contain only Fibre Channel ports:
• FC4- 1 6
• FC4-32
• FC4-48
• FC10-6
• FC8- 1 6
• FC8-32
• FC8-48
FC blades or port blades contain only Fibre Channel ports.
•
• AP blades (FR4- 1 8i and FC4- 1 6IP) contain extra processors and specialized ports.
• 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 Inter-Chassis Link (ICL) functionality between two DC Directors. They can be
inserted only into slots 5 and 8 on the DC Director.
NOTE: For more information on troubleshooting a firmware download, see the Fabric OS Troubleshooting
and Diagnostics Guide.

Firmware download process overview

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 non-volatile 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 firmware download process, by default, sequentially upgrades the firmware
image on both CPs using High Availability (HA) failover to prevent disruption to traffic flowing through the
Director. This operation depends on HA status on the Director. If the platform 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. See the
directors" on page
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.
190.
"Testing and restoring firmware on
Fabric OS 6.1.1 administrator guide 175