Evaluating Your Configuration; Selecting An Appropriate Time To Perform An Online Upgrade - HP 6100 Software Manual

5. For each switch, compare the indicated firmware (FW) version to the switch firmware supported
by XCS 6.220.
This information is listed on the Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) website
/www.hp.com/storage/spock). You must sign up for an HP Passport to enable access. Once
access is enabled, select Compatibility Tool in the left menu and then select Fibre Channel Switch.
You can refine your search by switch brand. If the switch firmware is not at the indicated version
or later, upgrade the firmware. For more information about how to use SPOCK, see the Getting
Started Guide (http://h20272.www2.hp.com/Pages/spock_overview/introduction.html).
6. For each HBA, compare the indicated driver and firmware versions to the versions supported by
XCS 6.220.
This information is listed on the Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) website
/www.hp.com/storage/spock). You must sign up for an HP Passport to enable access. Once
access is enabled, select Compatibility Tool in the left menu and then select Host Bus Adapters.
You can refine your search by the HBA brand. If the firmware is not at the indicated version or
later, upgrade the firmware.
NOTE:
After completing required upgrades, HP recommends that you create a new SAN Visibility report to
verify that all upgrades were successful.

Evaluating your configuration

The following factors can affect the success of an online upgrade. Consider these factors when
determining if an online upgrade is appropriate for your environment.
• Queuing host I/O—After the upgrade, the array performs a resynchronization. During the resyn-
chronization, host I/O is queued to the host, which can create a backlog of requests for processing
when the array is able to respond. The resynchronization may take less than a minute, but the
backlog of requests may take time to clear and some host I/O may experience timeouts. The HP
recommended driver timeout values are 60 seconds. When an I/O timeout occurs, multipath
drivers will typically retry the I/O request on the same path or an alternate path. There are oper-
ating system and HBA dependencies on these algorithms. The retry algorithms may extend the
total amount of time that a host I/O will be allowed to complete successfully beyond the 60 second
timeout values. Note that some applications may be more sensitive to I/O delays.
• Processing host I/O during the upgrade—The upgrade competes with host requests that have a
higher priority, which can affect the upgrade outcome. To ensure that host I/O from business
critical applications or operations is minimized during the upgrade, select a time when a host I/O
disruption would minimize the impact to the business operations.
• Communicating with HP Command View EVA—The first steps of the upgrade have a lower priority
than host I/O. The upgrade can extend beyond the timeout values expected by HP Command
View EVA, which may cause loss of management connectivity to the EVA. A HP Command View
EVA discover operation may be required to re-establish communication with the EVA.

Selecting an appropriate time to perform an online upgrade

To ensure the success of an online upgrade, selecting the appropriate time is essential. The two factors
that most affect this selection are:
24 Pre-upgrade tasks
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