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Applying and activating firmware updates

Lenovo XClarity Administrator does not automatically apply firmware updates to managed devices. You can choose to apply firmware updates with or without compliance policies.

Before you begin

When using compliance policies, you can schedule updates on multiple devices at the same time. XClarity Administrator updates devices in the correct sequence automatically. The CMM is updated first, followed by switches, servers, and then storage devices.

Only downloaded firmware updates can be applied.

When you perform a firmware update, XClarity Administrator starts one or more jobs to perform the update.

While the firmware update is in progress, the target device is locked. You cannot initiate other management tasks on the target device until the update process is complete.

After a firmware update is applied to a device, one or more restarts might be required to fully activate the firmware update. You can choose whether to restart the device immediately, delay the activation, or prioritize activation. If you choose to restart immediately, XClarity Administrator minimized the number of restarts that are required. If you choose to delay activation, the updates are activated the next time the device is restarted. If you choose prioritized activation, the updates are immediately activated on the baseboard management controller, and all other firmware updates are activated the next time the device is restarted.

You can update selected firmware on a maximum of 50 devices at one time. If you choose to update selected firmware on more than 50 devices, the remaining devices are queued. A queued device is taken off the selected-firmware update queue when either the activation completes on an updated device or an updated device is placed in the Pending Maintenance Mode state (if a restart is required on that device). When a device in the Pending Maintenance Mode state is restarted, the device boots into Maintenance Mode and continues the update process, even if the maximum number of firmware updates is already in progress.

You can update bundled-firmware on a maximum of 10 devices at one time. If you choose to update bundled firmware on more than 10 devices, the remaining devices are queued. A queued device is taken off the bundled-firmware update queue when the activation completes on a device on which a bundled-firmware update was performed.

Attention
For Red Hat® Enterprise Linux (RHEL) v7 and later, restarting the operating system from a graphical mode suspends the server by default. Before you can perform the Restart Normally or Restart Immediately actions from XClarity Administrator, you must manually configure the operating system to change the behavior of the power button to power off. For instructions, see the Red Hat Data Migration and Administration Guide: Changing behavior when pressing the power button in graphical target mode.
Note
The XClarity Administrator automatically enables the LAN-over-USB interface.
  • Applying bundled firmware updates using compliance policies
    After Lenovo XClarity Administrator identifies a managed device as not compliant, you can manually apply firmware updates to all components in selected ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 servers that are not compliant with the assigned firmware-compliance policy using a bundled image that contain the applicable firmware update packages. The bundled image is created during the update process by collecting all firmware-update packages from the compliance policy.
  • Applying selected firmware updates using compliance policies
    After Lenovo XClarity Administrator identifies a device as not compliant, you can manually apply and activate the firmware updates on these managed devices. You can choose to apply and activate all firmware updates that apply to a firmware-compliance policy or only specific firmware updates in a policy. Only downloaded firmware updates are applied.
  • Applying selected firmware updates without using compliance policies
    You can quickly apply and activate firmware that is later than the currently installed firmware on a single managed device or group of devices without using compliance policies.