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.
Before you begin
- Read the firmware-update considerations before you attempt to
update firmware on your managed devices (see Firmware-update considerations).
- Initially, devices that are not supported for updates are hidden
from the view. Devices that are not supported cannot be selected for
updates.
By default, all detected components are listed as available
for applying updates; however, down-level firmware might prevent a
component from appearing in inventory or reporting full-version information.
To list all policy-based packages that are available for you to apply
updates, click , and selecting
Enhanced Support for Down-Level Devices. When this option
is selected,
Other Available Software
is listed in the Installed
Version column for undetected devices. For more information, see
Configuring global firmware-update settings.
Note:
The global settings cannot be changed when updates to managed
devices are in progress.
It takes a few minutes to generate the additional options.
After a few moments, you might need to click the Refresh icon () to refresh the table.
- Ensure that no jobs are currently running on the target server.
If jobs are running, the update job is queued until all other jobs
have completed. To see a list of active jobs, click .
- Ensure that the firmware-updates repository contains the firmware
packages that you intend to deploy. If not, refresh the product catalog,
and download the appropriate firmware updates (see Refreshing the product catalog and Downloading firmware updates).
Note: When XClarity Administrator is initially installed, the product catalog and the repository
are empty.
If you intend to install prerequisite firmware,
ensure that the prerequisite firmware is downloaded in the repository
as well.
In some cases, multiple versions might be needed to
update firmware, and all versions would need to be downloaded to the
repository. For example, to upgrade the IBM FC5022 SAN scalable switch
from v7.4.0a to v8.2.0a, you must first install v8.0.1-pha, then v8.1.1,
and then v8.2.0a. All three versions must be in repository to update
the switch to v8.2.0a.
- Typically, devices must be restarted to activate the firmware
update. If you choose to restart the device during the update process
(immediate activation), ensure that any running workloads have
either been stopped or, if you are working in a virtualized environment,
moved to a different server.
About this task
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 apply and activate firmware that is later than the
currently installed firmware.
You can choose to apply all updates for a specific device.
However, you can also choose to expand a device to specify updates
for specific components, such as the baseboard management controller
or UEFI.
- If you choose to install a firmware-update
package that contains updates for multiple components, all components
to which the update package applies are updated.
Procedure
To apply and activate updates on a managed device, complete the following
steps.
- From the XClarity Administrator menu bar, click . The Firmware Updates: Apply/Activate page
is displayed.
- Click the Update without Policy tab.
- Select the firmware level in the Downloaded
later versions column for each device that you want to
update.
- Select one or more devices and devices that you want to
update.
You can sort the table columns to make
it easier to find specific servers. In addition, you can filter the
list of displayed devices by selecting an option in the
Show menu to list only devices in a specific chassis,
rack, or group, by entering text (such as a name or IP address) in
the
Filter field, or by clicking the following
icons to list only devices with a specific status.
Hide components with some later versions icon ()
Hide components with no later versions icon ()
Hide devices not supported for updates icon ()
Hide devices undergoing firmware updates icon ()
Hide devices with nonstageable firmware icon ()
The Groups column indicates
the groups of which each device is a member. You can hover over the Groups column to get a complete list of groups, by group
type
The Installed Version column indicates the installed firmware version, compliance status,
or device status.
The compliance status
can be one of the following:
Compliant
Compliance Error
Not Compliant
No Compliance Policy
Set
Not Monitored
The device status can be one of the
following:
Updates Not Supported
Update in Progress
Note: If the installed firmware version is pending
activation, "(Pending Activation)" is appended to the installed firmware
version or compliance status of each applicable device, for example
"2.20 / A9E12EUS (Pending Activation)."
To see the pending-activation
status, the following firmware version must be installed on the primary
baseboard management controller in the server.
IMM2: TCOO46F, TCOO46E, or later (depending on the platform)
XCC: CDI328M, PSI316N, TEI334I, or later (depending
on the platform)
- Click the Perform Updates icon (). The Update Summary dialog
is displayed.
- Select one of the following update rules
Stop all updates on error. If an error occurs while updating any of the components (such as
an adapter or management controller) in the target device, the firmware-update
process stops for all selected devices in the current firmware-update
job. In this case, none of the updates in the update package for the
device are applied. The current firmware that is installed on all
selected systems remains in effect.
Continue on error. If an error occurs while updating any of the devices in the device,
the firmware-update process does not update the firmware for that
specific device; however, the firmware-update process continues to
update the other devices in the device and continues to update all
other devices in the current firmware-update job.
Continue to next system on error. If an error occurs while updating any of the devices in
the device, the firmware-update process stops all attempts to update
the firmware for that specific device, so the current firmware that
is installed on that device remains in effect. The firmware-update
process continues to update all other devices in the current firmware-update
job.
Note: When enabled, the Wake-on-LAN boot option
can interfere with XClarity Administrator operations that power off the server, including firmware
updates if there is a Wake-on-LAN client in your network that issues Wake on Magic Packet
commands.
- Select one of the following activation rules:
Immediate activation. During the update
process, the device might be restarted automatically several times
until the entire update process is complete. Ensure that you quiesce
all applications on the device before you proceed.
Delayed activation. Some but not all
update operations are performed. Devices must be restarted to continue
the update process. Additional restarts are then performed until the
update operation completes.
An event is raised when
the status changes to Pending Firmware Maintenance Mode to
notify you when the server needs to be restarted.
If a device
restarts for any reason, the delayed update process completes.
This activation rule is supported for only servers and
rack switches. CMMs and Flex switches are immediately activated, regardless
of this setting.
An event is raised when the status
changes to Pending Firmware Maintenance Mode to notify you
when the server needs to be restarted.
The delayed
update process completes when the device is restarted for any reason
(including a manual restart). There is no time limit when the server
must be restarted.
XClarity Administrator can apply updates with delayed activation for up to 50
devices at one time. If you attempt to apply updates with delayed
activation for more than 50 devices, the remaining devices are queued.
A device comes off the queue when a device being updated is placed
in the Pending Firmware Maintenance Mode state.
Important:
If XClarity Administrator is restarted during the update job, the update job will
stop with error.
If a server in the Pending Firmware Maintenance Mode state is restarted while XClarity Administrator is down or unreachable, the server boots to the BMU, but
because XClarity Administrator cannot connect to the BMU and times out after 60 seconds,
the system power status is restored by the baseboard management controller
(powers off if it was off, restarts if it was powered on).
Prioritized activation. Firmware updates on the baseboard
management controller are activated immediately; all other firmware
updates are firmware updates are activated the next time the device
is restarted. Additional restarts are then performed until the update
operation completes. This rule is supported only for servers.
An event is raised when the status changes to Pending
Firmware Maintenance Mode to notify you when the server needs to be
restarted.
Note: When enabled, the Wake-on-LAN boot option
can interfere with XClarity Administrator operations that power off the server, including firmware
updates if there is a Wake-on-LAN client in your network that issues Wake on Magic Packet
commands.
- Optional: Select Force update to update
firmware on the selected components even if the firmware level is
up to date or to apply a firmware update that is earlier than the
one currently installed on the selected components.
Note: You can apply earlier version of firmware to device options,
adapters, and drives that support down-leveling. See your hardware
documentation to determine if down-leveling is supported.
- Optional: Clear Install prerequisite firmware if you do not want to install prerequisite firmware. Prerequisite
firmware is installed by default.
Note: When using Delayed Activation or Prioritized Activation for prerequisite firmware updates,
you might need to restart the server to activate the prerequisite
firmware. After the initial restart, the remaining firmware updates
are installed using Immediate Activation.
- Optional: If you selected Immediate
activation, select Memory Test to
run a memory test after firmware update completes if server is reboot
during update.
This option is supported for ThinkSystem v1 and v2 servers
(excluding ThinkSystem SR635, SR645, SR655, SR665 servers).
- Click Perform Update to update immediately,
or click Schedule to schedule this update to
run at a later time.
If needed, you can perform power actions on the
managed devices. The power actions are useful when
Delayed
Activation is selected and you want the updates to continue
when the device is waiting in the
Pending Maintenance
state.
To perform a power action on a managed device from this page, click , and then click one of the following power actions.
After you finish
When applying a firmware update, if the server fails to enter
maintenance mode, attempt to apply the update again.
If updates
were not completed successfully, see Firmware update and repository issues for troubleshooting and corrective
actions.
From the Firmware Updates: Apply/Activate page, you
can perform the following actions:
Export firmware and compliance information for each managed
device by clicking .
Note: The CSV file contains only filtered information in the current view.
Information that is filtered out of the view and information in hidden
columns are not included.
Cancel an update that is being applied to a device by selecting
the device and clicking the Cancel Update icon
().
Note: You can cancel firmware updates that
are in the queue to start. After the update process starts, the firmware
update is cancelable only when the update process is performing a
task other than applying the update, such as changing to maintenance
mode or restarting the device.
View the status of the firmware update directly from the Apply / Activate page in the Status column.
Monitor the status of the update process from the jobs log.
From the Lenovo XClarity Administrator menu, click .
For more information
about the jobs log, see Monitoring jobs .
When the firmware-update jobs
are complete, you can verify that the devices are compliant by clicking to go back to the Firmware Updates: Apply/Activate page, and then clicking the Refresh icon
(). The current firmware version that is active
on each device is listed in the Installed Version column.