From the Lenovo XClarity Administrator web interface, you can download, install, and manage firmware updates for managed devices, including chassis, servers, storage systems, and switches. You can assign firmware-compliance policies to the managed devices to ensure that firmware on those devices remains compliant. You can also create and edit firmware-compliance policies when validated firmware levels do not match the suggested predefined policies.
Before you begin
Updating firmware and updating device drivers are separate processes in XClarity Administrator; there is no connection between these processes. XClarity Administrator does not maintain compliance between firmware and devices drivers on managed devices, even though it is recommended that you update device drivers at the same time as the firmware.
About this task
Procedure
The following figure illustrates the workflow for updating firmware on managed devices.
The firmware-updates repository contains a catalog of available updates and the update packages that can be applied to the managed devices.
The catalog contains information about firmware updates that are currently available for all devices that XClarity Administrator supports. The catalog organizes the firmware updates by device type. When you refresh the catalog, XClarity Administrator retrieves information about the latest available firmware updates from the Lenovo website (including the metadata .xml or .json and readme .txt files) and stores the information in the firmware-updates repository. The payload file (.exe) is not downloaded. For more information about refreshing the catalog, see Refreshing the product catalog.
If new firmware updates are available, you must first download the update packages before you can update that firmware on the managed devices. Refreshing the catalog does not automatically download update packages. The Product Catalog table on the Firmware Updates Repository page identifies which update packages are downloaded and which are available for download.
Firmware-update repository packs
Firmware-update repository packs are collections of the latest firmware that is available at the same time as the XClarity Administrator release for most supported devices and a refreshed default firmware-compliance policy. These repository packs are imported and then applied from the Update Management Server page. When you apply a firmware-update repository pack, each update package in the pack is added to the firmware-updates repository, and a default firmware-compliance policy is automatically created for all manageable devices. You can copy this predefined policy, but you cannot change it.
lnvgy_sw_lxca_cmmswitchrepox-x.x.x_anyos_noarch. Contains firmware updates for all CMMs and Flex System switches.
lnvgy_sw_lxca_storagerackswitchrepox-x.x.x_anyos_noarch. Contains firmware updates for all RackSwitch switches and Lenovo Storage devices.
lnvgy_sw_lxca_systemxrepox-x.x.x_anyos_noarch. Contains firmware updates for all Converged HX Series, Flex System, NeXtScale, and System x servers.
lnvgy_sw_thinksystemrepox-x.x.x_anyos_noarch. Contains firmware updates for all ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem servers.
lnvgy_sw_lxca_thinksystemv2repox-x.x.x_anyos_noarch. Contains firmware updates for all ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem V2 servers.
lnvgy_sw_lxca_thinksystemv3repox-x.x.x_anyos_noarch. Contains firmware updates for all ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem V3 servers.
UpdateXpress System Packs (UXSPs)
Individual firmware updates
You can download individual firmware-update packages, at one time. When you download firmware-update packages, XClarity Administrator downloads the update, based on the version that is listed in the catalog, and stores the update packages in the firmware-updates repository. You can then create firmware-compliance policies using those update packages for each of your managed devices.
lnvgy_sw_lxca_thinksystemrepo*_anyos_noarch.tgz
lnvgy_sw_lxca_thinksystemrepo*_anyos_noarch.xml
lnvgy_sw_lxca_thinksystemrepo*_anyos_noarch.chg
lnvgy_sw_lxca_thinksystemrepo*_anyos_noarch.txt
For more information about the firmware updates, see Managing the firmware-updates repository.
Firmware-compliance policies ensure that the firmware on certain managed devices is at the current or specific level by flagging the devices that need attention. Each firmware-compliance policy identifies which devices are monitored and which firmware level must be installed to keep the devices in compliance. You can set compliance at the device or firmware component level. XClarity Administrator then uses these policies to check the status of managed devices and to identify devices that are out of compliance.
XClarity Administrator comes with a predefined firmware-compliance policy named Latest firmware in repository. When new firmware is downloaded or imported into the repository, this policy is updated to include latest available versions of firmware in the repository.
For example, you can create a firmware-compliance policy that defines the baseline level for firmware that is installed in all ThinkSystem SR850 devices and then assign that firmware-compliance policy to all managed ThinkSystem SR850 devices. When the firmware-updates repository is refreshed and a new firmware update is added, those compute nodes might become out of compliance. When that happens, XClarity Administrator updates the Firmware Updates: Apply / Activate page to show that the devices are not compliant and generates an alert.
For more information about the firmware-compliance policies, see Creating and assigning firmware-compliance policies.
XClarity Administrator does not automatically apply firmware updates to managed devices. To update firmware, you must manually apply and active the update on selected devices. You can apply the firmware in one of the following ways.
Apply bundled firmware updates using compliance policies
You can apply firmware updates to all components in the selected devices according to the assigned firmware-compliance policy using a bundle image that contain the applicable firmware update packages.
The bundled-update process first updates the baseboard management controller and UEFI out of band. When these updates are complete, the process creates a bundled image of remaining firmware in the compliance policy based on the machine type. Then, the process mounts the image to the selected device and restarts the device to boot the image. The image automatically runs to perform the remaining updates.
Applying bundled firmware updates is supported only for ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 servers.
Applying bundled firmware updates is supported only for IPv4 address. IPv6 addresses are not supported.
Ensure that each target device was booted to the OS at least once to retrieve the full inventory information.
Baseboard management controller firmware v2.94 or later is required to use the bundled-update function.
Only firmware updates from repository packs or individual firmware updates are used. UpdateXpress System Packs (UXSPs) are not supported.
Compliance check is supported only for the baseboard management controller and UEFI in ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 servers; however, XClarity Administrator attempts to apply firmware updates to all available hardware components.
Updates are applied according to the assigned firmware-compliance policy. You cannot choose to update a subset of components.
XClarity Administrator v3.2 or later is required to apply firmware updates for Lenovo XClarity Provisioning Manager (LXPM), LXPM windows drivers, or LXPM Linux drivers to ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 servers.
The baseboard management controller and UEFI updates are skipped if the currently installed version is higher than the assigned compliance policy.
Firmware-compliance policies must be created and assigned to the devices on which you intend to apply firmware updates. For more information, see Creating and assigning firmware-compliance policies.
The selected devices are powered off before starting the update process. Ensure that any running workloads have either been stopped or, if you are working in a virtualized environment, moved to a different server.
Apply selected firmware updates with or without compliance policies
You can apply firmware updates on selected components and devices according to the assigned firmware-compliance policy using applicable firmware-update packages. You can also choose to apply firmware updates that are later than the currently installed firmware on selected components and devices without using compliance policies.
You can choose to apply updates for all components in a specific device. You can also choose to update only a subset of components in the selected devices, such as the baseboard management controller or UEFI.
To activate the firmware updates, the devices must be restarted. (Note that restarting a device is disruptive.) You can choose to restart the devices as part of the update process (called immediate activation), or wait until a maintenance window is available to restart the devices (called delayed activation). In this case, you must manually restart the device for the update to take effect.
When applying updates using compliance policies, a firmware-compliance policy must be created and assigned to each target devices. For more information, see Creating and assigning firmware-compliance policies.
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.
Updates to CMMs and Flex switches are always activated immediately, even if you select delayed activation.
Chassis CMM
RackSwitch and Flex System switches
Flex compute nodes, and rack and tower servers
Lenovo Storage devices
Other Available Softwareis listed in the Installed Version column for undetected devices. For more information, see Configuring global firmware-update settings.
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.
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.
For more information about installing updates, see Applying and activating firmware updates.