Cisco UCS B420 M3 Server Upgrade Guide for Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs

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Updated:May 29, 2014

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Table of Contents

Cisco UCS B 420 M3 S erver U pgrade Guide for Intel E5-4600 v 2 S eries CPUs

Cisco UCS Blade Server

Minimum Software and Firmware Requirements

Cisco UCS B 420 M 3 R equirements

Upgrading the Server to Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs

Upgrade Scenario 1: UCSM and BIOS Earlier Than Version 2.2(2c), CPU Earlier Than Intel E5-4600 v2

Upgrade Scenario 2: UCSM and BIOS at Version 2.2(2c) or Later, CPU Earlier Than Intel E5-4600 v2

Upgrade Scenario 3: UCSM at Version 2.2(2c) or Later, CPU is Intel E5-4600 v2, BIOS on Spare Earlier Than Version 2.2(2c)

Downgrading the Cisco Server From Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs

Sample Board Controller Activation Command Sequence

Cisco UCS B420 M3 Server Upgrade Guide for Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs

Caution You must follow the procedures in this guide when upgrading a Cisco UCS B420 M3 server to use Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs. Failure to follow these procedures might result in a non-bootable server.

This document describes the process for successfully upgrading a Cisco UCS B420 M3 server to use Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs. Downgrade scenarios are also covered.

The procedures in this guide support the following servers:

  • Cisco UCS B420 M3 blade server

Cisco UCS Blade Server

This section contains the following topics:

Minimum Software and Firmware Requirements

Cisco UCS B420 M3 Requirements

The minimum software and firmware versions required for the Cisco UCS B420 M3 server to support Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs are as follows:

 

Cisco UCS B420 M3 Minimum Software and Firmware Requirements
Software or Firmware
Minimum Version

Cisco UCS Manager

2.2(2c)

Server CIMC

2.2(2c)

Server BIOS

2.2(2c)

Upgrade Scenario 1: UCSM and BIOS Earlier Than Version 2.2(2c), CPU Earlier Than Intel E5-4600 v2

This scenario assumes the following conditions:

  • The Cisco UCS Manager software is at a version earlier than 2.2(2c).
  • The server is at a BIOS/CIMC version earlier than 2.2(2c).
  • The server is using CPUs earlier than Intel E5-4600 v2 Series.

In this case, use the following procedure to upgrade the server and CPUs.

Step 1 Upgrade the Cisco UCS Manager software to version 2.2(2c) or later. The required server CIMC and BIOS are also included with the 2.2(2c) download bundle.

Use the procedures in the appropriate upgrade guide for Release 2.1 (depending on your current software version): UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides .

Step 2 Use Cisco UCS Manager 2.2(2c) to upgrade and activate the server CIMC to version 2.2(2c) or later.

Use the GUI or CLI procedures in the UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides.

Step 3 Use Cisco UCS Manager 2.2(2c) to upgrade and activate the server BIOS to version 2.2(2c) or later.

Use the GUI or CLI procedures in the UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides.

Step 4 Disassociate the server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Step 5 Power off the server.

Step 6 Replace the CPUs with the Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs.

Use the procedures in the Blade Server Installation and Service Note for your server.

Step 7 Reinsert the server to the chassis.

Step 8 Wait for Cisco UCS Manager to automatically discover the server.

Note At this point, the Health LED of the server shows a critical fault and Cisco UCS Manager reports a generic error message: WILL_BOOT_FAULT: Sensor failure asserted. This is because a board controller activation is required, as described in the next step.

 

Step 9 Clear the WILL_BOOT_FAULT by using the Cisco UCS Manager GUI to reset the server CIMC:

a. In the Navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

b. On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis number > Servers, then choose your server.

c. In the Work pane, click the General tab.

d. In the Actions area, click Recover Server.

e. In the Recover Server dialog, click Reset CIMC (Server Controller), then click OK.

Wait for CIMC to reboot and for Cisco UCS Manager to do a shallow discovery of the server. This takes two to three minutes. At the end of this process the WILL_BOOT_FAULT is cleared.

 

Upgrade Scenario 2: UCSM and BIOS at Version 2.2(2c) or Later, CPU Earlier Than Intel E5-4600 v2

This scenario assumes the following conditions:

  • The Cisco UCS Manager software is at version 2.2(2c) or later.
  • The server is already using BIOS/CIMC version 2.2(2c) or later.
  • The server is using CPUs earlier than Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs.

In this case, the server already has the software and firmware prerequisites. Use the following procedure to upgrade the CPUs:

Step 1 Disassociate the server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Step 2 Power off the server.

Step 3 Replace the CPUs with the Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs.

Use the procedures in the Blade Server Installation and Service Note for your server.

Step 4 Reinsert the server to the chassis.

Step 5 Wait for Cisco UCS Manager to automatically discover the server.

 

Upgrade Scenario 3: UCSM at Version 2.2(2c) or Later, CPU is Intel E5-4600 v2, BIOS on Spare Earlier Than Version 2.2(2c)

This scenario is unique to a field-service situation in which a server that is already running Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs must be replaced, but the only replacement server available is running a BIOS earlier than 2.2(2c).

This scenario assumes the following conditions:

  • The Cisco UCS Manager software is at version 2.2(2c) or later.
  • The replacement server is using Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs (after the CPUs are transferred from the old server).
  • The replacement server is using BIOS/CIMC version earlier than 2.2(2c).

Use the following procedure to upgrade the replacement server BIOS to the required version:

Step 1 Disassociate the server in Cisco UCS Manager.2.2(2c)

Step 2 Power off the server.

Step 3 Transfer the CPUs from the old server to the new replacement server.

Use the procedures in the Blade Server Installation and Service Note for your server.

Step 4 Insert the server into the chassis that is running Cisco UCS Manager 2.2(2c) or later.

Note The server does not boot and discovery of the server hangs waiting for BIOS POST to complete because the BIOS is at an earlier version that does not support E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs.

Step 5 Use the Cisco UCS Manager CLI to upgrade the BIOS. Use the following sequence of commands:

Note The show image command in the sequence below lists the firmware versions available for the server. Always activate the latest firmware image version when you use the
update firmware command.

# scope server <chassis/blade>
chassis/server # scope bios
chassis/server/bios # show image
chassis/server/bios # update firmware <server_model>.<firmware version>
chassis/server/bios* # commit-buffer
 

Step 6 Wait for the update to complete. Check the status of the update and wait until the following command returns Status: Ready . It takes a few minutes for the Status to return Ready.

chassis/server/bios # show update status
Status: Ready
 

Step 7 Activate the new BIOS:

chassis/server/bios # activate firmware <server_model>.<firmware version>
Warning: When committed this command will reset the end-point
chassis/server/bios* # commit-buffer
chassis/server/bios # exit
 

Step 8 Power-cycle the server to get discovery out of the hang state:

chassis/server # cycle cycle-immediate
chassis/server* # commit-buffer
 

Cisco UCS Manager is now able to complete auto-discovery of the server.

Step 9 Use Cisco UCS Manager 2.2(2c) to upgrade and activate the server CIMC to version 2.2(2c) or later.

Use the GUI or CLI procedures in the UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides.

Step 10 Wait for the server to be discovered and by Cisco UCS Manager.

Step 11 Perform a board controller activation by using the Cisco UCS Manager CLI interface. Use the following sequence of commands:

Note The server automatically reboots after the commit-buffer command is executed.

Note The show image command in the sequence below lists the board controller versions available for the server. Always activate the latest board controller image version when you use the
activate firmware command.

# scope server <chassis/server>
# scope boardcontroller
# show image
# activate firmware <boardcontroller version>.0 force
# commit-buffer
 

See also Sample Board Controller Activation Command Sequence.

Step 12 Do not continue with the next step until the board controller activation completes. Verify whether the activation is complete by using the show version command.

As shown in the example below, wait until the Activate-Status returns Ready. This process takes a few minutes before Activate-status is successfully completed and returns Ready.

# show version
BoardController:
Running-Vers: 8.0
Package-Vers:
Activate-Status: Ready
 

Step 13 Clear the WILL_BOOT_FAULT by using the Cisco UCS Manager GUI to reset the server CIMC:

a. In the Navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

b. On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis number > Servers, then choose your server.

c. In the Work pane, click the General tab.

d. In the Actions area, click Recover Server.

e. In the Recover Server dialog, click Reset CIMC (Server Controller), then click OK.

Wait for CIMC to reboot and for Cisco UCS Manager to do a shallow discovery of the server. This takes two to three minutes. At the end of this process the WILL_BOOT_FAULT is cleared.

 

Downgrading the Cisco Server From Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs

Note This downgrade procedure requires server downtime.

This scenario assumes the following conditions:

  • The Cisco UCS Manager software is at version 2.2(2c) or later.
  • The server is using BIOS/CIMC version 2.2(2c) or later.
  • The server is using the Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs.

Use the following procedure to downgrade to earlier supported CPUs.

Step 1 Disassociate the server in Cisco UCS Manager.

Step 2 Power off the server.

Step 3 Replace the Intel E5-4600 v2 Series CPUs with the earlier supported CPUs.

Use the procedures in the Blade Server Installation and Service Note for your server.

Step 4 Reinsert the server to the chassis.

Step 5 Wait for Cisco UCS Manager to automatically discover the server.

Note At this point, the Health LED of the server shows a critical fault and Cisco UCS Manager reports a generic error message: WILL_BOOT_FAULT: Sensor failure asserted. This is because a board controller activation is required, as described in the next step.

 

Step 6 Clear the WILL_BOOT_FAULT by using the Cisco UCS Manager GUI to reset the server CIMC:

a. In the Navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

b. On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Chassis > Chassis number > Servers, then choose your server.

c. In the Work pane, click the General tab.

d. In the Actions area, click Recover Server.

e. In the Recover Server dialog, click Reset CIMC (Server Controller), then click OK.

Wait for CIMC to reboot and for Cisco UCS Manager to do a shallow discovery of the server. This takes two to three minutes. At the end of this process the WILL_BOOT_FAULT is cleared.

Note The Cisco UCS Manager 2.2(2c) bundle, including the server CIMC and BIOS, is backward-compatible with earlier supported CPUs, so the following firmware downgrade steps are optional.

Step 7 Optional: Downgrade your server CIMC.

Use the GUI or CLI procedures in the UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides.

Step 8 Optional: Downgrade your server BIOS.

Use the GUI or CLI procedures in the UCS Manager Install and Upgrade Guides.

 

Sample Board Controller Activation Command Sequence

The following is an example of the commands with sample values.

Box-A# scope server 1/4
Box-A /chassis/server # scope boardcontroller
Box-A /chassis/server/boardcontroller # show image
Name Type Version
--------------------------------------------- -------------------- -------
ucs-b420-m3-brdprog.3.0.gbin Board Controller 3.0
ucs-b420-m3-brdprog.8.0.gbin Board Controller 8.0
 
 
Box-A /chassis/server/boardcontroller # activate firmware 8.0 force
Warning: When committed this command will reset the end-point
Box-A /chassis/server/boardcontroller* # commit-buffer
 

Note The server automatically reboots after the commit-buffer command is executed.

 
Box-A /chassis/server/boardcontroller # show version
BoardController:
Running-Vers: 8.0
Package-Vers:
Activate-Status: Activating
 
Box-A /chassis/server/boardcontroller # show version
BoardController:
Running-Vers: 8.0
Package-Vers:
Activate-Status: Ready

Note When the show version command returns Activate-Status: Activating, the process is working, but incomplete. When the command returns Activate-Status: Ready, the process is complete. The process takes a few minutes.

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