Overview of Cisco Host Upgrade Utility

This chapter contains the following topics:

About the Cisco Host Upgrade Utility

The Cisco Host Upgrade Utility (hereafter referred to as HUU) is a tool that you can use to upgrade the firmware on a Cisco UCS C-Series server. HUU includes an option that enables you to download a container for a selected platform on a Windows operating system. You can download the container from the HUU ISO by burning the ISO on a physical media. When you insert the physical media into the server, auto-run launches an Index.html page in your browser. This index.html page provides access to the location from where you can download the container. You also can download the container from the ISO using the standard ISO extraction utilities.

HUU provides a user interface where you can choose the firmware components that need an upgrade. In the previous releases (1.4(x)), HUU provided a text menu from which you could choose the components and initiate the upgrade. From version 1.5(x) onwards, HUU provides a graphical user interface to perform an upgrade.

You can upgrade the firmware on the following components using HUU:

  • Cisco Integrated Management Controller (Cisco IMC)

  • System BIOS

  • Chassis Management Controller (CMC)

  • SAS Expander

  • Intel I350 mLOM

  • RAID controller for UCS C3X60 Storage Servers

  • Cisco Adapter UCS VIC 1227

  • Hard Disk Drives

    • ST4000NM0023

    • MG03SCA400


Note

  • This is the list of all the components supported by various servers. While upgrading firmware for a particular server, HUU discovers and displays only the components supported by that server.

For updated information on the components supported by various servers, see the Release Notes for Cisco UCS C-Series Software, Release 2.0(x).

For information about upgrading the firmware on C-Series servers using non-interactive HUU, see the Cisco UCS Rack-Mount Servers Cisco IMC XML API Programmer Guide.

License Agreement

After the HUU boots, the first interface that appears is the End User License Agreement. Choose I Agree to agree to this license.

Understanding the HUU User Interface

This section provides a brief introduction to the UI elements in the various sections of the HUU user interface.

Figure 1. HUU User Interface

UI element Description

1. Inventory section

Id

Displays the serial number of the rows of the components.

Component

Displays the list of components of a server.

PCI Slot

Display the PCI slot information for the PCI adapter components.

Current Version

Displays the current version of the firmware for each of the listed components.

Update Version

Displays the version of the firmware that is available for upgrade.

Update Status

Displays the status of the update for each element in the list while an update is in progress.

2. Controls section

Update

This button is used to initiate the firmware update for the selected components.

Update All

This button is used to initiate the firmware update of all the available components for a server.

Update HDD Firmware

This button is used to initiate firmware update on specific hard drives that support new firmware.

Save Logs

This button is used to save the log files that contain a detailed status of the update to an external USB device connected to the server physically or through the KVM vMedia. When an error occurs during an update, you are prompted to save the logs. The Save Logs feature is useful for troubleshooting.

Last Update Verify

This button is used to compare the previously updated firmware version for each component that was updated using the HUU with the current version of the firmware on the components.

Restore CIMC Defaults

This button is used to restore the CIMC settings to factory defaults.

3. Current Activity

section

This section indicates the status of an update.

4. Execution Logs

section 		This section provides a detailed log of the various activities and their status while an update is in progress.