Downloading and Managing Firmware in Cisco UCS Central

This chapter includes the following sections:

Downloading Firmware from Cisco.com

You can configure Cisco UCS Central to communicate with the Cisco website at specified intervals to fetch the firmware image list. After configuring Cisco credentials for image download, when you refresh, Cisco UCS Central fetches the available image data from Cisco.com and displays the firmware image in the firmware image library. You can download the actual firmware images when creating a policy using the firmware image version or when downloading the image using the Store Locally option.

Important:

Make sure that you create a Cisco.com account to download firmware from Cisco.com to Cisco UCS Central.


Note

If you change users in the Cisco.com account, this causes a full synchronization of the Image Library. Download operations are unavailable while it is synchronizing. This can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the library.

Firmware Library of Images

Image Library in Cisco UCS Central displays a list of all firmware images downloaded into Cisco UCS Central from Cisco.com, local file system and remote file system.

The source for images downloaded from Cisco.com is Cisco and for images downloaded from local or remote file system is local. These firmware images are available for creating firmware policies.

The following are the options to delete firmware images from the library:

  • Deleting the firmware image — You can delete any downloaded image in the firmware library using the delete option.

  • Purging the firmware image metadata — You can delete the image metadata using the purge option. Even after you delete the firmware image from the library, the metadata will still exist. You can use the metadata information to download the actual firmware image anytime from Cisco.com even after deleting the image. If you want to completely remove the firmware image and associated metadata from the firmware image library, make sure to delete the actual firmware image and purge the metadata from the library.

    Important:

    If you have already downloaded the image corresponding to the metadata into the firmware image library, you cannot purge the metadata without deleting the image.

Configuring Firmware Download from Cisco

When you configure firmware download from Cisco, Cisco UCS Central downloads the firmware metadata from Cisco.com and keeps the information available for you to download and save anytime from Cisco UCS Central.

Procedure
    Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
    Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
    Step 3   Click Configure Downloads From Cisco.
    Step 4   In the Work pane, General tab, fill in the fields with the required information. Make sure to have the username and password for the Cisco.com account that Cisco UCS Central uses to log in.
    Step 5   In the Proxy tab, fill in the required information for the proxy account.
    Step 6   Click Save.

    Downloading a Firmware Image from Cisco

    When you configure firmware image download from Cisco.com and refresh the library of images, Cisco UCS Central is able to access to all available firmware image metadata. You can download the firmware image in the following ways:

    • Creating a firmware policy — When you create a firmware policy and select the specific image, Cisco UCS Central automatically downloads the image specified in the firmware policy.

    • Storing the image locally — When you select the store locally option, the selected firmware image is downloaded from Cisco.com and stored in the image library.

    This procedure describes the process to download the image using store locally option.

    Procedure
      Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
      Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
      Step 3   Click Library.
      Step 4   In the Work pane, click Packages tab.

      The image metadata downloaded from Cisco will have the Source as Cisco and State as not-downloaded.

      Step 5   Right click on the bundle and from the options, choose Store Locally.

      Downloading Firmware from a Remote Location

      Before You Begin

      You must have the remote server configured to support the file transfer protocol that you choose and they must be accessible to Cisco UCS Central.

      Procedure
        Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
        Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
        Step 3   Click Library.
        Step 4   In the Work pane, click Downloads tab.
        Step 5   In the Downloads tab, click Download Firmware.
        Step 6   In the Download Firmware dialog box, Location of the Image File, choose Remote File System and fill in the required fields.
        Step 7   Click OK.

        Downloading Firmware from a Local File System

        Before You Begin

        You must have obtained and saved the firmware image from Cisco in your local file system to configure downloading the firmware from local system into Cisco UCS Central.

        Procedure
          Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
          Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
          Step 3   Click Library.
          Step 4   In the Work pane, click Downloads tab.
          Step 5   In the Downloads tab, click Download Firmware.
          Step 6   In the Download Firmware dialog box, Location of the Image File, choose Local File System.
          Step 7   Click Download Image into Image Library.

          A dialog box opens with an option to select the file.

          Step 8   Click Browse to browse to the firmware file location in your local system and select the file.
          Step 9   Click Submit.

          If the image download is successful, Firmware Image Download dialog box opens with a confirmation message.

          Step 10   In the Firmware Image Download dialog box, click OK.

          Viewing Image Download Faults

          You can view the faults in firmware image download process from the same Library of Images panel.

          Procedure
            Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
            Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
            Step 3   Click Library.
            Step 4   In the Work pane, click Faults tab.

            The faults table displays all download faults with details.

            Viewing Firmware Images in the Library

            You can view the downloaded firmware images and image metadata in the Library of Images panel.

            Procedure
              Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
              Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
              Step 3   Click Library.
              Step 4   The Work pane click the Packages tab.

              The available packages are displayed. You can select a package and click Properties to view details on specific packages.

              Deleting Image Metadata from the Library of Images

              You can delete the firmware image metadata from the Library of Images using the purge option. The purge option clears only the metadata of already downloaded images.


              Note

              If you want to delete any of the firmware packages such as the capability catalog, infrastructure and host firmware packages, you can do so from the firmware management section under each domain groups or from the domain group root.

              Procedure
                Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
                Step 2   In the Navigation pane, expand Images.
                Step 3   Click Library.
                Step 4   In the Work pane, choose the firmware image metadata you want to delete from Library of Images and click Purge.
                Step 5   If Cisco UCS Central GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.