Managing Firmware Upgrades

This chapter discusses the following topics:

About Upgrading Firmware on Rack Servers

In Cisco UCS Director, you can create firmware upgrade profiles and then use these profiles to upgrade the firmware on rack servers. You can create the following types of firmware upgrade profiles:

Adding Images to a Local Cisco UCS Director System

Procedure
    Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
    Step 2   Choose the Images - Local tab.
    Step 3   Click Add.
    Step 4   In the Add Firmware Image - Local dialog box, complete the following fields:

    Field

    Description

    Profile Name field

    Enter a descriptive and unique profile name.

    The profile name must be unique across both Local and Network image profiles.

    User Name (cisco.com) field

    Enter your Cisco login user name.

    Password (cisco.com) field

    Enter your Cisco login password.

    Enable Proxy Configuration check box

    (Optional) Check this check box to enable proxy configuration and complete the following:

    • Host Name field - Enter a host name for the proxy configuration.

    • Port field - Enter the port for the proxy configuration.

    Enable Proxy Authentication check box

    (Optional) Check this check box to enable proxy authentication and complete the following:

    • Proxy User Name field - Enter a proxy user name for the proxy authentication.

    • Proxy Password field - Enter the password for the proxy user name.

    Platform drop-down list

    Choose a platform from the drop-down list.

    This list displays only those platforms that have at least one server being managed.

    Available Image drop-down list

    Choose the .iso image from the drop-down list.

    Download Now check box

    Check this check box to download the .iso image immediately after adding a profile.

    Accept License Agreement check box

    Check this check box to accept the license agreement.

    Click on the Terms and Conditions link to read the End User License Agreement.

    Note   

    You must accept the license agreement to create a firmware profile, irrespective of the time you choose to download the image.

    Step 5   Click Submit.
    Step 6   In the Submit Result dialog box, click OK.
    Note   

    • You can click View Location Details to view profile configuration details, click Modify to modify the firmware image details, and click Delete Profile to delete the image profile. You can select multiple profiles concurrently and delete them.

    • For downloading the E-Series firmware images, you must associate a contract access to the cisco.com account.

    Uploading Images from a Local File System

    Perform this procedure to upload iso images from your local file system to the system.

    Procedure
      Step 1   From the menu bar, choose Systems > Firmware Management.
      Step 2   Click Images - Local tab and click Upload to add an image.
      Step 3   In the Upload Firmware Image - Local dialog box, complete the following:

      Field

      Description

      Profile Name field

      Enter a descriptive and unique profile name.

      Platform drop-down list

      Select the C-Series or E-Series platform.

      File Name field

      Choose Browse to search and select a file to upload on your local file system.

      Step 4   Click Upload.
      Step 5   Click OK in the File Upload confirmation box, once the upload is complete.
      Step 6   Click Submit.
      Note   

      • You can view profile configuration details, modify the firmware image details, and delete the image profile. You can also select multiple profiles concurrently and delete them.

      • The Delete Profile option removes the image associated with the profile. If you uploaded a wrong image or if a file is no longer associated with a profile, a purge system task which runs periodically (once a month) will delete the files from the system.

      Adding Images from a Network Server

      Procedure
        Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
        Step 2   Choose the Images - Network tab.
        Step 3   Click Add.
        Step 4   In the Add Firmware Image - Network dialog box, complete the following:

        Field

        Description

        Profile Name field

        A descriptive and unique name for the profile.

        The profile name must be unique across both Local and Network image profiles.

        Platform drop-down list

        Choose a platform from the drop-down list.

        Server Type drop-down list

        Choose either Network File System (NFS) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) server types.

        Remote IP field

        Enter remote IP address.

        Remote Share field

        Enter remote share path.

        Remote File Name field

        Enter a remote filename.

        Note   

        The remote filename is the Unified Computing System (UCS) Server Configuration Utility ISO file.

        User Name field

        Enter a network path user name.

        Password field

        Enter a network path password.

        Step 5   Click Submit.
        Step 6   In the Submit Result dialog box, click OK.
        Note   

        You can click View Location Details to view profile configuration details, click Modify to modify the firmware image details, and click Delete Profile to delete the image profile. You can also select multiple profiles concurrently and delete them.

        Upgrading the Firmware Image

        Perform this procedure when you want to upgrade firmware on a rack server.

        Procedure
          Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
          Step 2   Choose the Firmware Upgrades tab.
          Step 3   Click Run Upgrade.

          A warning message that running upgrade on the selected servers will cause the host to reboot into the firmware update tool and on completing the firmware update, the servers will reboot back to the host OS is displayed.

          Step 4   Click OK to confirm.
          Step 5   In the Upgrade Firmware dialog box, complete the following:

          Field

          Description

          Select Profile drop-down list

          Choose a profile from the drop-down list.

          Server(s) button

          Click Select and choose the servers from the list. The list displays only those servers whose platform matches the one configured in the selected profile.

          Schedule later check box

          Check this check box and select an existing schedule to run an upgrade.

          You can also click on + icon to create a new schedule. For more information on creating schedules, see Creating Schedules. You can go to Policies > Manage Schedules, select a schedule and click View Scheduled Tasks to verify the scheduled task and its progress. You can also select a scheduled task and click Remove Scheduled Tasks to remove the associated scheduled task.

          Step 6   In the Upgrade Firmware dialog box, click Submit.
          Step 7   In the confirmation dialog box, click OK.

          Deleting the Firmware Image

          Perform this procedure when you want to delete only the firmware image and not the profile using which the firmware image was downloaded.

          Procedure
            Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
            Step 2   Choose the Images - Local tab.
            Step 3   Select a profile from the table.
            Step 4   Click Delete Image.
            Step 5   In the Delete Image(s) dialog box, click Delete.

            The firmware image is deleted from the system. You can download this firmware image from later on by using the Download Image option.

            Deleting a Profile Created for Firmware Upgrade

            Perform this procedure when you want to delete a profile created for firmware upgrade.

            Procedure
              Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
              Step 2   Choose the Images - Local tab or the Images - Network tab.
              Step 3   Select a profile from the table.
              Step 4   Click Delete Profile.
              Step 5   In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

              Clearing Firmware Upgrade Status Messages

              Perform this procedure to clear all firmware-related status messages recorded in the Cisco UCS Director system.

              Procedure
                Step 1   On the menu bar, choose Administration > Physical Accounts.
                Step 2   Click the Firmware Upgrades tab.
                Step 3   Click Delete Upgrade Status.
                Step 4   Click Submit.
                Step 5   Click OK.