Overview
This article covers the best procedure for updating the ILOM firmware. I found the SUN documentation really sparse on this important topic. I read your PDFs and decided to use ILOM to do this instead of the command line where it was a bit more documented.
The scenario I ran into was that I was experiencing silly problems with the network interface, specifically with the “nge” interfaces. For example, you would configure nge0 with an IP address and everything would be fine until you start transferring a file through it. When transferring a file, it started fine, but stopped midway, and after the crash I could no longer connect to the server over the network, only through ILOM. Opening the console via ILOM and ifconfig it only showed my localhost interface and the nge0 was gone. Same behavior if I also set nge1. At first I thought it was a driver issue, but after trying some of Nvidia’s drivers, both new and old, the same thing happened.
Notes:
- You must apply firmware updates in stages.
- Our server in this example is a Sun Fire X4100 M2 server
- I assume you have physical access to the server to access ILOM. If it is remote and your ILOM is already configured, go to step 4.
- I assume you already know your ILOM password if it is not the default password mentioned below.
- Remember if you mess up something here your server is unlikely to start and you will have to contact a Sun technician, or follow the other guide on my wiki.
- An administrator I know caused the installation of the LSI driver update to freeze during flash and the server would not boot until it was completely powered off and the AC power cords were removed, causing the SP to shut down. When it restarted, the SP found the LSI card again and the flash worked.
Procedure
1. Download your files from Sun.
2. Configure your ILOM with a pluggable address. I choose 192.168.2.2 for my ILOM. Log in to your ILOM and do the following:
cd / sp / network
set pending stop_address = 192.168.2.2
set slope ipnetmask = 255.255.255.0
set slopeipgateway = 192.168.2.1
set discovery pending = static
set pending commit = true
3. Set your laptop’s network card to be 192.168.2.1/24 and run a crossover cable from your laptop’s NIC to the network management interface on the back of the server. Open Firefox and enter “https://192.168.2.2” and it should hit ILOM. root / changeme is the default username / password.
4. The first thing to do is find out what updates we should do. Sun fails a bit here and instead of being able to just grab the latest firmware, apply it, and be on the latest revision, we need to apply each version in order. So for my M2 it ended up being 5 different firmware updates.
When you log in to ILOM, you will be on the Versions page. Here you can see your current installed version. So log in there and make a note of your version number.
Now if you look at the README html file in the software you downloaded in step 1, it will tell you which version it will be updated to. Former:
Ilom.x4100M2-2.0.2.10-r35249.ima: This file contains the Integrated Lights Out Manager
(ILOM) firmware version 2.0.2.10 and the BIOS version 81 needed to upgrade to
software release 2.1. For instructions, see the Sun Fire X4100 M2/X4200 M2
Server Software Release Notes for Software Release 2.1 on your product documentation web site.
Therefore, you should review these README’s now that you know your ILOM version and find the one that is the closest update and start from there. In my case I had to apply version 1.4, 2.0, 2.0.1 and 2.1 software in that order. Once you know where to start, go to step 5.
5. Therefore, the update itself is not too difficult. First we must shut down our guest operating system. Perform init 0 or stop / SYS from ILOM.
6. When the operating system is idle, click the Maintenance tab. You must enter maintenance mode to do this, so click the Enter Maintenance button.
7. Next, browse for the image file that you downloaded. This should be the proper version, remember we found out in the previous steps. Press Upload File and you will be taken to the Firmware Verification page. Confirm that everything looks good here and that it is what you intended. If so, click Start update.
9. You should hit the Update Status page. Sit back and let this do its thing.
10. Upon completion, a complete update window should appear indicating that the SP has been reset.
11. Your firmware and BIOS are updated at this point and you should be able to start the operating system by typing start / SYS from ILOM. However, if you have a couple more versions to apply, repeat from step 6. The first couple I updated I ended up confirming that the OS appeared after each flash, but now I do the updates all at once, then I apply the last one LSI update. It is your decision, the safest thing is obviously to confirm that everything is fine after each update.
12. Once you have the latest version, it is time to update your LSI firmware.
LSI Firmware Update
After updating your SP BIOS and firmware, it is good practice to update your LSI controller firmware to the latest version. You will notice on the download page that each version also comes with a bootable ISO image to update the LSI driver. So unlike SP firmware, you can take the latest version of this software and apply it. Assuming you have completed This process, let’s continue:
Procedure
- 1. Download your files from Sun.
- 2. Burn the .ISO file to a disc. For version 2.1 of the software, the file name is FW12390_B61801.iso. However, always go with the latest and greatest.
- 3. Insert the CD into the CD-ROM and restart your server so that it will boot from the CD.
- 4. Enter 1 when asked what you want to do.
- 5. Wait for it to finish.
- 6. Reboot your server and remove the CD as if it were POST.
- 7. Your server should now be up to date and you can get SUN support without having the typical performance.
Problem solving
The only thing I have noticed is that it is sometimes necessary to dump your browser cache, both cookies and saved files, if the web application becomes unstable. By flaky I mean you end up. errors with a yellow exclamation mark or hangs when checking your firmware or something similar.
In some cases where users use a password longer than 16 characters, they may not be able to log into the web GUI until their password is reset to a password shorter than 16 characters.