Update Emulex HBA firmware

[dsseagren]

What is the process you guys are using to update your emulex hba firmware on esxi since the old console is no longer present? The only options I can think of is to try to boot to a "live" CD/DVD or to change my SAN zoning so that a box with HBAnywere on it can see the HBAs in the esxi hosts.

Thanks

[Troy_Clavell]

we put host in maintenance mode, pull the fiber cables, just for precaution, reboot into a hardware vendors maintenance CD and flash the firmware that way.

[dsseagren]

Which vendor are you using? We have Dell servers and I don't think the Emulex firmware are distributed with the Dell DVDs.

[Troy_Clavell]

We use both HP and IBM. You may want to check Dell's website, i'm sure they have firmware updates for your HBA in question.

[RParker]

What is the process you guys are using to update your emulex hba firmware on esxi since the old console is no longer present?

The firmware has more to do with the OS and driver compatibility than to update just because your firmware is out of date. Unless there is a very SPECIFIC problem with the HBA firmware, I wouldn't touch it.

So if you aren't having problems, and your LUNs connect, don't bother updating the firmware. BIOS updates, Controller firmware for RAID, and drives yes.. but HBA firmware, it's not a good idea. ESX is very strict about hardware, and the firmware level.

[dsseagren]

Unfortunately in order to upgrade the code on our EMC DMX and have support we need to update the firmware on the HBAs. The small amount of Emulex documentation that I can find says that HBAnyware can remotely update firmware using the CIM providers but it doesn't say how to set it up.

[RParker]

There are MANY methods to choose from. Did you see the Firmware update manual?

http://www.emulex.com/files/downloads/hardware/fwupdate.pdf

After you decide which utility to use, see the appropriate update procedure:

•

OneCommand Manager Application: See the OneCommand Manager Application User Manual.

•

HBAnyware utility: See the HBAnyware Utility User Manual.

•

elxcfg utility: See the FC Port Driver User Manual.

•

lputil utility: See the lputil Utility for Linux and Solaris User Manual or the HP-UX Driver User

Manual.

•

EFI and UEFI utilities: See the Boot Manual.

•

Offline utilities (doslpcfg, winlpcfg, linlpcfg): See the Offline Utilities Manual.

[dsseagren]

I did read the firmware update manual and it show that onecommand manager and hbanyware are the only supported methods for updating vmware hosts. I have been trying to update using onecommand manager from a Windows host by utilizing the CIM providers but it isn't working. I'm able to complete the add host process to add a vmware host but the host never actually shows up within onecommand. anyone have any luck using onecommand?

[dsseagren]

Just an update in case anyone else runs into this issue. I was able to get the hosts update using the hbacmd command line version of the emulex tool by connecting to the CIM provider built into ESXi. I was unable to get the HBAnyware or OneCommand GUI tools to work.

[mamullen]

What credentials is it looking for when you use the hbacmd utility against the remote host? I tried the root credentials for the ESXi host but that isn't working. I wasn't sure what to put for namespace. Also is there a utility to configure the CIM Provider on the ESXi host, or at least a way to tell whether it is running or not?

[dsseagren]

It is looking for the root credentials. The namespace should be elxhbacmpi/cimv2. You will need to enable the CIM. It can be done by going into vCenter, clicking on the host and going into the configuration tab. From there select Advanced Settings>UserVars. Put "1" in the CIM fields to enable.

[naamancampbell1]

I am trying to setup Emulex OCM for VMware 1.0.0 with CIM enabled within the Configuration > Software > Advanced Settings > UserVars for the ESXi host but no information is retrieved.

Is there a log file to view or another step to take to look into this?

I have not installed the CIM providers for ESXi yet - http://www.emulex.com/downloads/emulex/vmware/vsphere-41/management.html - as the following document (http://www.emulex.com/artifacts/c1c8a3b7-548a-4d36-a3cf-89d7f323bbe0/elx_tb_all_san_management_tips-...) only refers to ESX (classic) and the full-blown Emulex OCM can read the adapters without any issues/without requiring CIM providers to be installed.

(opening a support case with Emulex as well)

Cheers,

Naaman.

[naamancampbell1]

Update from Emulex re: OCM for VMware indicates it may support the default CIM providers installed with a vanilla install of ESXi 4.1 U1.

We are running ESXi 4.1.0..  Emulex support indicated that we would need to install the latest CIM providers from http://www-dl.emulex.com/support/vmware/visor_kits/3230/elx-esx-4.1.0-emulex-cim-provider-3.2.30.1-o... for Emulex OCM for VMware to work with our ESXi 4.1.0 hosts.

I'll provide a further update when I've updated one of our hosts to ESXi 4.1 U1.

(also blogging this on my blog - http://mainframe.clancampbell.id.au/?p=35)