Friday, January 2, 2009

How to upgrade Sun X4100 server's BIOS/firmware?

WARNING: Upgrading BIOS/Firmware can be disastrous if not done properly.
PLEASE REFER Sun's guidelines and methods while attempting any such thing.
Following are just my logs when I upgraded my system.


All I needed to perform the BIOS upgrade was following:
1) X4100 server which has to be upgraded for BIOS
2) A serial to USB cable (to connect serial console to my laptop)
3) TFTP server software installed on my laptop so that it can be source for BIOS. (The TFTP server can be on network as well but in my case, net management port were not configured for separate network/ connected to network therefore I had to use this work around).
4) In my configuration, I connected my laptop's n/w port to a separate switch and at the same time, connected the net management port also to this switch so that my laptop and the net management port should be on same network.
5) Then I connected serial console port to my laptop using serial to USB cable.
6) Opened hyperterminal or putty to connect to server's serial port and then following.


SUNSPXXXXXFXXXXXX login: root
Password: XXXXXX

Sun(TM) Integrated Lights Out Manager

Version 1.0

-> cd /SP/network
/SP/network

-> version
SP firmware version: 1.0
SP firmware build number: 6464
SP firmware date: Tue Sep 13 12:50:37 PDT 2005
SP filesystem version: 0.1.13

-> show

/SP/network
Targets:

Properties:
commitpending = (Cannot show property)
ipaddress = 52.0.0.0
ipdiscovery = DHCP
ipgateway = 208.15.240.61
ipnetmask = 25.127.254.29
macaddress = 00:14:4F:26:C0:3A
pendingipaddress = 59.0.0.0
pendingipdiscovery = DHCP
pendingipgateway = 208.15.240.61
pendingipnetmask = 30.127.254.29

Commands:
cd
set
show

-> set pendingipaddress=10.10.10.29
Set 'pendingipaddress' to '10.10.10.29'

-> set pendingipgateway=10.10.10.1
Set 'pendingipgateway' to '10.10.10.1'

-> set pendingipnetmask=255.255.255.0
Set 'pendingipnetmask' to '255.255.255.0'

-> set commitpending=true
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.1
Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:4f:26:c0:3a
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:14:4f:26:c0:3a
Sending on Socket/fallback
SIOCSIFNETMASK: Invalid argument
Failed to bring up eth0.
10 10 10 29
/sbin/ifdown: interface eth0 not configured
route: SIOC[ADD|DEL]RT: Invalid argument
Failed to bring up eth0.
10 10 10 1
/sbin/ifdown: interface eth0 not configured
255 255 255 0
Set 'commitpending' to 'true'

-> load -source tftp://10.10.10.10/ilom.X4100-2.0.2.5-r37165.ima

NOTE: A firmware upgrade will cause the server and ILOM to
be reset. It is recommended that a clean shutdown of
the server be done prior to the upgrade procedure.
An upgrade takes about 20 minutes to complete. ILOM
will enter a special mode to load new firmware. No
other tasks can be performed in ILOM until the
firmware upgrade is complete and ILOM is reset.

Are you sure you want to load the specified file (y/n)? y
Preparing device for firmware upgrade... INIT: Switching to runlevel: 7
Uploading file...File upload is complete.
Verifying firmware image...Firmware image verification is complete.
Do you want to preserve the configuration (y/n)? y
Updating firmware in flash RAM:
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
At this stage (once ALOM is uploaded/upgraded, SP automatically resets and reboots the OS as well


SUNSPXXXXXFXXXXXX login: root
Password:

Sun(TM) Integrated Lights Out Manager

Version 2.0.2.5

-> version
SP firmware 2.0.2.5
SP firmware build number: 37165
SP firmware date: Fri Sep 19 23:35:10 EDT 2008
SP filesystem version: 0.1.14

-> exit

2 comments:

Ares Sandi said...

thank's for information.
really important for me..
:D

Anonymous said...

Hey this is Ram, Thanks for the useful post, could you tell me how to run upgrade without preserving current settings. Thanks