HP blade firmware upgrade process HPUX

Step by step procedure to upgrade HP blade firmware running HPUX operating system. Use this process with caution and on your own risk since mistakes may leads to unstable system.

This post will cover step by step procedure to upgrade HP blade firmware running HPUX OS.This post will cover step by step procedure to upgrade HP blade firmware running HPUX OS.

Warning : Halting upgrade process in between can send your hardware in un-usable state. This activity needs experts/vendor support to be carried out. Proceed with caution and on your own risk.

Step 1:

Login to MP and get current firmware version using sysrev command from command menu. Download new firmware from HP website (for example BL860c firmware here). You should be having valid contract with vendor. This should be tar file which you can un-tar on HPUX server. Download and transfer file to HPUX server. Extract content of tar file. There should be list of files like listed below.

hpoa330.bin
PF_CTAHISYS0425EFI.tar
bl860c_1_92_install_manual.txt
fweupdate_1p92.efi
update_SFW.nsh

Step 2:

Get your boot disk path (primary bootpath) using setboot command.

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# /usr/sbin/setboot -v

Primary bootpath : 2/0/0/3/0.0x6.0x0 (/dev/rdisk/disk40)

HA Alternate bootpath :

Alternate bootpath : 2/0/0/2/0.0x6.0x0 (/dev/rdisk/disk16)

Autoboot is ON (enabled)

Hyperthreading : OFF

: OFF (next boot)

----- output truncated -----

Step 3:

Now you need to copy firmware files in EFI partition of this primary boot disk. EFI partition is slice/partition 1 of the disk. Follow below commands to create directory first and then copy files within it.

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# /usr/sbin/efi_mkdir -d /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s1 /efi/hp/firmware

# /usr/sbin/efi_cp -d /dev/rdisk/disk1_p1 update_SFW.nsh /efi/hp/firmware/update_SFW.nsh

# /usr/sbin/efi_cp -d /dev/rdisk/disk1_p1 fweupdate_1p92.efi /efi/hp/firmware/fweupdate_1p92.efi

List the content of directory to check if they are copied properly or not.

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# /usr/sbin/efi_ls -d /dev/rdisk/disk1_p1 /efi/hp/firmware

Step 4:

Once you are done with copying firmware in EFI partition, reboot the system. Halt at EFI shell. At EFI shell, enter into primary boot disk. You should see prompt like fs0. Now navigate to directory we created in above steps and then run .nsh file to start upgrade process.

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fs0:

cd EFI/HP/FIRMWARE

dir

fs0:\EFI\hp\firmware> dir

Directory of: fs0:\EFI\hp\firmware

05/20/11 02:03a <DIR> 4,096 .

05/20/11 02:03a <DIR> 4,096 ..

05/22/11 08:58p 10,168,320 fweupdate_1p92.efi

05/22/11 08:58p 26 update_SFW.nsh

2 File(s) 10,168,346 bytes

2 Dir(s)

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fs0:\EFI\hp\firmware> update_SFW.nsh

update_SFW.nsh> fweupdate_1p92.efi -mnuF

*************************************************************************

****                                                                 ****

****                            FWEUPDATE                            ****

****            EFI Firmware Update Utility for IPF Systems          ****

****         (c) Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company, 2001-2006        ****

****                      All rights reserved.                       ****

****                                                                 ****

****                              v1.00                              ****

****                                                                 ****

*************************************************************************

Executing Command line options: -mnuF......................................... 

----- output truncated -----

Once you see above upgrade process started on console do not disturb system in any way. Halting this process in between may make your system unstable.

Step 5:

After upgrade process completes, MP will be reset and you will loose connection to MP. Start a new session and connect to MP. Goto command menu and verify updated firmware version using sysrev command under command menu!