HP P2000 HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 SAS MSA Controller Firmware Release Notes (5 - Page 7

Installation notes and best practices • As with any firmware upgrade, it is a recommended best practice to ensure that you have a full backup prior to the upgrade. • When planning for a firmware upgrade, schedule an appropriate time to perform an online upgrade. • For single domain systems, I/O must be halted. • For dual domain systems, because the online firmware upgrade is performed while host I/Os are being processed, I/O load can impact the upgrade process. Select a period of low I/O activity to ensure the upgrade completes as quickly as possible and avoid disruptions to hosts and applications due to timeouts. • When planning for a firmware upgrade, allow sufficient time for the update. • In single-controller systems, it takes approximately 10 minutes for the firmware to load and for the automatic controller restart to complete. • In dual-controller systems, the second controller usually takes an additional 20 minutes to update, but may take as long as one hour. • Before installing new firmware, set the Partner Firmware Update option. In a dual-controller system, if the Partner Firmware Update option is enabled (recommended), after the installation process completes and restarts the first controller, the system automatically installs the firmware and restarts the second controller. If Partner Firmware Update is disabled, after updating software on one controller you must manually update the second controller. • During the installation process, monitor the system to determine update status and know when the update is complete. • After the installation process is complete and all controllers have automatically restarted, verify system status in the SMU or CLI and confirm that the new firmware version is displayed as running on all controllers. • Updating array controller firmware may result in new event messages that are not described in earlier versions of documentation. For comprehensive event message documentation, see the most current version of the HP StorageWorks 2000 G3 Modular Smart Array Reference Guide. • The Smart Component update process logs messages to \CPQSYSTEM\Log\cpqsetup.log on the system drive in Windows and /var/cpq/Component.log in Linux. • The Smart Component update process manages the FTP & Partner Firmware Update (PFU) enable/disable settings. • When reverting to a previous version of firmware, note the following: • Ensure that both Ethernet connections are available and accessible before downgrading the firmware. • When using a Smart Component firmware package, the Smart Component process will automatically first disable Partner Firmware Update (PFU) and then perform downgrade on each of the controllers separately (one after the other) through the Ethernet ports. • When using a Binary firmware package, first disable the Partner Firmware Update (PFU) option and then downgrade the firmware on each of the controller separately (one after the other). HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 SAS MSA Controller Firmware Release Notes 7