Best practices for managing firmware
Best practice | Description |
|---|---|
Set the NIC Settings in HPE BladeSystem Onboard Administrator. | Before beginning a firmware update process on devices in the enclosure, ensure that the Onboard Administrator NIC is set to auto-negotiate by performing the recommended steps. |
Upload the latest current Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP). | Download the latest SPP and then upload the SPP to your appliance repository. Apply your favorite filter to download an environment-specific SPP. |
Apply the same firmware baseline for all devices in an enclosure. | Although HPE OneView provides ways to update individual parts of the logical enclosure, this method is only meant to control the update order. The goal of the update process is to update all devices in the logical enclosure to the same baseline. |
If you choose to create custom SPPs, use SPP Custom Download to create them. | Log in to the web portal of SPP Custom Download to create a custom SPP using environment-specific filters. Apply a server model or operating system filter to create a smaller sized SPP. TIP: Save the filter for convenience. |
Update logical interconnect, and then servers. | Although Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends that you set the firmware baseline for all devices in a logical enclosure that will cause all firmware to be installed in the proper order, you can update firmware on specific components. If you choose to update component firmware independently, upgrade the firmware in the following order: logical interconnect, and then the server profile. Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends that you install the drivers from the same SPP that contains the firmware. |
Update firmware and drivers together using Smart Update Tools (SUT) when the server is powered on and running an OS. | To keep the firmware and drivers at the same baseline, update firmware and drivers together through the server profile using SUT. This update requires that the compute module is powered on and running an OS. Firmware and drivers can be updated through the server profile when using Smart Update Tools. For more information, see the Integrated Smart Update Tools User Guide for Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi and Smart Update Tools for VMware ESXi User Guide. Set SUT mode to AutoStage or AutoDeploy. Reboot in the maintenance window. |
Verify the managed device setting before updating the firmware. | Do not update the firmware using SUM or another external tool on a managed device unless the firmware baseline is set to Manage manually. |
Store SPPs in a separate location from the appliance. | HPE OneView does not back up the firmware repository, so store copies of the SPPs in a repository that is not on the appliance. |
Remove earlier SPPs from the firmware repository. | Have at least one SPP available at all times because an SPP is required when adding resources to the appliance that have versions older than the minimum firmware versions for monitoring or managing. If you want to delete an older SPP, reassign all resources using that SPP to a different SPP before removing the SPP. |