IBM DS3500 - Upgrading the DS3500 Controller Firmware

Chapter 14. Administration - Support 361
Draft Document for Review March 28, 2011 12:24 pm 7914support2-0209.fm
Also check the HBA firmware to make sure it is at the latest supported level. You can also find
this information at the IBM Support Web site listed at the beginning of 14.5, “Download
firmware” on page 357.
14.5.3 Upgrading the DS3500 controller firmware
In this section we describe how you can upgrade the firmware of the controllers in the storage
subsystem by using the DS Storage Manager software.
Staged upgrades and activation
The process of upgrading the firmware is a two-stage process:
1. The firmware file is transferred from the management host to the DS3500 storage system.
2. The DS3500 is upgraded with the new firmware file. The process of upgrading the
firmware after downloading the firmware file is known as activation. During activation, the
existing firmware file in the memory of the controller is replaced with the new firmware file.
After transferring the firmware file, you can choose to automatically activate the controllers in
the storage subsystem to the new firmware immediately. Optionally, you can transfer the
firmware file to the controller and activate the firmware later at a more convenient time. This is
known as a staged upgrade.
Pre-upgrade checks
The storage management software checks for existing conditions in the storage subsystem
that will prevent a successful firmware upgrade before upgrading the firmware. If it detects
one of these conditions then the firmware upgrade tool reports the status of the DS3500
storage system as non-upgradeable (see for example Figure 14-37 on page 364). Any of the
conditions that are listed below can prevent the firmware upgrade:
򐂰 An unsupported controller type or controllers of different types that are in the storage
subsystem that cannot be upgraded
򐂰 One or more failed drives
򐂰 One or more hot spare drives that are in use
򐂰 One or more arrays that are incomplete
򐂰 Operations, such as defragmenting an array, downloading of drive firmware, and others,
that are in progress
򐂰 Missing logical drives that are in the storage subsystem
򐂰 Controllers that have a status other than Optimal
򐂰 The storage partitioning database is corrupt
򐂰 A data validation error occurred in the storage subsystem
򐂰 The storage subsystem has a Needs Attention status
򐂰 The storage subsystem is unresponsive, and the storage management software cannot
communicate with the storage subsystem
򐂰 The Event Log entries are not cleared
Note: Updating the host server software might require a system reboot. You may need to
plan downtime.