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4652
October 12th, 2017 06:00
Dell Pro Support & Firmware Updates
Hi,
I logged a case with Dell Pro support regarding a time of day battery error on our PS4100.
I sent the diag logs and they said try a firmware update before they look at a hardware fix.
The impression is that I have to do the firmware update, something I have never done before and cautious about doing without Dell being on hand.
Now I rely on Pro support for knowledge and expertise and also said make sure I check compatibility of the FW update before proceeding.
I'm a bit annoyed, we pay for the support and knowledge and its up to me to decide whether a piece of software they produce is fit for our system?
Am I unreasonable to ask for Dell to at least be on hand and shadow, I mean what are they going to do if it all goes wrong?
timorridge
11 Posts
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October 12th, 2017 07:00
Hi Don,
We are running 6.04.
I was going to power down the host anyway while upgrading the SAN, would that work?
I've never done this before, that's all hence this post.
Can a update be done remotely, I'm 200 miles away but have all the necessary access to DRAC for the host and someone on site to press power buttons if needs be.
Tim.
timorridge
11 Posts
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October 12th, 2017 08:00
Thanks can you send me instructions on what cable and how to connect to serial port please?
Origin3k
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2.3K Posts
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October 12th, 2017 08:00
The array comes with 2 cables ;) Otherwise the serial cable for the standard PowerConnect switches are the same.
You can use Windows putty, terraterm, ... with settings 9600/8/1/n. On linux "screen" or what ever you have.
Regards,
Joerg
Origin3k
4 Operator
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2.3K Posts
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October 12th, 2017 08:00
~40 EQL members for 10 years and 1-2(minimum) upgrade per year.. do the math. Its not rocket science... but...
I can share your feeling if you say you havent do this before or better.. not on this member. If you never have recorded a controller failover/test/restart you cant be 100% if you will survice the FW upgrade. I see more than once that the switchport for the secondary CM was not configured right or "died" of the years or was not in use. This is fun when having a group with multimembers within a pool ... and router/gatways as VMs which comes unavailable ;)
So.... for me you should prepared your setup by hook up both serial cables to a running Server. If you our Dell support getting trouble this is the only way to get access to the CM or just see whats going on.
A FW upgrade may took 12-15min in total.. but the period of not reaching the array is just around 10sec. (3 pings). It depends on the model of the member and in earlier FW version the CM failover was a little bit slower.
To be tell the true... in 99.9% percent it went fine and its a strait forward and easy.
Problems what i have seen
- FTP Upload problems (failed to upload)
- Not enough space for the FW package (old core dumps or *.sgo lay round)
- Problem with upgrading the SD card during the upgrade process
- If the environment grows.... and you do things like asnc. replication the FW upgrade needs some manual steps! If you do it for long times you think that reading a manual is waste of time (but thats wrong :)
The GUI hide a lot of things and there is only a progess bar. Serial console showing more information and sometimes the root cause.
Regards,
Joerg