Upgrading switch firmware

Upgrade switch firmware.

Before you begin

  • Upgrade the IBM Storage Fusion HCI System management software.
  • Post the upgrade of IBM Storage Fusion HCI System management software, check whether the firmware upgrade exists by using any of the following methods:
    • Open the Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform web console. In the Overview page, go to Activity > Recent events section and check whether you see the following message: 
      IBM Storage Fusion firmware upgrade available for switches.
    • Open the user interface. It displays notifications in the following locations:
      • In the bell icon, you can see the following messages for the switch : 
        Switch firmware upgrades are available
      • In the Infrastructure > Network, you can see the following message:
        Firmware upgrade to version <version_number> is available
    • Ensure that you verify whether STP is enabled on the switches before switch upgrade as follows:
      • Log in to the OpenShift console and run the following command from the command line .
        oc get vlan -o yaml | grep "stpEnable:"
        Example output:
        stpEnable: true
      • If stpEnable field is set to true, then contact IBM support .

About this task

  • The following are the tasks that the administrator must be aware of during the firmware upgrade.
    • The administrator can upgrade only the high-speed switches and spine switches.
    • The firmware upgrade triggers on high-speed switches, followed by spine switches.
    • The firmware upgrade happens on the primary and secondary switches. Only the high-speed have the primary and secondary roles.
    • The secondary switches are upgraded first, followed by the primary switches during the upgrade process.
    • If the secondary switch firmware upgrade fails, then the related primary switch is not marked for the upgrade.
    • If a firmware update fails, a warning is raised for that switch. That warning can be seen in the Recent Events or Events sections.
  • The switch firmware upgrade supports only high-speed and spine switches in IBM Storage Fusion HCI System 2.7.
Note: Do the switch firmware upgrade in the specified sequence.

Procedure

  1. Go to Infrastructure > Network.
    The Network page gets displayed. The Switches tab is open by default.
  2. Click Upgrade all.
    The Upgrade firmware window gets displayed. It shows how many switches to upgrade along with the estimated time.
    Note: After the switch firmware upgrade is triggered, do not click anything in this page until the upgrade process is complete.
    The Upgrade firmware window gets displayed. The IBM Storage Fusion HCI System runs prechecks on the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) , registry access, Fusion operator status, and DNS resolution.
  3. If there are blocker issues, contact IBM Support.
    1. To know more the fixes for blockers or warnings, contact IBM Support.
      The IBM Storage Fusion HCI System user interface takes you to the Network page wherein a Upgrade pre-check report window displays all the Blocking issues and Issues (optional). If the upgrade fails, check the updateStatus in the switchupgrade CR.
    2. Contact IBM to know more about how to fix an issue.
    3. Fix all the blocking issues.
  4. After the pre-checks complete without any blocker issues, click Upgrade now.
    The following message appears to confirm the initiation of upgrade: 
    Switch Firmware upgrade in-progress
    For example: 
    Switch Firmware upgrade in-progress
1 out of 2 switches upgraded

    To know more details about the upgrade that is in progress, click View details in the notification tab of the Nodes page. A slide out pane displays more information about the upgrade that is in progress, including errors and warnings. Guidance links are available against the corresponding warnings and errors.