Firmware Updates for Clusters Using the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter This Dell technical white paper describes how to use the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter to perform firmware updates for clusters onto Dell PowerEdge 11th generation or later host systems.
Revisions Date Description July 2013 Initial release October 2013 Web-client updates THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Table of contents Revisions ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Executive summary .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction .....................................................................................
Executive summary The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter is a virtual appliance that streamlines tools and tasks associated with the management and deployment of Dell servers in your virtual environment. It reduces complexity by natively integrating the key management capabilities into the VMware vSphere Client console. It minimizes risk with hardware alarms, streamlined firmware updates and deep visibility into inventory, health, and warranty details.
1 Introduction The OpenManage Integration provides a wizard that guides a user through the steps to perform firmware updates on cluster hosts using either a vSphere desktop client or a vSphere Web client. Both mechanisms are explained in this whitepaper. The firmware update functionality is only available on Dell PowerEdge™ th th 11 and 12 Generation Servers that fulfills server prerequisites. 1.1 Firmware Update Assurances Sequential execution.
• • 1.3 Server must be compliant in terms of minimum required firmware, CSIOR status, Hypervisor, and OMSA status (in case for Dell PowerEdge 11th generation servers). o At least the base level of firmware updates for Lifecycle Controller, iDRAC, and BIOS. See the product documentation for more details. o Conduct System Inventory on Reboot (CSIOR) must be enabled. o For Dell PowerEdge 11th generation servers, a supported version of the OMSA agent must be installed.
2 Firmware Update Wizard for clusters Using a vSphere Desktop Client or vSphere Web Client, a user can step through the firmware update process and schedule firmware update jobs on clusters as follows: 1. In Hosts and Clusters tree view, select a cluster. 2. Launch the firmware wizard. For vSphere Desktop Client, select OpenManage Integration tab and click Update Firmware. Figure 1 Host and Clusters – Desktop Client For vSphere Web Client, do any of the following: a. Select Dell Cluster Information tab.
Figure 2 Host and Clusters – Web Client If there is a firmware update job in progress or scheduled, a popup is shown stating the name of the firmware job. Firmware updates can be performed on different vCenters simultaneously, however only one in progress or scheduled firmware job for each vCenter is allowed. Dismiss the dialog. Wait, and try this again later. View the status of all jobs on the Firmware Update Jobs tab in Job Queue (See section Job Status for Firmware Update Jobs for more details). 3.
Figure 3 Firmware Inventory – Desktop Client Note: The Cluster column is populated with the cluster name the host is under. If the host is not associated with any cluster, then the column is populated with “Not Applicable”. 5. Click Next to see the repository information and update bundles. Use the check boxes to select the update bundles on this page. If a catalog does not contain a bundle for a given model, it is not listed.
Figure 4 Update Bundles Note: The bundle information is from the time specified on this screen. If the repository information was changed after that time, the change is not reflected. To reflect the change, exit the wizard. Next, update the repository location using any of the following: a. vSphere Desktop Client: i. Click Dell Management Center under Home > Management ii. Navigate to Settings > Firmware Repository. Click Edit. b. vSphere Web Client: i.
CAUTION: Bundles may contain multiple updates of different versions for a component. It is recommened to select a single update version for a component. Applying multiple updates to a given component as part of the same update job may result in unexpected behavior on the target system. Figure 5 11 Update Components Firmware Updates for Clusters Using the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter.
7. For vSphere Desktop client, click Next to see “Firmware Update Information” to review the components selected for upgrade/downgrade. Note: For vSphere Web Client, the selected components are shown in the Summary page. Figure 6 Firmware Update Information – Desktop Client 8. Click Next to see a page that provides the options for creating a firmware update job. In the Firmware Update Job Name text box, type the firmware update job name. This is a mandatory field.
Figure 7 Schedule Update 9. For vSphere Web Client, click Next to see summary of user selected components as well as information about the job details such as job name, description and schedule option. Review this information before clicking “Finish”. Figure 8 Summary Page – Web Client Only 10. Clicking Finish creates and schedules the firmware update job. A popup appears to confirm creation of the job. The Firmware Update task normally takes 30 to 60 minutes for each host to update the firmware.
3 Job Status for Firmware Update Jobs 3.1 Viewing Job Status and Details for Firmware Update Jobs The Firmware Update Job section of Job Queue shows a list of firmware Update jobs and their status. 1. For vSphere Desktop Client, click the Job Queue tab in the Dell Management Center. Click on the “Firmware Update Jobs” tab. More details for the firmware update job are seen by clicking the Details link for the job in the Status column. This link opens a details window.
Figure 10 Firmware Update Jobs – Web Client 3.2 Actions on Firmware Update Jobs 3.2.1 Modify Jobs A scheduled job can be modified to run on a different date by clicking Modify button. Figure 11 Modify Job 15 Firmware Updates for Clusters Using the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter.
3.2.2 Abort Jobs A scheduled or a running job can be aborted by clicking Abort button. If a firmware update is in-progress on a given host, the update on only that host is allowed to finish. Figure 12 Abort Job 3.2.3 Purge Jobs A completed job (success, failed) can be purged from the history by clicking the Purge button. Figure 13 Purge Job 16 Firmware Updates for Clusters Using the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter.
4 Troubleshooting 4.1 Firmware Repository Problems Problem Scenario 1: In the vSphere Web Client, even though the repository catalog has bundles for the models for the servers in a cluster, the firmware wizard shows no bundles with message “There are no bundles retrieved from the firmware repository location”. Figure 14 No bundles problem Resolution: If the servers in the cluster are 11G servers and are not complaint (e.g.
4.2 Known Firmware Compatiblity Issues Issue 1: Using the OpenManage Integration to upgrade a Broadcom NetXtreme II 10Gigabit Ethernet adapter (BCM57712) from firmware version of 6.2.x or less, or downgrade to a firmware version of 6.2.x or less is not supported. Resolution/Workaround: There is a known issue with the Broadcom NetXtreme II 10Gigabit Ethernet adapter (BCM57712) where updating the adapter from firmware version of 6.2.x or less, or downgrade to a firmware version of 6.2.
4. The log entries with date and time, and descrlption will be filtered to show firmware update job related log information. Figure 15 Example of Log page with Firmware Update Job Details 19 Firmware Updates for Clusters Using the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter.
5 Conclusion The OpenManage Integration contains many features to reduce complexity and help you manage and deploy Dell servers for use with VMware. Using the Firmware Update Wizard, one can easily update firmware on clusters. Experience how the OpenManage Integration can speed deployment in a data center by downloading an evaluation version. Browse to: http://dell.com/vcenterplugin 20 Firmware Updates for Clusters Using the OpenManage™ Integration for VMware vCenter.
