Owner's Manual

20 Using Dell Update Packages
Develop Your System Update Plan
You may want or need to update your system for many reasons, as mentioned
in the preceding section. This update requirement may be classified as either
planned or unplanned.
Planned updates occur as a part of your regular cycle of maintaining your
systems with up-to-date BIOS, firmware, and drivers. Many IT organizations
establish a regular schedule for performing the updates, which are integrated
with the planned maintenance functions. The frequency of these updates
varies from company to company; however, it is not uncommon for
companies to adopt quarterly or semiannual update schedules. Irregular but
still planned updates may occur whenever a system is retasked with a new
application or the operating system is either upgraded or changed. Any time
that you have scheduled planned outage or downtime for your system may be
a good time to consider upgrading the system software components.
Unplanned updates typically occur as a result of applying a critical upgrade to
your system to avoid data loss, service interruption, or security threats. You
may, for example, be advised to apply an update in response to a call you have
placed to a Dell support professional. Although the urgency of applying such
an update is greater than a planned update, you know that you must apply
careful thought and consideration to ensure a successful update with minimal
disruption to your users. The key to success is always having a well-planned
strategy for all possible scenarios.
Acquiring DUPs
NOTE: DUPs currently do not support every device type. Dell will continue to make
DUPs available on additional devices in future releases.
NOTE: You can locate the DUPs for your system on the Dell Support website at
support.dell.com. For instructions, see "How to Obtain DUPs from the Dell Support
Website. DUPs can also be found in the repository on the Dell Server Updates DVD
that contains the updated BIOS, firmware, and driver components for Dell systems.
Dell provides a number of aids to help you determine whether or not your
system requires an update. The Dell File Watch notification service, available
on support.dell.com, allows you to create an account and register to receive
e-mail notifications when Dell publishes an update file for your system.
You have the option of specifying which server models you would like to be
notified about by entering either the server model type or the Dell hardware