Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v6.4.0 (53-1001763-01, June 2010)

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 189
53-1001763-01
Chapter
9
Installing and Maintaining Firmware
In this chapter
Firmware download process overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Preparing for a firmware download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Firmware download on switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Firmware download on an enterprise-class platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Firmware download from a USB device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
FIPS Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Test and restore firmware on switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Test and restore firmware on enterprise-class platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Validating a firmware download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Firmware download process overview
Fabric OS v6.4.0 provides nondisruptive firmware installation.
This chapter refers to the following specific types of blades inserted into either the Brocade 48000
director or Brocade DCX and DCX-4S Backbone platforms:
FC blades or port blades contain only Fibre Channel ports: Brocade FC4-16/32/48, FC10-6,
and FC8-16/32/48/64.
AP blades contain extra processors and specialized ports: Brocade FR4-18i and FC4-16IP,
FA4-18, FCOE10-24, and FX8-24.
CP blades have a control processor (CP) used to control the entire switch; they can be inserted
only into slots 5 and 6 on the Brocade 48000, slots 6 and 7 on the Brocade DCX, and slots 4
and 5 on the Brocade DCX-4S.
CORE8 and CR4S-8 core blades provide ICL functionality between two Brocade DCX
Backbones. CORE8 blades can be inserted only into slots 5 and 8 on the Brocade DCX. CR4S-8
blades can be inserted only into slots 3 and 6 on the Brocade DCX-4S.
NOTE
For more information on troubleshooting a firmware download, refer to the Fabric OS
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide.
You can download Fabric OS to a director, which is a chassis; and to a nonchassis-based system,
also referred to as a switch. The difference in the download process is that directors have two CPs
and nonchassis-based systems have one CP. Use the firmwareDownload command to download
the firmware from either an FTP or SSH server by using either the FTP or SCP protocol to the switch.