HP Insight Control for Linux 6.2 User Guide

12 Using Insight Control for Linux to update HP ProLiant
firmware
This chapter addresses the following topics:
• “Overview of updating HP ProLiant firmware” (page 137)
• “Basic firmware update functionality” (page 138)
• “Advanced firmware update functionality” (page 140)
12.1 Overview of updating HP ProLiant firmware
Keeping firmware up to date is a challenging but necessary task. Each ProLiant server usually
has several devices that require regular firmware updates, which can create a burden. HP offers
tools that help simplify this task. These tools are distributed on the HP Smart Update Firmware
DVD, which is available for download at
http://www.hp.com
Insight Control for Linux has additional tools that enable you to integrate the HP ProLiant
Firmware Smart Update Firmware DVD onto your Insight Control for Linux CMS, then use
Insight Control for Linux to update the firmware on a system, either on demand from the HP
Insight Control user interface, or automatically, when a system is discovered using the Insight
Control for Linux bare-metal discovery feature.
You can configure your CMS to perform basic firmware updates in just a few simple steps. Basic
firmware updates means that when a firmware update is run, all devices on the server are
automatically updated to the latest version of the firmware that was available on the Smart
Update Firmware DVD you chose to download.
NOTE: The Insight Control for Linux firmware update task does not run on HP ProLiant DL100
Series servers.
For those administrators who require more control of what firmware is allowed be installed on
which servers, Insight Control for Linux provides advanced firmware configuration features
that allow the administrator to specify exactly which firmware sets are allowed to be installed
on a per-server basis. The instructions in this section are divided into basic and advanced sections.
IMPORTANT: Firmware updates initiated through Insight Control for Linux are done off line.
A running system is shut down for the update.
When the firmware update is complete, the system is left powered off. If you want to boot the
system afterwards, you must power on the server using the Insight Control for Linux Power On
Server tool
Firmware updates are run using the HP Smart Update Manager (HPSUM) tool from the HP
ProLiant Smart Update Firmware DVD. All firmware updates are run using the hpsum command's
--silent option, which means that the update is not interactive. The firmware files you provided
are scanned, and any devices that can be updated are updated.
For more information on how the hpsum command works and available command line options,
see the HP Smart Update Firmware DVD User Guide, which you can download from the following
web address:
http://www.hp.com
12.1 Overview of updating HP ProLiant firmware 137