8100 Updating Product Software Guide (XCS 6.250) (5697-1716, February 2012)

5. To review update recommendations for your switches and HBAs, select the applicable folder

on the left side of the window. In Figure 5, it is the folder called MySwitchGroup. Look for the

group name you created in step 2 of “Using SAN Visibility” (page 14)

The Best Practices and Recommendations window opens (Figure 6 (page 21)).

Figure 6 Sample SAN recommendations

If the firmware or driver version recommended is later than what is currently running, ensure

that you upgrade the appropriate switch or HBA.

NOTE: After completing required upgrades, HP recommends that you create a new SAN Visibility

report to verify that all upgrades were successful.

Evaluating your configuration

The following factors can affect the success of an online upgrade. Consider these factors when

determining if an online upgrade is appropriate for your environment.

• Queuing host I/O—After the upgrade, the array performs a resynchronization. During the

resynchronization, host I/O is queued to the host, which can create a backlog of requests for

processing when the array is able to respond. The resynchronization may take less than a

minute, but it may take time to clear the backlog of requests and some host I/O may experience

timeouts. The HP recommended driver timeout value is 60 seconds. When an I/O timeout

occurs, multipath drivers typically retry the I/O request on the same or an alternate path.

These retry algorithms have operating system and HBA dependencies and may extend the

Evaluating your configuration 21