HP Virtual Connect Multi-Enclosure Stacking Reference Guide

When the modules on the left-hand side (the odd side) of enc1 and enc2 reboot to activate the new firmware, the

servers in enc1 and enc2 would be isolated from enc0 and would lose network connectivity through the enc0 uplinks. It

is still possible and supported to use such a topology if you are willing to incur this connectivity loss during a firmware

upgrade or if you are willing to use the command-line options of VCSU to change the order in which the modules are

rebooted to activate the new firmware. The following describes the default behavior of VCSU 1.7.0 (or later). A manual

activation process (using the –oe manual option on the VCSU update command) would best mimic this procedure.

1. Reset the module in the Base Enclosure (enc0) that is identified as the Backup Module (the VCSU healthcheck

action can be used to determine which module is Primary and which one is Backup)

2. Wait for checkpoint to complete. You will see this within VCM or you can run a VCSU Healthcheck to see that the

Domain Configuration is “In Sync”.

3. Force Failover of VCM from Primary to Backup module. This can be done by logging in to VCM and choosing

“Reset Virtual Connect Manager” on the Tools pull-down menu and check the box to Force failover.

4. Wait for the Backup Module to become Primary and checkpoint to complete. (Use GUI or Healthcheck)

5. Reset the module in the Base Enclosure (enc0) that was the original Primary, but is the current Backup.

6. Wait for checkpoint to complete (use GUI or Healthcheck)

7. Reset the remaining modules on the odd side.

8. Wait for the odd-side modules to come back up.

9. Reset the remaining modules on the even side.

Note that all the modules in a Multi-Enclosure domain must be running the same version of the firmware, it is not

supported to run different versions of the firmware in different enclosures that belong to the same domain, beyond a

reasonable time needed to activate the new firmware on all the modules in the domain.

Note when using VCSU to upgrade VC firmware in a ME stacked domain, ensure that a common OA login account (with

synchronized passwords) is utilized for all enclosures in the stack.

NOTE: When considering an upgrade for Virtual Connect firmware, you should consider upgrades for other

components of the BladeSystem c-Class infrastructure. HP recommends the use of Service Packs for ProLiant

(SPP) which consist of a comprehensive bundle of firmware and drivers that have been thoroughly tested

together. For more information go to http://www.hp.com/go/spp