HP Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP BladeSystem p-Class - Manual (Page 80)

80 Maintaining configurations and firmware
HP StorageWorks fixed-port switches and each CP card of the Core Switch 2/64 and SAN Director
2/128 have two partitions of nonvolatile storage areas (a primary and a secondary) to store two
firmware images. The
firmwaredownload
command always loads the new image into the secondary
partition and swaps the secondary partition to be the primary. It then reboots the partition and activates
the new image. Finally, it performs the
firmwarecommit
procedure automatically, to copy the new
image to the other partition.
Effects of firmware changes on accounts and passwords
Table 12 describes what happens to accounts and passwords when you replace the switch firmware with
a different version. Upgrading means installing a newer version of firmware. Downgrading means
installing an older version of firmware.
For more details on older releases of Fabric OS, see ” Understanding legacy password behavior ” on
page 229.
Considerations for downgrading firmware
The following items must be considered before attempting to downgrade to an earlier version of
Fabric OS:
• If your fabric is set to the extended edge PID format and you want to downgrade to an older Fabric
OS version that does not support extended edge, you must change the PID to a supported format. For
more information, see ” Configuring the PID format ” on page 203.
• Downgrading a SAN Director 2/128 that is configured for two domains from Fabric OS v4.4.0 to
Fabric OS v4.2.0 is not supported.
• If you are running v4.0.2 firmware on a SAN Switch 2/32, you cannot downgrade to earlier
versions.
Upgrading HP StorageWorks SAN switches
SAN StorageWorks Switch 2/8V, SAN Switch 2/16V, SAN Switch 2/32, and SAN Switch 4/32
maintain primary and secondary partitions for firmware. The
firmwaredownload
command defaults to
an Auto Commit option that automatically copies the firmware from one partition to the other.
Do not override Auto Commit under normal circumstances; use the default. If you override the Auto
Commit option (that is, use the single mode
-s
option with the
firmwaredownload
command and
then specify
no
to the Auto Commit prompt), and then reboot with the
hareboot
command, you must
execute the
firmwarecommit
command.
Table 12 Effect of firmware on accounts and passwords
Change First time Subsequent times (after upgrade, then
downgrade, then upgrade)
Upgrading Default accounts and their
passwords are preserved.
User-defined and default accounts and their
passwords are preserved.
Downgrading User-defined accounts are no
longer valid. Default accounts
and their passwords
are preserved. If a default
account was disabled, it is
reenabled after the downgrade.
User-defined and default accounts and their
passwords are preserved, including accounts
added after the first upgrade.
Upgrading to
v3.2.0
(You may upgrade a switch in the fabric as part of ” Checking connected switches ”
on page 79.) Earlier versions allowed you to change the default account names.
You cannot add user-defined accounts until you change the names back to default
with the
passwdDefault
command.