HP Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP BladeSystem p-Class - Manual (Page 83)

Fabric OS 5.0.0 procedures user guide 83
Upgrading the Core Switch 2/64 and the SAN Director 2/128
You can download firmware to the Core Switch 2/64 and SAN Director 2/128 without disrupting the
overall fabric if the two CP cards are installed and fully synchronized. Use the
hashow
command to
confirm synchronization. If only one CP card is powered on, the switch must reboot to activate firmware,
which is disruptive to the overall fabric.
If there is an error during the firmware download, the system ensures that the two partitions of a CP card
contain the same version of firmware. However, the two CP cards might contain different versions of
firmware; in that event, repeat the firmware download process.
During the upgrade process the director fails over to its standby CP card and the IP addresses for the two
logical switches move to that CP card's Ethernet port. This might cause informational ARP address
reassignment messages to appear on other switches in the fabric. This is normal behavior, because the
association between the IP addresses and MAC addresses has changed.
Summary of the upgrade process
The following summary describes the default behavior of the
firmwaredownload
command (without
options) on the Core Switch 2/64 and SAN Director 2/128.
• Issue the
firmwaredownload
command on the active CP card.
• The standby CP card downloads firmware.
• The standby CP card reboots and comes up with the new Fabric OS.
• The active CP card synchronizes its state with the standby CP card.
• The active CP card forces a failover and reboots to become the standby CP card.
• The new standby CP card (the active CP card before the failover) downloads firmware.
• The new standby CP card reboots and comes up with the new Fabric OS.
• The new active CP card synchronizes its state with the new standby CP card.
• The
firmwarecommit
command runs automatically on both CP cards.
NOTE: After you start the process, do not enter any disruptive commands (such as
reboot
) that
interrupt the process. The entire firmware download and commit process takes approximately 15
minutes. If there is a problem, wait for the time-out (30 minutes for network problems; 10 minutes for
incorrect IP address). Disrupting the process can render the switch inoperable and require you to seek
help from Customer Support.
Do not disconnect the switch from power during the process, because the switch could become
inoperable upon reboot.