Dell POWEREDGE 1855 User Manual

Page 5

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS

August 2005

For the firmware update process, the McDATA management

interface requires administrators to log in to the switch using the

“admin” account and access the advanced configuration console

mode using the

admin start

command.

Brocade Silkworm 3014 Fibre Channel switch firmware. Brocade

Fibre Channel switch firmware can be upgraded using either a

Web-based GUI or a CLI. To update the fabric OS in command-

line mode, administrators should execute the

firmwaredownload

command from an FTP server or from a local Network File System

(NFS) directory while in

admin

mode:

firmwaredownload options host_or_IP,user,

/path/to/the/pfile,passwd

The updated firmware is in the form of Red Hat

Package

Manager (RPM

™

) packages with names defined in pfile, a binary

file that contains specific firmware information and the names of

firmware packages to be downloaded.

In dual-domain systems, the

firmwaredownload

command

downloads the firmware image by default to both control proces-

sors (CPs) in rollover mode, which helps prevent disruption to

application services. This operation depends on support for the

High-Availability (HA) fea-

ture, which can be enabled

through the

haenable

com-

mand in the switch CLI.

If HA support is not avail-

able, administrators can still

upgrade the CPs one at a

time, using the

–s

option.

Systems supported by the

Brocade firmware have two

partitions of nonvolatile stor-

age areas—a primary and a

secondary partition—to store

two firmware images. The

firmwaredownload

command loads the

updated image into the secondary partition and swaps the second-

ary partition to be the primary partition. The command then reboots

the CP and activates the updated image. Finally, it performs the

firmwarecommit

procedure automatically to copy the updated

image to the other partition (unless the

–n

option is used).

To update the firmware using the GUI, administrators should

launch the Brocade Web console by entering the IP address of

the switch in the browser address line. They should then log in

as “admin” and navigate to the Firmware tab. On the Firmware

page, administrators should enter the FTP server’s IP address

and the path to the firmware image file, then begin the firmware

update process.

At the switch console, administrators can use the

firmwaredownloadstatus

command to monitor the download

process. After the download is finished, administrators can enter

the

firmwareshow

command to verify that the firmware update

completed successfully.

Dell PowerConnect 5316M Ethernet switch firmware.

Two firmware images can be stored in the flash memory of the

PowerConnect 5316M switch module. The images are called active

and nonactive, depending on which image the switch is currently

running. The switch also supports two protocols to download the

images: network-based TFTP and serial port–based xmodem.

To use the TFTP method, administrators must complete the

following setup procedures before starting the firmware update

process:

Set up a TFTP server.

Install the updated firmware image on the TFTP server.

After logging in, administrators can execute the following com-

mand in privileged EXEC mode to copy the file named “image” to

the nonactive image file:

console# copy tftp://hostname/path/to/the/

systemimage flash

After the flash update is complete, the switch can be instructed

to boot from either of the two images by executing the following

command in privileged EXEC mode:

console# boot system {image1 | image2}

Administrators should enter the following command to verify

whe ther the switch successfully booted into the updated system

image:

console# show version

Although administrators may never need to upgrade the switch

boot image, they can do so by executing the following command:

For more information about the CLI-based firmware update process for the McDATA 4314 switch, refer to the McDATA 4314 Command Line Interface Guide on the CD that ships with the McDATA switch.

For more information about command options for Brocade Silkworm 3014 Fibre Channel switch firmware, refer to the Brocade Fabric Operating System (FOS) Reference Manual on the CD that ships with the Brocade switch.

For more information about the operation modes of the PowerConnect 5316M switch and how to configure the system identity, refer to the Dell PowerConnect 5316M Ethernet Switch Module User’s Guide and the

Dell

PowerConnect CLI 5316M Reference Guide at support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/PC5316M/en.

To provide consistent

performance throughout the

fabric, administrators should

ensure that all switch modules

are running the same version

of firmware.