Step by Step Guide to Upgrade Your IBM FlashSystem 5000 Code Level
“Don’t upgrade if there is no problem”, a famous quote that every system administrator must be familiar with. But you definitely need to know exactly how to do it if there is a critical fix.
Although IBM FlashSystem web UI already provided a very handy guide how you can do this, I’m gonna show you the exact steps and screenshots to guide you through the process, so if you’re adventurous enough to do it yourself without getting a vendor to do it, you will be well prepared.
First, go to https://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral and select the correct product. At certain point of time, you’re required to login your IBM account. Choose All for Installed Version if you cannot find your code version:
In this example, we’re going to upgrade from 8.2.1.8 to 8.2.1.11. Don’t worry if you don’t see the download link of the test utility, it is available in the link that you going to click below.
You’re required to enter the Machine Serial Number, then click Continue and accept the terms.
Choose HTTPS download. Then download the two files shown.
Now, go to your FlashSystem UI > Settings > System > Update System. Let’s do a Test Only first. Load the test utility that you’ve just downloaded.
After the test is completed, system will display advice about the upgrade. If there is no major concern, then you can proceed to upgrade.
Below is the complete version of the warning in text form.
The upgrade utility has detected that email notifications for error
reporting have either not been configured or that the Call Home function
has not been configured to automatically open a problem record. This may be
caused by an invalid or missing email address. Please review the following
technote to understand the benefits of enabling call home and inventory emails.
Please see the following web page for details:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=591&uid=ssg1S1004537******************* Warning found *******************This tool has found the internal disks of this system are
not running the recommended firmware versions.
Details follow:+----------------------+-----------+------------+------------------------------------------+
| Model | Latest FW | Current FW | Drive Info |
+----------------------+-----------+------------+------------------------------------------+
| MZILT1T9HAJQ | MS3B | MS39 | Drive 0 in slot 1 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 1 in slot 3 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 2 in slot 5 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 3 in slot 7 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 4 in slot 9 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 5 in slot 4 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 6 in slot 6 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 7 in slot 2 in enclosure 1 |
| | | | Drive 8 in slot 8 in enclosure 1 |
+----------------------+-----------+------------+------------------------------------------+We recommend that you upgrade the drive microcode to the latest firmware at an
appropriate time. If you believe you are running the latest
version of microcode, then check for a later version of this tool.
You do not need to upgrade the drive firmware before starting the
software upgrade.Results of running svcupgradetest:
==================================The tool has found 0 errors and 2 warnings.
None of these issues will prevent the software upgrade from being started.
Please review any warnings and errors to make sure it is safe to upgrade.
Now, let’s try the Test & Update. Remember the Test Only requires us to enter the code level? You don’t have to do it here since the information already contained in the update package.
Click Next, system will ask you to choose the type of update. Let’s do an Automatic Update.
Now, you need to choose whether you want to have a pause in between the update of each node. I will choose Pause update before each node updates so I can verify the update before continuing to another node.
Once you clicked finished, the upload begins.
Once the upload is completed, test utility is running at the background. It takes about 1–2 minutes before the warning message is displayed. During this process, the resume button is grey out. It is strongly recommended to read the warning message again.
Click Resume, and the system will double confirm your choice. Let’s click Yes.
After that, you are required to click the Resume button again. The page will remain silence for a couple of minutes before the Warning dialog box appears again. While it is waiting for your answer, a progress bar will pop up under State and also at the top of your browser tab.
Click Yes to continue. After the Warning dialog box closed, you are required to click the Continue button to proceed.
A task completed dialog box will pop up immediately after that.
Close it. The page will remain silence again for about 30–60 seconds, before the Flushing and Updating status take turns on your node’s State column. Estimate to take around 20 mins.
The update is completed on node2 with status became 50%. Now let us continue the next one.
Again, right after you click the Continue, a task completed dialog box appeared.
It repeats the same process on node1. Another 20 minutes to go. Then continue the process following the on-screen instruction. After the update, double check the code level to confirm.
Congratulation, you FlashSystem is running on a new code level now.
A Bad Boy’s Habit
I’m running the FlashSystem in a lab environment when writing this article. An interesting case here. I’m sure you might have catch that I did not post any screenshot after the node1 update. You’re right, I run into a glitch here, haha!
The system has only single management port connected, which is on the node1. When the update was running, it caused a connection error as shown below. If you run into this problem too, nah, lesson learned huh?! Never forget to setup failover properly!
Don’t panic though, there is a chance that it will come back online after the system update is completed. If it does not, you can recover the connection by connecting the failover port, and you will be greet by a warning dialog asking whether you want to refresh the panel since a failover has been detected. Smart right?
If you’re still worry about the update, you can confirm the update by SSH into the system and run the following commands:
Enter the lsupdate command to determine whether the software update requires a further completion step.
If the lsupdate command shows that the status is system_completion_required, enter svctask applysoftware -complete in the command line interface.
If further action is required, such as restart/reboot the node, log in to the Service Assistant Tool via Service IP to do the task.
Ending
Honestly, I’m not sure if there is anyone would really need this article since IBM has really done a great job on the informative guide which can be opened by click the small question mark icon on the bottom left. Well, if you do find my article being more helpful, please drop me a line.
