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The Provisioning module enables you to provision (install) firmware updates on a server by using firmware images and firmware profiles.
What is a Firmware Image?
A firmware image is a copy of a particular system firmware with associated metadata. The firmware image allows you to provision the firmware in an automated way through the use of firmware profiles. The firmware metadata helps determine compatibility between a firmware image and a target system. The metadata that you provide when you import a firmware image includes the firmware type, what system or systems the firmware is for, the version of the firmware, and the dependee firmware (which other firmware does the firmware depend on).
What is a Firmware Profile?
A firmware profile is a collection of one or more firmware images and policies that defines how to provision one or more firmware images on a system. A firmware profile can contain any set of unique firmware images. In addition, a firmware profile cannot contain different versions of the same firmware image. You can also use a firmware profile to generate compliance reports for a set of servers.
For each firmware image included in the firmware profile, you can specify that a downgrade for the firmware should be forced if the target system has firmware at a higher version than that of the update. You can additionally specify that the firmware re-installation should be forced if the target system has the firmware at the same version as that of the upgrade.
To Provision Firmware
To provision firmware, you must first perform a Custom Discovery against the ILOM IP address using the correct root user and password authentication combination of SSH and IPMI.
At a high level, provisioning firmware using the Provisioning module involves:
- Creating a firmware image by importing a firmware file with associated metadata
- Creating a firmware profile based on one or more firmware images
- Provisioning firmware on systems based on the firmware profile and its associated firmware images
The first two steps are one-time tasks for each collection of firmware that you want to provision.
To Provision Firmware on a System
You can use a firmware profile to provision firmware images on one or more servers. See Creating a Firmware Profile for more information.
 | Caution The hardware component is unavailable for service during the firmware update. If a network failure occurs during the update, you must apply the firmware image again by using the Sun xVM Ops Center. Failure to do so might result in display of an incomplete firmware inventory list. In addition, automatic reboot of the hardware component upon completion of the firmware update is not supported. You must reset the server after the Load Firmware job completes. |
Most firmware updates to the Service Processor require that the server be shut down prior to the firmware update. If the firmware image has the power off option selected, this is a hard shutdown of the system and you must gracefully bring down the OS prior to attempting firmware provisioning.
To track the progress of the installation, choose View Firmware Jobs from the Jobs menu.
To Provision Chassis Firmware
Firmware provisioning of a chassis is the same for a server except for the following differences:
- A firmware profile should not contain firmware images for both a server and a chassis. In other words, a firmware profile should contain only firmware images that are going to be targeted to one or more different chassis types.
- You should first update the firmware on the blades before updating the firmware on the chassis.
Image File Default Location
When importing image files, a default location is predefined. The default location is:
/var/opt/SUNWscn/images
/var/opt/SUNWscn/proxyImageCache
This default location is defined by the satellite and proxy properties files:
satellite.properties
proxy.properties
The satellite and proxy properties files are located in the following directory:
/etc/opt/sun/n1gc
To Change the Default Location for FW and OS Image Files
To change the default location for the Operating System and Firmware image files, do the following:
- Edit the satellite and proxy properties files in the /etc/opt/sun/n1gc directory.
/etc/opt/sun/n1gc/satellite.properties
/etc/opt/sun/n1gc/proxy.properties - Change the default directory in the satellite and proxy configuration files:
id.satellite_base_dir= /var/opt/SUNWscn/images
id.proxy_base_dir= /var/opt/SUNWscn/proxyImageCache
Note: The id.satellite_base_dir value must be changed in both the satellite and proxy properties files. - Depending on whether you are pointing to a new satellite or to proxy directories, manually move/copy the entire directory structure (one or both) to the new directory. This includes any previously imported image files.
- Restart the satellite and proxy instances.
Note: If the default directory for importing image files is changed, both FW and OS image files are affected.