The Enterprise Manager Ops Center provisioning feature installs firmware on the managed hardware assets. You initiate the installations from the UI, rather than from the asset itself.
The general procedure for provisioning firmware has the following steps:
Import a file with the firmware and the associated metadata into a storage library. See Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Advanced User's Guide for uploading firmware images.
Create a firmware profile, based on one or more firmware images.
See Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Advanced User's Guide to create a firmware profile and add images to the profile.
Shut down the server gracefully. Most firmware requires that the server is not running when the firmware is updated. Most firmware images include a power-off command for a running server, which causes a hard shutdown of the server.
Apply the firmware profile, as described in Updating Firmware, or create a deployment plan that includes the profile.
An alternate procedure is to import the firmware file and then create a Firmware Report. You then use the report results to update the firmware. See Using the Firmware Compliance Report.
The benefit of using a profile to install firmware is that the firmware is installed consistently, no matter how many assets you provision. The benefit of using the Firmware Report is to determine the condition of the firmware on a specific asset or set of assets.
To update the firmware on an asset, you execute an deployment plan, which includes a firmware profile for the type of asset. For a server, the plan includes a profile that updates the firmware on a service processor. For storage components, the plan includes profiles that update firmware on a RAID controller, an expander, or disk. To see the deployment plans that update firmware, expand the Deployment Plans section of the Navigation pane and then click Firmware. A list of existing plans is displayed. A default plan and a default profile is created for a firmware image when it is imported into Enterprise Manager Ops Center. As an alternative, if you are updating the firmware of one asset, you can use the Update Firmware action to apply a firmware profile. Select the service processor from the Asset section of the Navigation pane and click the Update Firmware menu item in the Actions pane
If you are updating the firmware on a server, shut down the server before you update the firmware. A firmware update to a server's service processor usually requires that the server is not running. If you start to update the firmware on a running server's service processor, the firmware image performs a hard shutdown of the server.
If a network failure occurs while updating the firmware, repeat the firmware update procedure. If you do not repeat the procedure, the firmware inventory list might be incomplete.
Expand Plan Management in the Navigation pane.
Expand Deployment Plans and click Firmware. A list of existing plans is displayed. If no plans exist, create a deployment plan.
See Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Advanced User's Guide for information about creating a deployment plan.
Select a plan. The details of the plan, including the profiles it uses, are displayed. By default, the firmware is updated according to values in the profile without any interaction.
To apply the plan but make some changes during the configuration, click the Allow me to override any profile values option. During the configuration, you can enter different values.
Click Apply the Deployment Plan in the Actions pane. The Update Firmware wizard starts and displays a list of assets.
Select one or more assets and click Add To Target List. When you are finished, click Next. The Resource Assignment panel is displayed. At any time, you can click the Targets tab to review the selected servers.
Review the attributes of the firmware. Click Next. The Summary page shows the values in the profile and the list of targets.
Review the Summary page and when you are ready to update the firmware on the target assets, click Apply. The update job is submitted. The plan updates the firmware, according to the profile.
The Summary and Hardware tabs in the center pane show the current firmware version. Enterprise Manager Ops Center refreshes the information every 30 minutes. To see the current firmware version before the next interval:
If you updated the firmware through the UI, refresh the browser.
If you have updated the firmware manually, click Refresh in the Actions pane. When the Refresh job completes, the current firmware version is displayed.