fwupdate Overview

fwupdate enables you to work with firmware files for the following targets:

• Disk drives (spinning media and flash drives)

• Oracle ILOM service processor and BIOS

• HBA and embedded storage controllers, SAS1 and SAS2

• LSI SAS expander devices, SAS1 and SAS2

• Emulex and QLogic Fiber Channel controllers

• Mellanox InfiniBand controllers

You can use fwupdate to do the following:

• Examine firmware information for devices in a server

• Check firmware file compatibility

• Update device firmware using an automated XML metadata file

• Update firmware manually using a raw firmware file

• Control how devices are reset after updating the firmware

fwupdate Command Prerequsite

Before using the fwupdate command to update device firmware, you must quiesce the device.

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Caution  ‐  System hang or data loss. Before updating device firmware, make sure that the device is quiesced.

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For example, when updating the firmware on a hard drive:

• Make sure that the operating system is not accessing the disk (for example, the system boot disk).

• Make sure that an application is not accessing the disk (for example, a database application).

• If hardware RAID is being used on the system, make sure that the RAID controller is not accessing the disk (for example, if it is rebuilding an array or is in a degraded state). You can use raidconfig to check the state of the arrays.

Downloading Firmware Files

Download firmware files from http://support.oracle.com.

Search for the product that you want to update and download the latest firmware package available for that product.

Automatic and Manual Update Modes

With Oracle Hardware Management Pack 2.1 and later, the fwupdate tool supports automatic mode and manual mode.

• Automatic mode uses information from the XML metadata file that is packaged with the platform firmware downloads to update the device firmware. This is the most accurate method to use.

• Manual mode allows you to update the firmware directly. This mode should only be used if the XML metadata file is not available for the device that you want to update.

  Check the documentation and release notes for your product to determine whether or not an XML metadata file is available. The product release notes also contain upgrade information specific to the device you are upgrading.

Host-to-ILOM Interconnect

With Oracle Hardware Management Pack 2.2 and later, fwupdate supports the Host-to-ILOM Interconnect, which can significantly speed up the firmware update process. For more information, refer to:Enabling the Host-to-ILOM Interconnect in Oracle Hardware Management Pack Installation Guide .