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Dell Storage Update Manager - 4 firmware upgrades - Rolling/live updates?
Hi,
My SANs are running on an old firmware version. I am about to add a new SAN to my array but need to upgrade the firmware on my current SANs as a prerequisite.
In the past I have upgraded the firmware using the SANHQ GUI. I have been able to do this while my iSCSI connections were live and during the post install restart, these connections stayed up and didn't cause any issues to my HyperV environment (aka, I was able to perform these firmware upgrades while the volumes were still live / active).
This time around, I am being advised to use the Dell Storage Upgrade Manager. I've run the software and in the update plan, I see 4 firmware versions listed. I believe I need to step through each version in order to get to the latest.
I'm currently on 7.1.11 and need to get to 9.1.4. In the update plan, it lists: 7.1.14, 8.1.13, 9.0.9 and 9.1.4.
On the review update plan, I notice that is states: "Be aware the groups connectivity may be interrupted or lost."
My question is: Can I use the Dell Storage Update Manager to upgrade my SAN firmware while my volumes are still active / live? Will the connections to the SANs stay live during the post install restart?
I have Dell HIT 4.8 installed on my host machines (the machines accessing / connected to the SAN volumes).
Thanks.
Anonymous
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March 6th, 2018 11:00
Hello,
Re: SANHQ GUI. I suspect you mean you started up the EQL Group GUI from inside SANHQ? Since SANHQ cannot upgrade array firmware
The upgrade process has remained the same for quite a few number of years. The firmware on each controller is upgraded. Then the passive CM is restarted. Once it's back online at the new firmware level, the active CM is restarted forcing a failover. Then the passive becomes the active at the new version, and the old active CM is restarted to complete the entire process. So there has always been a short interruption and re-connection of servers during upgrades.
When done in a quiet I/O time especially, your servers won't likely notice, especially if you have set the DiskTimeOut values. (Which the HIT/ME software does for you on WIndows hosts)
So using DSUM will have no impact on how the process works.
Regards,
Don
Opgailey
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March 7th, 2018 03:00
Hi Donald-Wi,
Apologies, yes, I did mean EQL Group GUI and not SANHQ (I usually launch from within SANHQ).
I will go ahead and use DSUM this time around.
Thanks for confirming that the upgrades can be performed while iSCSI connections are live and that there will only be a short interruption during the controllers restarting, but not enough to disconnect these volumes from Windows hosts with HIT installed.
One more question: Do disk firmware upgrades affect the live volumes at all? If I upgrade my disk firmware (as DSUM is recommending), will this cause my volumes to disconnect from their Windows hosts at all?
Thanks.
Anonymous
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March 7th, 2018 06:00
Hello,
You are very welcome. Glad I could help you.
Re: Drive firmware. There's no interruptions to active connections at all. Each drive is updated and restarted individually. The process is very quick per drive.
Regards,
Don
Opgailey
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March 9th, 2018 03:00
Perfect!
Thanks for your help.
Anonymous
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March 9th, 2018 04:00
Hello,
You are very welcome. I'm glad I could assist you.
Regards,
Don