Firmware update - Best Practices

Question

Hi,

Tomorow, I should receive the replacement motherboard for my R720. I expect a long run to update all firmwares. But I would like to know the best practice to update all firmwares.

Is it better to updates drivers at the latest version immediately or we must follow an update path ?

Is it better to update BIOS first ? or iDRAC ? or it does not matters ?

Is it better to update each firmware manually or to boot with the ISO update tools (Platform Specific Bootable ISO) ?

I'm concerned about this update methodology and I don't want to brick my board with this process.

Thanks for all your advices

DELL-Shine K · Accepted Answer

I would recommend to choose one FW from each year based on release date and perform staged update. If BIOS is also very old FW then update iDRAC and BIOS one after another in staged manner.

DELL-Shine K · Answer

You can refer below link on various method to update firmware on Dell servers. You can follow any of these methods to update firmware on server

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000128194/updating-firmware-and-drivers-on-dell-emc-poweredge-servers

If you have very old FW installed on the server it is recommended to perform stages update (Especially BIOS and iDRAC) instead of updating to latest firmware from very old firmware

Below link have details on sequence of update if you are trying individual component update

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000121875/dell-poweredge-update-server-firmware-for-optimal-performance

Janus_006 · Answer

Thanks for the update.

When you talk about stages update, are there specific steps to follow. Example, iDRAC versions are:

2.63.60.62, A00
2.61.60.60, A00
2.60.60.60, A00
2.52.52.52, A00
2.50.50.50, A00
2.41.40.40, A00
2.40.40.40, A00
2.32.31.30, A00
2.31.31.30, A00
2.30.30.30, A00
2.21.21.21, A00
2.20.20.20, A00
2.15.10.10, A00
2.10.10.10, A00
1.66.65, A00
1.57.57, A00
1.46.45, A00
1.45.45, A00
1.40.40, A00
1.37.35, A00
1.35.35, A00
1.31.30, A00
1.23.23, A00
1.20.20, A00

Is it simply to step to next major version 2.x (here 2.10.10.10) first and to the latest after ? Or if there is more step to follow ?

Janus_006 · Answer

Hi,

I received and isnstalled the Motherboard. The firmwares were not at the first release, as expected. I did not updated them as major updates were installed.

But thanks for the update track to follow. I keep it in my favorires

PowerEdge Hardware General

Firmware update - Best Practices

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