Order of Updates for the M1000e components and blades

Table of Contents:

1. Overview
2. Suggested Order of Updates
3. 10G blades and firmware updates
4. Additional Information

1. Overview

 The  Chassis Management Controller (CMC) controls M1000e chassis resources like fans and  power,  as well as interfacing to the blades and I/O Modules.
There are many hardware components to the chassis and blades most of which have firmware that can be updated. 
The CMC firmware should be updated prior to updating any blade server firmware. CMC firmware can be updated from any version.
It is NOT necessary to update to any intermediary version before updating to the latest version.  
There is a recommended order for flashing all the chassis and blade firmware. 
However the 10th generation (10G) servers iDRACs may have problems communicating with new CMC firmware so there are some added steps for older chassis and blades.   
  
 

2. Suggested Order of Updates

This is the recommended order for flashing chassis containing 11G and 12G blades.  The 10G blades follow the same order but with some exceptions covered later in the article:

If using Lifecycle Controller or CMC to perform the updates, iDRAC firmware must be at version v2.3 or greater and the firmware should be updated in the following order:

• BIOS
• Lifecycle Controller
• iDRAC

If using Dell Update Packages (DUPs) to perform the updates on the M610, M610x, M710, M710HD, M910, or M915, the firmware should be updated in the following order:

• BIOS
• Lifecycle Controller
• iDRAC

If using Dell Update Packages (DUPs) to perform the updates on the M420, M520, M620, or M820, the firmware should be updated in the following order:

• Lifecycle Controller
• BIOS
• iDRAC

If updating iDRAC firmware to v3.0 or greater from an iDRAC on version less than 2.3, the iDRAC firmware must first be updated to version v2.3 before updating to version v3.0 or greater on M610, M610x, M710, M710HD, M910, or M915.  The Lifecycle controller should be updated to at least version 1.3.

Whenever performing firmware updates the following must be taken into consideration

1. There is no stepping requirement for the CMC Firmware. The CMC can be directly updated from any version to the current version directly.
2. The 11G iDRAC 6 Modular Firmware does require a firmware step and must be at version 2.3 to update to any higher version
3. The 11G IDRAC 6 Modular Firmware must be version 2.3 or higher to be updated via the Lifecycle controller
4. Rebooting a blade with a BIOS/iDRAC below the minimum required level for the version of CMC Firmware may cause the blade to not power on or post properly.  More about this later.

The recommended order for all updates of the M1000e and blades is:

CMC Firmware

IOMINF Firmware – see www.dell.com/support/article/SLN111531

Blade BIOS Firmware

Blade Lifecycle Controller Firmware

Blade iDRAC Firmware

Blade CPLD Firmware (Optional)

Blade CPLD M910 Firmware (Required)

Blade Mezzanine Card Driver / Firmware

Blade Storage Controller Driver / Firmware

Blade LOM Driver / Firmware

IO Device Firmware (Fabric Devices)

3. 10th Generation servers

The M1000E chassis was released in 2007 and has gone thru many changes with new hardware and features added. The first release had 1.X firmware on the CMC for the 10G blades (PowerEdge M600, M605 and M805). CMC 2.X was released with the 11G servers, CMC 3.X with the M610x and M710HD. Latest revision 4.X came with the release of the 12G blades.  As with all hardware and software a point is reached where old and new components are no longer compatible for whatever reason.  The old chassis are fully capable of running 4.X CMC firmware but the old iDRAC 1.1 firmware may have trouble communicating with it.  The update order is more critical in these cases.  In a mixed environment of blades 11G and 12G blades will not POST with 1.X CMC firmware and the same will happen with the inverse where 10G blades may not POST with 3.X or 4.X CMC firmware. However even the old iDRAC firmware on the 10G blades will work fine with CMC firmware 2.2 or 2.3.  This CMC firmware can be found at ftp.dell.com under chassis system mgmt.  Another factor is the newer CMC firmware have added power features which require10G blades update CPLD and Bios.  So a conservative approach would be take the CMC to 2.3 next update the blade iDRAC to 1.6, then Bios and CPLD.   Any 11G servers will work fine with CMC 2.3 except for the M610X and M710HD (which require 3.X).  At this point moving to CMC firmware 3.X or 4.X should have no problems.

Updating firmware on servers and IOM Modules require reboots so some downtime is required and since the M1000e chassis can hold up to 16 blades this can impact a production environment. A chassis with only 10Gen blades users have the option to stay on the old CMC firmware's 1.X and 2.X but once the three required 10G blade required updates are done can go to 3.X or 4.X.  The other option is to jump straight to 4.X CMC firmware.  Since only the IDRAC connection will be lost users can go straight to 4.X and use either a remote network connection to the blade or a crash cart to make a direct connection to the blade to update the iDRAC, Bios, and CPLD. A USB key or Remote Share can be used.  Just make sure any 10G blades are already on since a server may not POST after a reboot if the iDRAC has not been updated.  Generally taking the CMC to 3.X or 4.X will go smoothly but with the old 10Gen firmware you may lose communication with the iDRAC.  If the CMC should hang a failover will get it back by reseating the CMC.  In a production environment resetting CMC or iDRAC may not be desired and so the prudent approach using 2.3 would avoid this. So for M1000e with CMC 1.X users have two main choices intermediate update to 2.2 or 2.3 or direct to 4.X.

4. Additional Information

More information can be found in the CMC Users Guide M1000e Chassis Management Controller 4.4 Users Guide.
To use a command to remotely update the CMC and blades consult the RACADM CLI Reference guide for iDRAC and CMC.
Dell Community Tech Center has White Papers and videos on firmware updates from simple local updates to using WinRM and WSMAN. 
Here is link to the Lifecycle Controller: Support for Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9). 

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