PowerVault ME4: A disk firmware update is available for your system

Note: Administrators looking for Samsung SSD firmware versions DSA4 or DWA4 must contact Dell technical support to obtain the drive update package. Refer the agent to KB 000207843. 

As part of a maintenance schedule, Dell Technologies recommends PowerVault ME administrators upgrade disk drive firmware where applicable. These updates help maintain the reliability of the drives and extend their operational life span. During the update, I/O to the drives is paused briefly. We recommend that connected hosts' I/O be stopped or that hosts be put in maintenance mode beforehand.

• Viewing event logs
• Drive update workflow
• Applying drive firmware updates
• Frequently asked questions

Viewing event logs

To view the event log, in the footer, click the events panel and select Show Event List. The event log viewer panel opens.

Figure 1. Show Event List. 

Figure 2. Event log viewer is showing event 649 and event 650. 
 

Drive firmware update workflow

1. Download the Dell PowerVault ME Series Storage HDD/SSD Firmware update from dell.com/support. 

2. Extract the files from the .zip file and look at the readme.txt file for available drive updates for each drive model and firmware application instructions. Firmware update best practices can also be found in the PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Administrator’s Guide under the System topic > updating firmware chapter.
3. Plan a maintenance window and either shutdown hosts or logout connected host initiators or put connected hosts in maintenance mode. See your Operating System guides for specific instructions. Application of the drive updates is quick, and you can expect to have all drives updated within a few minutes.
4. Using PowerVault Manager, system firmware update, select the drive models to be updated and upload the firmware for that model.
5. Once the drive firmware updates are complete, bring the hosts back online.
    

Updating disk firmware using PowerVault Manager 

Extract the files from the .zip file.

On Microsoft Windows 10 hosts, use the certutil utility to verify that the SHA256 checksum of the downloaded file matches the expected value.

C:\temp\Downloads> certutil -hashfile A25_ME_Series_HDD_Firmware_with_ReadMe.zip SHA256
SHA256 hash of A25_ME_Series_HDD_Firmware_with_ReadMe.zip:
022bd6fbc005e8cd4cb32ea4b06bc883bddba8959441a91c7f04d26c20df2f9c
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

Best practices for firmware update

• In the health panel in the footer, verify that the system health status is OK. If the system health status is not OK, view the Health Reason Value in the health panel in the footer and resolve all issues before you update the firmware. 

• Run the check firmware-upgrade-health CLI command before updating the firmware. This command performs a series of health checks to determine whether any conditions exist that must be resolved before the firmware can be updated. Any conditions that are detected are listed with their potential risks. For information about this command, see the Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System CLI Guide. 

• If any unwritten cache data is present, the firmware update does not proceed. Before you can update the firmware, unwritten data must be removed from cache. For more information about the clear cache command, see the Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System CLI Guide. 
• If a disk group is quarantined, contact technical support for help with resolving the issue that is causing the component to be quarantined before updating the firmware.
• Stop I/O to the storage system. During the update, all volumes are temporarily inaccessible to hosts. If I/O is not stopped, mapped hosts report I/O errors.   

Update disk drive firmware

1. Perform one of the following:
   • In the banner, click the system panel and select Update Firmware.
   • In the System topic, select Action > Update Firmware.
   The Update Firmware panel opens.
2. Select the Update Disk Drives tab. This tab shows information about each disk drive in the system.
3. Select the disk drives to update.
4. Click File and select the firmware file to install.
5. Click OK.
   CAUTION: Do not power cycle enclosures or restart a controller during the firmware update. If the update is interrupted or there is a power failure, the disk drive might become inoperative. If this occurs, contact technical support.

   Wait for a message that the update has completed.

6. Verify that each disk drive has the new firmware revision.

Figure 3. Update Disk Drives tab.
 

Figure 4. Select the drives to be updated. You may have to click the upper-right arrow to be able to select more drives. Select the firmware to be applied and click OK.
 

Figure 5. You must acknowledge that host I/O has been stopped. 
 

Figure 6. Disk firmware update progress.
 

Figure 7. Click OK to finish.
 

Frequently asked questions

How long do disk drive updates take to apply?
The process of applying the updates is quick and is complete within a few minutes, when scheduling the time window needed for a maintenance window most of the time is spent taking connected hosts offline and bringing them back online again. 

Where do I find the disk drive firmware updates for my PowerVault ME4?
Go to dell.com/support and either select your PowerVault model or enter the service tag. Under Drivers & Downloads, select the Dell PowerVault ME Series Storage HDD/SSD Firmware file and download to your local system. The readme.txt within this zipped file contains a list of all drive models and firmware available for ME4 systems.


Figure 8. If you do know the service tag, you can select the PowerVault ME model.
 

How can I check if host initiators are logged into the ME4?
The Hosts topic shows a tabular view of information about initiators, hosts, and host groups that are defined in the system.

Discovered. Shows Yes for a discovered initiator. Shows No for an initiator that is not logged into the system.

Figure 9. Host initiators that are discovered by the ME4 show as Yes.