PowerFlex: RPS Upgrade General Procedure: Customer Preparation Guide

As your partner in IT, Dell Technologies has created this Upgrade Preparation Guide to help guide to a successful upgrade of your Dell Technologies equipment. While this guide is not intended as a replacement for any of our other guides or release notes. It does point out known concerns related to the upgrade, which have the potential to disrupt your environment.

From August 2025, the Dell Remote Proactive Services team supports upgrades of PowerFlex Rack and Appliance which are running PowerFlex core software version 4.5 or later. The corresponding PowerFlex Rack Release Certification Matrix (RCM) release for 4.5 is 3.7.3.0, for PowerFlex Appliance, the corresponding Intelligent Catalog (IC) release is 45.373.00. 

Upgrading a PowerFlex rack or appliance to a new release is only permitted if the existing system is already running on an earlier PowerFlex 4.5.x release.
For upgrades from versions earlier than 4.5, assistance from the Dell Professional Services team is required, as this falls outside the scope of the RPS team. Contact your Dell account team if this service is required.

Scope of RPS Support:

How to engage RPS for a PowerFlex upgrade:

• Using Service Tag, open a Maintenance Services case online by selecting Operating Environment Upgrade and Create Service Request
  • Fill out the simple webform and submit your case
• Dell Scheduling Team reaches out to manage event scheduling
  
  

 In preparation for your upcoming upgrade event, review the following items:

• Schedule your upgrade for a time outside of your peak I/O load, as performance degradation may occur as individual nodes/hosts are being upgraded.
• Do not run any management operations while an update is in progress. Example: Creating a new protection domain, deploying a new resource group, removing hosts from a resource group.
• Do not run any password rotations or certificate rotation operations.
• Ensure that file-based backups are configured and working for PowerFlex Manager. This can be configured at Settings > Backup and Restore.
• Ensure that a local network share path (such as CIFS) is available to PowerFlex Manager, from which it can access the required upgrade files.
• Ensure that there are no failed workflows in your environment and no resources in an error state. If any of these conditions are true, contact the Dell PowerFlex Support Team before starting the upgrade.
• Since Virtual Machines (VMs) are migrating as part of the upgrade, ensure that VMs can be migrated in advance. Examples of issues that may prevent migration:
  • VM with an ISO mounted
  • VM with external storage locally mounted
  • VM pinned to a host
  • Verify that all third-party software is compatible with the target PowerFlex version.

Downloading Required Files:

When preparing the upgrade of PowerFlex software and its infrastructure components, it is recommended to download all the required files. Download the files to the embedded jump host or a jump server and ensuring this server has access to the PowerFlex software. Configure a share using CIFS or NFS to enable access to the upgrade files.

The required files may consist of some or all the following files depending on the configuration and the scope of the upgrade:

• PowerFlex Rack Release Certification Matrix (RCM) or PowerFlex Appliance Intelligent Catalog (IC) code upgrade bundle
• Dell Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) firmware (if not in RCM/IC bundle)
• PowerFlex management platform
• Compatibility matrix file
• Compliance file
• VMware ESXi, vCSA images, and patch depot files
• CloudLink image files (if not in RCM/IC bundle)
• IC file for the embedded operating system-based jump server
• Dell PowerSwitch and Cisco switches firmware (where applicable)
  • For Cisco Nexus switches upgrading to an NXOS image lower than 10.5(3), the corresponding EPLD firmware must be downloaded separately from the Cisco support site . Ensure that the EPLD image is available before the upgrade to avoid delays.
  • Starting with NXOS 10.5(3), EPLD is bundled with the NXOS image, so a separate EPLD download is not required.

Customer Jump-Box Requirements (If not using the PowerFlex embedded jump server):

Ensure the jump-box meets the following requirements:

• 250 GB free disk space
• 4GB RAM, 8GB+ Recommended
• Use a VM, preferably on the same management network as PowerFlex Manager, to avoid firewall ports being blocked. Ensure that network access to each PowerFlex component on ports 22, 80, 443.
• Zoom session initiated directly from the jump-box VM to avoid latency over VPN.
• Fast Internet connection.
  You should have the following software installed:
  • Putty Client (or equivalent)
  • WinSCP
  • Zoom or WebEx
• Jump-box VM or physical machine should have full admin privileges to avoid permission errors.

Latest PowerFlex Code Releases:

Rack:

• 3.8.3.1 Released 2025-12-05 - Release Notes
• 3.7.8.1 Released 2025-12-05 - Release Notes

Appliance:

• 48.383.01 Released 2025-12-05 - Release Notes
• 48.378.01 Released 2025-12-05 - Release Notes

Password Requirements for Assessment and Upgrade Sessions (depending on configuration):

 Broadcom License Keys:

• VMware license keys are required for major version upgrades (Out of Family) for example vCenter ESXi 7.x to 8.x.
• See Broadcom VMware article 281797 Upgrade and Downgrade VMware License Keys using the Broadcom support portal  for information about upgrading your license keys after a PowerFlex upgrade.
• See Broadcom VMware article 334240 Managing licenses on ESXi hosts using the vSphere Client for assistance in applying for licenses.
• Customers are responsible for obtaining and updating license keys.

Request for Product Qualification (RPQ):

Do you have an existing RPQ in place or planned for your PowerFlex environment?

• Upgrading any PowerFlex component beyond the version specified in the PowerFlex RCM IC requires an approved RPQ. Contact your account team to raise an RPQ request if required.
• Previously approved nonstandard configurations could impact the upgrade process, inform the RPS team during your upgrade assessment if nonstandard configurations are in place.
• Any reconfiguration work outside of the upgrade process would require a paid engagement with the Dell Professional Services Team.

CPLD Firmware Upgrade Requirement for PowerFlex Nodes:

• If the CPLD firmware upgrade file for your PowerFlex node type is not included as part of your target RCM IC release, it must be upgraded separately prior to the scheduled upgrade window.

• To check whether the CPLD firmware for your PowerFlex node is in the target RCM IC version, go to the Code Knowledge Hub and review your target PowerFlex Rack or Appliance release.

Relevant Documentation:

• Dell PowerFlex Rack with PowerFlex 4.x Upgrade Guide
• Dell PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 4.x Upgrade Guide

Customer Actionable Items:

For upgrade tasks that fall outside the scope of the Dell Remote Proactive Services (RPS) team, customers are responsible for performing these updates. If a customer prefers not to perform any of these upgrade activities, they may contact their Dell account team to request a quote for Dell Professional Services to complete the work for them. The following reference documentation is provided to help with the upgrade:

vCenter Upgrade:

1. Backup and then remove the vCenter HA configuration if present. Follow Broadcom documentation Remove a vCenter HA Configuration
2. Upgrade the management and then production vCenters. Follow Broadcom documentation Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance

CPLD Firmware upgrade:

1. PowerFlex 4.x: PowerFlex 4.x How to Verify and upgrade the CPLD firmware 
2. When running 15G PowerFlex storage nodes, follow article PowerFlex Procedure to update firmware to mitigate an issue of NVDIMM batteries losing charge if affected by issue of NVDIMM batteries losing charge on PowerFlex Rack and Appliance (R650, R750) nodes.
   
   

CloudLink Center Major version upgrade:

1. Refer to chapter 13 of the PowerFlex Rack or Appliance upgrade guide.
   
   

Dell PowerSwitch upgrade:

1. PowerFlex 4.x: PowerFlex 4.x Upgrading the Dell PowerSwitch switches

SDC Driver Upgrade:

1. Customers are responsible for upgrading the Storage Data Client (SDC) drivers within the OS for machines not upgraded as part of the RPS upgrade process. Updated SDC driver packages for manual installation are available for various OS platforms on the Dell Support site. Ensure the SDC driver is updated to the latest version after the main PowerFlex upgrade process is completed. 
   
   

   • Download link: PowerFlex SDC Driver Package 4.5.5.1
   • Release date: 19 Dec 2025
   • Description: This package includes SDC drivers for manual installation across supported operating systems.

Configuration Change Advisory:

To ensure a successful upgrade, customers must avoid making configuration changes to their PowerFlex environment between the completion of the upgrade assessment and the start of the scheduled upgrade window. Configuration modifications during this period may result in inconsistencies that can delay or prevent the upgrade from proceeding.

If configuration changes are unavoidable, they must be performed strictly in accordance with the procedures documented in the official PowerFlex Administration Guide and other relevant product documentation. e.g, Password changes, Certificate changes.