Dell Chassis Management Controller Version 3.10 for Dell EMC PowerEdge VRTX User's Guide

You can update the CMC firmware using web interface or RACADM. The firmware update, by default, retains the current CMC settings. During the update process, you can reset CMC configuration settings back to the factory-default settings.

If a Web user interface session is used to update system component firmware, the Idle Timeout (0, 60–10800) setting must be set to a higher value to accommodate the file transfer time. Sometimes, the firmware file transfer time may be as high as 30 minutes. To set the idle timeout value, see Configuring Services.

During CMC firmware updates, it is normal for some or all of the fan units in the chassis to rotate at 100% speed.

If you have redundant CMCs installed in the chassis, it is recommended to update both the CMCs to the same firmware version, at the same time, with a single operation. If CMCs have different firmware and a failover occurs, unexpected results may occur.

The Active CMC resets and becomes temporarily unavailable after the firmware has been uploaded successfully. If a standby CMC is present, the standby and active roles swap. The standby CMC becomes the active CMC. If an update is applied only to the active CMC, after the reset is complete, the active CMC does not run the updated image, only the standby CMC has that image. In general, it is highly recommended to maintain identical firmware versions for the active and standby CMCs.

When the standby CMC has been updated, swap the CMCs’ roles so that the newly updated CMC becomes the active CMC and the CMC with the earlier firmware becomes the standby. For information about swapping roles, see the cmcchangeover command section in the Chassis Management Controller for PowerEdge VRTX RACADM Command Line Reference Guide . Running this command helps you to verify that the update has succeeded and that the new firmware is working properly, before you update the firmware in the second CMC. When both CMCs are updated, you can use the cmcchangeover command to restore the CMCs to their previous roles. CMC firmware revision 2.x updates both the primary CMC and the redundant CMC without running the cmcchangeover command.

During the final phases of the firmware update process in CMC, the browser session and connection with CMC is lost temporarily as the CMC is not connected to the network. CMC generates the chassis overall health as critical owing to the temporary network loss. When CMC restarts after a few minutes, log in to it. The CMC then generates the chassis overall health as healthy and the CMC network link is up. After CMC resets, the new firmware version is displayed on the Firmware Update page.

To avoid disconnecting other users during a reset, notify authorized users who may log in to CMC and check for active sessions on the Sessions page. To open the Sessions page, click Chassis Overview in the left pane, click Network, and then click the Sessions.

When transferring files to and from CMC, the file transfer icon spins during the transfer. If your icon is not animated, make sure that your browser is configured to allow animations. For more information about allowing animations in the browser, see Allow Animations in Internet Explorer .