Home > Flex-10, HP > HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Firmware 3.51 released which may fix upgrade nightmares

HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Firmware 3.51 released which may fix upgrade nightmares

February 1st, 2012

HP has released new Virtual Connect Flex-10 firmware 3.51 and marked it as a *RECOMMENDED* update.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=3201263&prodNameId=3201264&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-3f28fda4c47e4a95b65bea9751

Here are some enhancements that are in 3.51

  • Enhanced support for network loop protection
  • Support for Internet Explorer 9.x
  • Support for Mozilla Firefox 6.x and 7.x

The release notes have now been published as a PDF.
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03128002/c03128002.pdf

Importantly though there is a fix in the 3.51 firmware which should make many extremely frustrated upgraders sleep a little better at night:

This has always been the hugely annoying part of the Virtual Connect firmware upgrade procedure when for what seems like completely unexplained reasons you lose network connectivity during the activation part when the switches are rebooting. I have previously done a huge amount of testing on the upgrade process and was never able to be 100% consistent and confident in maintaining network connectivity so always had to schedule the upgrades out of hours and plan for a complete shutdown in case Virtual Connect decided not to play nicely.

I’m really hoping the upgrade  issues are now resolved as this is the main reason people don’t have complete faith in HP Virtual Connect as it has been seen as flaky when you upgrade.

Before installing, make sure you read the release notes as there are some things you need to check:

  • Review OA Customer Advisory c02639172 immediately to see if any recent changes made to Enclosure configuration are at risk of not being persistently preserved. If the changes were made by a non-Administrator user account, before the next OA firmware upgrade or reset, the workaround documented in c02639172 must be executed immediately to ensure the prior Enclosure configuration changes are persistently preserved. The issue described in c02639172 was resolved with OA 3.21 or later.
  • HP requires using the HP BladeSystem c-Class Virtual Connect Support Utility version 1.6.0 (or later) to install the HP VC-Enet version 3.51, the HP VC 4Gb FC version 1.43, and HP VC 8Gb FC version 1.04 firmware. Please read the most current release notes for HP BladeSystem c-Class Virtual Connect Support Utility.
There is another warning that has been listed:
  • Upgrading VC firmware using Virtual Connect Support Utility (VCSU) or HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM) from 3.15, 3.17, or 3.18 to a newer version might result in a temporary Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) outage. This behavior is limited to systems using HP ProLiant or Integrity server blades with a FlexFabric Mezzanine adapter and a corresponding FCoE connection to an HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port module. This behavior does not appear for FCoE connections using an embedded FlexFabric adapter (LOM). For more detailed information, see Customer Advisory c02950493 on the HP website

Here is a list of the other fixes:

  • Resolved an issue for VC 8Gb 20-port FC module firmware where it would not always perform Link Reset when there were no FC buffer credits available. This fix improves link stability between the VC-FC module and the HBA.
  • Resolved an issue that caused network connectivity loss for Integrity multi-blade servers, such as the HP Integrity 870c i2 server, with a profile assigned. The issue could be triggered by a sequence of interaction between VCM and the OA, through which a profile “pending” state was left unattended.
  • Resolved an issue where CLI server profiles associated with a non-default network access group reverted back to the “Default” network access group after profiles were assigned to physical servers.
  • Resolved an issue where the defined VC domain IP address became inaccessible after the primary VC module host name was changed.
  • Resolved an issue for multi-blade servers where FlexFabric ports were being over-allocated for FCoE entries and were unavailable for Ethernet connections.
  • Previously the VCM CLI splash screen, which asks for acceptance to the terms on the screen, did not precede the login credentials. The VCM CLI now displays the customer configurable splash screen first, asking for acceptance to the terms before asking for login credentials.
  • Resolved an issue where the MAC Address table did not get purged when a Flex-10 NIC was shut down, causing a loss of connectivity.
  • Resolved an issue where changing the host name in either the GUI or CLI had no effect on the host name used in system log.
  • Resolved an issue where both the GUI Domain Status screen and the CLI show status command did not include servers with a failed status.Issues and workarounds 6
  • Resolved an issue where the GUI would stop its loading operation if the cursor was pointing to the DIP switch warning icon.statistics command was issued.
  • Resolved an issue where Insight Control for VMware Center was unable to retrieve date from VC v3.30.
  • Resolved an issue where a fabric previously set to Manual Login Re-Distribution might appear as set to Automatic Re-Distribution when you attempted to edit the fabric on the Edit SAN Fabric screen.
  • Resolved an issue where the incorrect status of “linked-standby” was displayed for uplink ports with RJ-45 connectors.
  • The CLI now supports three boot target WWN formats.
  • The Network Setup Wizard now enables you to add a network access group before creating new networks.
  • Resolved an issue with VCM internal states being out of sync, which resulted in loss of network connectivity.
  • Resolved an issue where the FC profile connection entries were not being mapped to FC mezzanine cards installed on the third and fourth server blades in an HP Integrity BL890c i2 c3000 Server Blade installed in a c3000 enclosure.
  • Resolved an issue that caused VCM and VCEM to be out of sync, which was caused by VCM and OA losing their communication during a VCEM profile assignment.
  • Resolved an issue where unassigning the profile from an auxiliary bay in an HP Integrity BL8x0c i2 server blade cleared the connections on the auxiliary blade.
  • Resolved an issue where copying a shared uplink set that had no associated networks failed in both the GUI and CLI.
  • Resolved an issue that occurred when editing a shared uplink set. Previously, clicking on the links under the “Connected To” column in the External Uplink Ports table displayed a progress bar indicating that the data was loading, but the data load never completed

There is also a list of new issues and workarounds so make sure you read those release notes!

Have a look at my post: HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 & VMware ESX(i) pre-requisites for information on all firmware & driver information.

Categories: Flex-10, HP Tags: , , ,
  1. Björn
    February 7th, 2012 at 14:55 | #1

    Any feedback on this version?

    I am about to upgrade my modules from 3.15 and I’m a bit curious how this version works.

  2. WoodITWork
    April 4th, 2012 at 11:38 | #2

    @Björn

    I’ve heard this version is pretty stable. No major issues reported as yet so I’m updating my recommendation to go for 3.51 which fixes many issues from 3.30

  3. Paul
    April 12th, 2012 at 01:56 | #3

    Is anyone using this on 4.0? I don’t see anywhere on the solutions recipes from HP that says it is compatible on 4.0, only 4.1. I was going to upgrade to 3.51 tomorrow but may just go to 3.18 instead if I can’t find anything else. Thanks.

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