HP G7 Blades: New Emulex firmware 4.1.402.20 released
HP has released a new firmware version 4.1.402.20 of its Emulex OneConnect 10Gb Ethernet Controller which is used in HP G7 Blades.
The June HP Service Pack for ProLiant 2012.06.0(B) had a 4.1.402.8 firmware version so it looks like it only had a lifespan of a month and has now been superseded by 4.1.402.20.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the HP VMware Recipe for June has been updated http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/recipes/June2012VMwareRecipe1.0.pdf
The installation is as before and requires you to boot off an .ISO and update manually. (I have a dream that one day…)
Before June the firmware version recommended was 4.0.493. I can’t tell what the enhancements are between 4.1.402.8 and 4.1.402.20 as the release notes for 4.1.402.20 only list the resolved issues from 4.0.493.
BladeEngine Firmware
- Increased RSS queues for Rhel drivers.
- Fixed W2K8 graceful shutdown on NC552 adapter.
- iSCSI not working when priority fields are used.
- 554FLR-SFP adapter, FCoE Path Multipath Recovery Failure, SLES11 SP1 x64
- FCoE port sometimes doesn’t login after VC module failover, w2k3
- Fix support for TEMP_DEAD and ALOM_FAN_ON_AUX on Gen 8 servers
- Correction to OCSD to prevent DMA conflicts with LPFC driver
PXE BIOS
- NC553i adapter using wrong IP for gateway during Tftp
- BE2/BE3 based adapters, PXE Hang
- BL465cG7 PXE boot stops and is not coming up in RDP
iSCSI BIOS
- SCSI SAN boot fails when DHCP Vendor Id is used for BL420cG8
- Smart Array shows EBDA Error when ELX iSCSI Boot LUN configured
UEFI NIC
- Dynamic link update is not working with NIC UEFI driver
Technical Tips
- When updating HP CN1000e and NC550SFP products, use either the OneConnect-flash.iso or the Elxflash Offline tools. Either method will update the ILO image for the Network Communications Services Interface (NCSI) side band support. This procedure requires a power cycle after flashing. This tip does not apply to network cards that are version 4.0.360.15 or later.
- Before you update your host drivers, update your firmware using the available online tools.
I’ve updated my post: HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 & VMware ESX(i) pre-requisites
I pinged you on twitter, but if you have not used the Emulex OneCommand Manager to do your firmware upgrades for your Emulex FC HBA’s and UCNA’s it can save you a lot of time and hassle. It also has a vCenter plugin so you can do a lot of management tasks from within vCenter itself. Batch firmware upgrades as well as non-distruptive firmware upgrades for FC HBA’s. Also things like WWN changes and parameter updates. Pretty handy, and its free.
These tools may be free, but it’s ridiculous how convoluted the “OneCommand Manager for vCenter 1.10” is to update firmware. It takes me over a half-hour per blade to flash. It’s so friggin slow. I have over 30 G7 blades to flash and I’m beginning to think I’ll stick with the ISO method.
Probably HP should update the following document, with this recent (and further) firmware release.
http://partnerweb.vmware.com/programs/hcl/ESX_Flex_config.pdf
If you are wondering about this document is hosted with VMware, we figured out via a VMware SR this document is authored and controlled by hp staff.
We are dealing with unexpected reboots, power-cycles and / or resets of BL685 G7 systems (ESX) since months now.
Hopefully this firmware will resolve this behavior.
Anyone now’s whether this version is based on Emulex OneConnect UCNA firmware version 4.1.402.18? Cause the release notes of HP are really brief compared to the Emulex OneConnect UCNA Firmware Release Notes Version 4.1.402.18 http://www-dl.emulex.com/support/hardware/oce10102/fw/4140218/fw_bootcode_release_notes.pdf
@Roger
Hi Roger,
Actually, after some investigation, I have discovered that the 4.1.402.20 firmware installer image (ISO) is based on Emulex OneConnect UCNA firmware version 4.1.402.8.
The HP 4.1.402.20 firmware image contains the same firmware version shipped with latest HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) version 2012.06.0 (B)
@ Rotem Agmon
Thanks for investigation. That could mean we are going to install the original Emulex firmware 4.1.402.18 on our BL 686 G7 to fight the unexpected reboot behavior.
According to a recent SR to VMware, the installation of the Emulex firmware 4.1.402.18 on our BL 685 G7 systems would by ok for VMware.
@Roger
What version of VMware ESX(i) do you have installed on the BL 685 G7 systems?
What is the version of System ROM (BIOS) that you have installed?
Are you certain the culprit is the LOM (HP NC551i)?
@Rotem Agmon
ESXi 5u1 721882
BL 685 G7 System ROM 03/19/2012 (HP static high performance mode, no C-states, no interleaving)
vmnic0 – vmnic15 be2net Emulex Corporation NC551i Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Adapter (firmware 4.1.402.8 – now upgrading to 4.1.402.20 in progress – , Ethernet only)
2x Qlogic QMH2562 (BIOS 2.15) to VMAX
@Roger
You said that you are experiencing unexpected reboot behavior. Do your servers display a Purple Screen of Death(PSOD)? Have you tried disable ASR (Automatic Server Restart) in HP BIOS settings?
kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010842
@Rotem Agmon
The unexpected reboot (or better reset) do not generate a PSOD.
ASR is disabled at all hosts.
In the meantime we installed the Emulex firmware 4.1.402.20 on all G7 hosts. So far there are no unexpected reboots during the short period the G7 that Emulex firmware. But that doesn’t mean anything – cause usually there is just one or two reboot within a 2 week period.
I got the following answer according to my request based on your finding, that HP firmware installer image (ISO) 4.1.402.20 is based on the older Emulex OneConnect UCNA firmware 4.1.402.8 instead the presumed recent Emulex firmware 4.1.402.18.
By the way, how did’ you get your finding?
================================================================
The HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) version 2012.06.0 (B) contains the NC551i firmware version 4.1.402.8, which is prior to the most recent one and the latest NC551i firmware version 4.1.402.20 (26 Jun 2012) was released after the release of SPP.
Older versions of firmware are listed in link below
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=4118472&swItem=MTX-c2202744818b4f7bb7cfc405cc&prodNameId=4118473&swEnvOID=4095&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=5
Contents of SPP indicates as below
HP Firmware Flash for Emulex Fibre Channel Host Bus and Converged Network Adapters – Linux (x86) 2012.05.01 CP016964.scexe
It is listed in this link
http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/doc/p1822529277/v78183/SPP2012.06.0B-ContentsReport.pdf
Latest firmware can be downloaded and updated using offline method as per instructions from link below
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=5033632&swItem=co-106538-1&prodNameId=5033634&swEnvOID=54&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=0
================================================================
@Dan:
You don’t have to use the vsphere plugin, you can spin up a VM install the stand alone one command manager application in management mode, scan the IP ranges of your hosts and they should show up and do a batch firmware update across all your hosts all at once. If you were running the Fibre Channel cards the firmware update is non-disruptive, but with the UCNA’s it will still require a host reboot.
I believe there is a new release of the plugin 1.2 that just came out that addresses some speed issues with ESXi 5.0 U1 for the plugin. http://www.emulex.com/downloads/emulex/vmware/vsphere-50/management.html
Hi Guys,
Found an HP advisory that suggestes that this only affects servers with FCoE and DMA conflicts on Gen8, the document is a little misleading on whether the issue is only on Gen8 or whether it also affects people running Multipath FCoE as well. Hp Advisory c03400156
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c03400156&jumpid=em_alerts_us-us_Jul12_xbu_all_all_1808520_119812_bladesystemoptionsandaccessoriesstorage_critical_013_4
The most significant difference with the .20 FW for me was that the problem with dropped Windows Guest OS TCP traffic in a vLAN tagged network environment on VMWare ESX 4.1U1/U2 seems to finally have been fixed, when packets were switched, as opposed to routed. Still testing, though.
@Roger
What processors do you have in your BL685c G7’s?
Just FYI – Seems 4.1.402.20 has been recalled, it’s no longer available on HP’s website. You can get the newest firmware from HP support.
And for what it’s worth, we had issues on our BL460c G7 servers with this firmware using the HP ESXi customized CD (it simply doesn’t work). The solution is to use the generic VMware install disk but we’ve been getting random PSODs since upgrading to ESXi 5 Update 1 (which we didn’t get with 4.1). My gut tells me 4.0.493.0 is more stable.
@Steve
4.1.402.20 firmware is still available for download on HP’s website at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=lamerica_nsc_carib&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=4324629&swItem=co-106538-1&prodNameId=4324630&swEnvOID=54&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1
Haven’t heard anything about a recall.
What kind of random PSODs have you been getting? are they “Failed to ack TLB invalidate” PSODs?
How did you navigate to that download?
I’ve been following the NC553i adapter (I search for nc553i on the drivers page in HP site) for the latest firmware. 4.1.402.20 firmware was there last week, gone this week.
@Steve
Update – Seems I was wrong about the 4.1.402.20 firmware, it’s back on HP’s site under the NC553i downloads. Guess I was hoping they found something wrong, hence our PSODs.
Perhaps the site admin can remove my previous posts to prevent any misinformation. 🙂
What if after the firmware is now NC553i at server see the following:
Emulex 10Gb UNDI, PXE-2.0 BIOS vl0.5.155.0
Copyright (C) 2006-2015 Emulex Corporation
X
Emulex 10Gb UNDI, PXE-2.0 BIOS vl0.5.155.0
Copyright (C) 2006-2015 Emulex Corporation
X
It seems solved the problem.
Found here is the file: One Connect-Flash-4.6.247.5.iso
Upload, please, and it worked!