How to Update Disk Firmware in Solaris on a SPARC System

Asset ID:	1-71-2346487.1
Update Date:	2018-01-09
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 2346487.1 : How to Update Disk Firmware in Solaris on a SPARC System

Applies to:

SPARC T3-1 - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
SPARC T4-1 - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
SPARC T5-2 - Version All Versions to All Versions [Release All Releases]
Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
Sun Fire T2000 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal

This document will provide examples on updating firmware on disk drives on SPARC based servers running Solaris.

Solution

First a patch should be downloaded.

300GB, 600GB, 900GB, and 1.2 TB Disk Firmware Upgrade to Address Unrecoverable Read Errors in SPARC Platforms. (Doc ID 2070764.1) is an example for Hitachi HDD firmware patch document.

Alternatively, Matrix of Sun Disk Firmware and Patches (Doc ID 1492608.1) can be searched for patches related to other vendors.

Once a patch has been downloaded, it needs to be extracted on the host machine to a temporary folder.

The system needs to stop processing IO to the disks in question. For this purpose please run the system in single user to avoid problems. Applying the patch will work on multiple disks at the same time, no need to update one disk at a time.

As long as they are the same model and require an update, the utility will update all of them at the same time.

NOTE: Each disk model has its own firmware patch. Please see the Matrix of Sun Disk Firmware and Patches (Doc ID 1492608.1) for the patch numbers for each model.

NOTE: The below example uses a Hitachi firmware update file, but this will work the same for Seagate or Fujitsu. Only the firmware level and device names will change. The output was captured on a T3-1 using WWN naming. For older machines, cxtxdx naming convention may be used.

Once the system is in single user mode, cd to the directory that has the unpacked file and run the command:

# ./download

The output afterwards should look similar to this:

Firmware Download Utility, V4.3.1

**************************  WARNING  **************************
NO OTHER ACTIVITY IS ALLOWED DURING FIRMWARE UPGRADE!!!
No other programs including any volume manager (e.g. Veritas,
SDS, or Vold) should be running.  Other host systems sharing
any I/O bus with this host must either be offline or
disconnected.  Any interruption (e.g. power loss) during
upgrade can result in damage to devices being upgraded.

Any disk to be upgraded should first have its data backed up.
***************************************************************

Searching for devices...

DISK DEVICES
Device                               Rev   Product
c0tCCA0166C5AD8d0-c0tCCA0166EBA28d0: A31A  H109030SE -- SUN300G
c0tCCA043500D94d0:                   A690  H109030SE -- SUN300G
Total Devices:  3

In the above example, three devices matching the model have been found with older firmware, A690.

Should you require it, the help command will provide a list of commands that can be run:

Enter command: help
Examples:
  program                 - program all devices
  program disk            - program all disk devices
  c1                      - program disk devices on c1
  c1t2d0                  - program disk  c1t2d0
  c1t2d0-c2t3d0           - program disks c1t2d0-c2t3d0
  c1t2d0-                 - program disks from c1t2d0
  rmt/0                   - program tape rmt/0
  inquiry                 - display device inquiry data
  list disk               - display only disk devices
  list ?                  - display help for list command
  quit                    - exit

Commands:
  program     [options]   - program devices
  list        [options]   - list devices
  inquiry     [options]   - list device inquiry data
  exclude     [device]    - exclude devices
  include     [device]    - include devices
  mode select [options]   - reset all mode page values

Device/Options:
  disk - disk devices     all  - all devices
  cd   - cd devices       ata  - ATA devices
  tape - tape devices     scsi - FC-AL/SCSI devices
  ?    - command help     rsm  - A1000/3000 devices

To update the firmware, please run the program disk command:

Enter command: program disk

After the command is executed, this is what the output would look like:

Upgrading devices...

c0tCCA043500D94d0: Successful download
c0tCCA0166C5AD8d0: Successful download
c0tCCA0166EBA28d0: Successful download
c0: recovery delay, 92 sec.

It is possible that there might be a problem with the label, or that the firmware update utility would think there is a problem:

c0tCCA043500D94d0: Volume label invalid, label(never,no,yes,always)? no

c0tCCA0166EBA28d0: Volume label invalid, label(never,no,yes,always)? no

c0tCCA0166C5AD8d0: Volume label invalid, label(never,no,yes,always)? no

NOTE: in this case it has been chosen not to update the label here. There's no problem going to the #format command afterwards and updating the labels.

When the update is done, the utility will show no updates are available:

DISK DEVICES
No devices found to upgrade!

If needed, the inquire command can be run to show that the disks have been upgraded to the newer firmware:

Enter command: inquire

DISK DEVICES
Device             Rev   Product               S/N
c0tCCA0166C5AD8d0: A720  H109030SE -- SUN300G  1317CXLA9F
c0tCCA0166EBA28d0: A720  H109030SE -- SUN300G  1317CYWT3F
c0tCCA043500D94d0: A720  H109030SE -- SUN300G  1442CE0UAS

As can be seen, the firmware has been successfully updated from A690 to A720.

The #format command can be ran as well to confirm that the disks have been updated:

# format
Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:

       5. c0t5000CCA0166C5AD8d0 <HITACHI-H109030SESUN300G-A720-279.40GB>
          /scsi_vhci/disk@g5000cca0166c5ad8
       6. c0t5000CCA0166EBA28d0 <HITACHI-H109030SESUN300G-A720-279.40GB>
          /scsi_vhci/disk@g5000cca0166eba28
       7. c0t5000CCA043500D94d0 <HITACHI-H109030SESUN300G-A720-279.40GB>
          /scsi_vhci/disk@g5000cca043500d94

The firmware version is listed right before the size.

References

<NOTE:1492608.1> - Matrix of Sun Disk Firmware and Patches
<NOTE:2070764.1> - 300GB, 600GB, 900GB, and 1.2 TB Disk Firmware Upgrade to Address Unrecoverable Read Errors in SPARC Platforms.

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