SUMMARY: Remote firmware update via LFU ?

From: Iain Barker (ibarker_at_aastra.com)
Date: 10/24/03

  • Next message: Brehl, Blake: "SUMMARY: korn shell script question"
    Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 19:10:57 -0400
    To: tru64-unix-managers@ornl.gov
    
    

    By observing the behaviour of a new 4.0f OS installation I saw that firmware
    can in fact be automatically applied from the hard drive, as follows:

    mount /dev/rz5c /mnt (this is the firmware cdrom)
    cp /mnt/as4x00/as4x00_v6_0.exe /
    umount /mnt
    consvar -s boot_osflags LFUA
    consvar -s boot_file as4x00_v6_0.exe
    shutdown -r now

    After the reboot, the LFU will be run in silent mode. That will upgrade the
    system and other device firmware, then it will reset the boot_osflags and
    reboot the standard vmunix kernel from disk.

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Iain Barker [mailto:ibarker@aastra.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, 02 April, 2003 10:58
    To: tru64-unix-managers@ornl.gov
    Subject: SUMMARY: Remote firmware update via LFU ?

    The original question was how to script / automate the remote installation
    of firmware to a system which had no console / physical access.

    The solution comes in two parts.

    It was generally confirmed that there is no avaialble method to script SRM
    without access to the console, therefore some kind of remote access to at
    least the RCM interface (i.e. a modem on a serial port) would be required.

    For installing firmware without a CDROM present, two solutions are given.

    The first, from Uwe Lienig, is to use a bootp server in place of the rather
    antiquated MOP configuration, and boot via ethernet driver to a server that
    contains an image of the firmware cdrom.

    The second, which is what I managed to actually implement, is to transfer
    the image of the firmware upgrade CDROM via ftp, and clone it as an ISO9660
    filesystem onto a local hard drive using mkisofs. An undocumented feature
    of the LFU is that it can use any SCSI raw random-access device as the
    source for firmware files, not just the CDROM. Hence dkb300 for example can
    be used.

    Thanks for the responses.

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Iain Barker [mailto:ibarker@aastra.com]
    Sent: Thursday, 27 March, 2003 15:59
    To: tru64-unix-managers@ornl.gov
    Subject: Remote firmware update via LFU ?

    Hi,

    I am looking for a mechanism to automate the application of Alpha firmware
    updates in a 'lights out' environment.

    Has anyone devised a way to upgrade firmware without requiring a site visit
    to install a floppy/CDROM etc?

    We have a number of systems which are remote, without easy console access to
    the VGA console. Not all of them have a serial console connected to modem,
    hence I am trying to devise a method to automatically run the lfu 'update *
    -all' command.

    There are some notes in the LFU readme regarding upgrade over Ethernet using
    a 'MOP' server. But no details of how to create/host such a service from
    another Alpha.

    These are all AS4100 Tru64 (4.0f) systems which are installed in pairs,
    therefore could one node possibly run as a MOP server and host the firmware
    files for remote update of the other node via the ewa interface?

    I also found that the 'nvram' script on SRM runs at boot time which could
    potentially be a way to script the update and subsequent reboot from disk.
    But I am not sure how I can modify the nvram script while Tru64 is
    running... and of course console access is unavailable. There is the
    'consvar -s' command in Tru64 which allows individual SRM variables to be
    modified, but is there an equivalent to allow access to the SRM 'filesystem'
    stored in EEPROM ?

    There was a previous similar question on the list here, but no
    summary/solution posted:
    http://www.ornl.gov/cts/archives/mailing-lists/tru64-unix-managers/2000/06/m
    sg00345.html

    Will summarise any responses.

    thanks.

    - Iain


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