Updating PRIMERGY M1/M2 servers LoM CNA firmware on Linux

Most of Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX/RX M1 and M2 servers use Emulex CNA as LoM. To update the LoM CNA firmware, Fujitsu recommends using the firmware update ISO, firmware update ASP (Autonomous Support Package), Emulex OCM, ServerView Update Manager, or ServerView Update Manager Express. Each has pros and cons. My focus is to see if a mass update is possible and updates can be done without vendor specific tools. ServerView Update Manager and Emulex OCM support mass updates. If there are tens or hundreds of PRIMERGYs that require a CNA firmware update, either one would be the way to go, but both require some sort of vendor specific agents/tools. Other methods are for a single server update. Well, technically the ASP method can be used for a mass update, but it sill requires the Emulex tool as a prerequisite. In this entry, I will explain another way to update the CNA LoM firmware in Linux. This is not documented in Fujitsu's manuals, so I think this is not supported by the vendor. You can do this, but at your own risk. Here are the steps.

1. Download the firmware image from Fujitsu's download site (http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/).
2. Extract the firmware image (e.g. oc14-11.1.172.23.ufi) from the download file.
3. Place the firmware file under /lib/firmware.

# cp oc14-11.1.172.23.ufi /lib/firmware

4. Check the current firmware version.

# ethtool -i <interface name>

Example)

# ethtool -i eth0
driver: be2net
version: 11.1.172.21.4fts
firmware-version: 10.6.193.31
bus-info: 0000:03:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: no
supports-priv-flags: yes

5. Update the firmware.

# ethtool -f <interface name> <firmware file name copied in step 2>

Example)

# ethtool -f eth0 oc14-11.1.172.23.ufi

6. Check if the firmware is installed.
Example) New firmware version appears in the square brackets

# ethtool -i eth0
driver: be2net
version: 11.1.172.21.4fts
firmware-version: 10.6.193.31 [11.1.172.23]
bus-info: 0000:03:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: no
supports-priv-flags: yes

7. Reboot the server to activate the new firmware.

You should see the new firmware used in the system after the reboot.