NCN Firmware

This page describes the non-compute node’s (NCN) firmware; the minimum versions, and how to interrogate information from an NCN.

Minimum versions

This section outlines the minimum firmware versions for a CSM install.

Server

NOTE Minimum firmware versions refers to versions that CSM has tested and verified to work for a CSM installation. Using older versions is not recommended, and user experience may vary.

The entries in this table may change as new features are added, bug fixes are adopted, or if/when newer Redfish® versions are required.

NOTE The values below match what is returned by Redfish® API calls.

Manufacturer Board Model BIOS Version Firmware Version
Cray Inc R272-Z30-00 C37 12.84.17
HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus A43 v1.38 (10/30/2020) iLO 5 v2.44
HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus v2 A43 v1.38 (10/30/2020) iLO 5 v2.44
Intel Corporation S2600WFT SE5C620.86B.02.01.0012.C0001.070720200218 2.48.89b32e0d

NOTE “Cray Inc” is reported as the board manufacturer on Gigabyte boards.

PCIe hardware - management network

This section covers drivers and firmware versions for management network hardware under CSM.

NOTE This does not cover high-speed network hardware.

Manufacturer Model Driver Version Firmware Version
QLogic Corp FastLinQ QL41000 Series 8.74.1.01 8.55.12

Obtaining the firmware versions

The following examples use QLogic Corp FastLinQ QL41000 series PCIe cards. Actual output will vary when using other vendor’s hardware.

From Use ethtool to fetch the driver and firmware version from any NCN (replace mgmt0 with any interface name):

ethtool -i mgmt0

Example output:

driver: qede
version: 8.74.4.0 [storm 8.72.1.0]
firmware-version: mbi 8.55.12 [mfw 8.55.22.0]
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: 0000:c6:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes

Alternatively, target every NCN with (replace mgmt0 or append more commands to check additional interfaces):

PDSH_SSH_ARGS_APPEND="-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null" pdsh -b -w $(grep -oP 'ncn-w\d+' /etc/hosts | sort -u |  tr -t '\n' ',') '
ethtool -i mgmt0
' | dshbak -c

BMC interrogation

This section will assist an administrator in interrogating the BMCs on a system. It provides various methods for various contexts.

The viable endpoints to query for advanced Redfish® users are:

  • redfish/v1/Managers/{ID} | jq -r '.Manufacturer, .BiosVersion , .Model'
  • redfish/v1/Systems/{ID} | jq -r .FirmwareVersion

  1. Failure to use the minimum driver will significantly increase the risk of network connectivity failures and chances of Kernel Panics on SLES-15-SP4 and newer. ↩︎