Update Management Network Firmware

This page describes how to update firmware on the management network switches. More details and other options to upgrade firmware can be found in the switch External User Guides.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the switches.
  • Firmware in a location that the switches can reach.

Aruba firmware can be found in the HFP package provided with the HPE Cray EX release. Dell and Mellanox firmware must be downloaded from the manufacturer.

Switch Firmware

Model software version
Aruba 8320 Switch Series 10.13.1040
Aruba 8325 Switch Series 10.13.1040
Aruba 8360 Switch Series 10.13.1040
Aruba 6300 Switch Series 10.13.1040
Mellanox SN2100 Switch Series 3.9.3210
Mellanox SN2700 Switch Series 3.9.3210
Dell S3048-ON Switch Series 10.5.1.4
Dell S4148T-ON Switch Series 10.5.1.4
Dell S4148F-ON Switch Series 10.5.1.4

Verify current switch firmware levels

The CANU utility can be used to report the current management switch firmware levels. The example output shows that the firmware is not at the recommended version and needs to be updated.

(ncn-m#) Run canu to report the firmware level of all switches. The switch admin user password should be supplied when prompted.

canu report network firmware --csm 1.6 --ips $(awk '/sw-/{ printf "%s%s", sep, $1; sep="," }' /etc/hosts)

Example output:

------------------------------------------------------------------
    STATUS  IP              HOSTNAME            FIRMWARE
------------------------------------------------------------------
 ❌ Fail    10.254.0.2      sw-spine-001        LL.10.11.1010       Firmware should be in range ['LL.10.13.1040']
 ❌ Fail    10.254.0.3      sw-spine-002        LL.10.11.1010       Firmware should be in range ['LL.10.13.1040']
 ❌ Fail    10.254.0.4      sw-leaf-bmc-001     FL.10.11.1010       Firmware should be in range ['FL.10.13.1040']

Summary
------------------------------------------------------------------
❌ Fail - 3 switches
LL.10.11.1010 - 2 switches
FL.10.11.1010 - 1 switches

Aruba Firmware Best Practices

Aruba software version number explained:

For example: 10.11.1010

  • 10 = OS

  • 13 = Major branch (new features)

  • 1040 = CPE release (bug fixes)

It is considered to be a best practice to keep all Aruba CX platform devices running the same software version.

Aruba CX devices two software image banks, which means switch images can be pre-staged to the device without booting to the new image.

If upgrading to a new major branch, in Aruba identified by the second integer in the software image number.

When upgrading past a major software release, for example, from 10.9 to 10.11 (and skipping 10.10.xxxx) issue the allow-unsafe-upgrades command to allow any low level firmware/driver upgrades to complete. If going from the 10.6 branch to 10.7 branch, this step can be skipped as the low level firmware/driver upgrade would be automatically completed.

config
sw-leaf-001(config)# allow-unsafe-updates 30

This command will enable non-failsafe updates of programmable devices for the next 30 minutes. First, wait for all line and fabric modules to reach the ready state, and then reboot the switch to begin applying any needed updates. Ensure that the switch will not lose power, be rebooted again, or have any modules removed until all updates have finished and all line and fabric modules have returned to the ready state.

WARNING: Interrupting these updates may make the product unusable!

Continue (y/n)? y
Unsafe updates      : allowed (less than 30 minute(s) remaining)

VSX software upgrade command can automatically upgrade both of the peers in VSX topology by staging upgrade and automatically doing traffic shifting between peers to minimize impact to network. The following examples include the option for standalone and vsx-pair upgrade.

Aruba Firmware Update - Standalone

Console into the switch being upgraded.

  1. Check images

    show images                        
    

    Potential output:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Primary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.09.0010
    Size    : 480 MB
    Date    : 2022-02-01 01:04:17 UTC
    SHA-256 : 52b2a6d2c5c039ed8eb0dbd6a3313ea93d268dd91688d2e3b295e03f946eb177
    
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Secondary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.11.1010
    Size    : 501 MB
    Date    : 2023-03-28 04:53:23 UTC
    SHA-256 : 7c3594162675c5d95d06e4a465546e6fac8b60b8fce9a82ab82d303f8defd2cd
    
    Default Image : primary
    Boot Profile Timeout : 5 seconds
    
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Management Module 1/1 (Active)
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Active Image       : secondary
    Service OS Version : GL.01.08.0003
    BIOS Version       : GL-01-0013
    
  2. Upload the firmware to the desired image.

    In this example we are uploading it to the secondary.

    copy sftp://root@10.252.1.12//root/ArubaOS-CX_6400-6300_10_08_1021.swi secondary
    
    write mem
    

    Expected output:

    Copying configuration: [Success]
    
  3. Once the upload is complete, check the images:

    show image
    

    Potential output:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Primary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.09.0010
    Size    : 480 MB
    Date    : 2022-02-01 01:04:17 UTC
    SHA-256 : 52b2a6d2c5c039ed8eb0dbd6a3313ea93d268dd91688d2e3b295e03f946eb177
    
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Secondary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.11.1010
    Size    : 501 MB
    Date    : 2023-03-28 04:53:23 UTC
    SHA-256 : 7c3594162675c5d95d06e4a465546e6fac8b60b8fce9a82ab82d303f8defd2cd
    
    Default Image : primary
    Boot Profile Timeout : 5 seconds
    
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Management Module 1/1 (Active)
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Active Image       : secondary
    Service OS Version : GL.01.08.0003
    BIOS Version       : GL-01-0013
    
  4. After the firmware is uploaded, boot the switch to the correct image.

    boot system secondary
    
  5. Once the reboot is complete, check and make sure the firmware version is correct.

    show version
    

    Potential output:

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX
    (c) Copyright 2017-2020 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version      : GL.10.11.1010
    Build Date   : 2023-03-28 04:53:23 UTC
    Build ID     : ArubaOS-CX:GL.10.11.1010:966f173e8e4e:202303280333
    Build SHA    : 966f173e8e4e519b5296fa51297754f663ef2ad8
    Hot Patches  : 
    Active Image : secondary
    
    Service OS Version : GL.01.08.0003
    BIOS Version       : GL-01-0013
    

Aruba Firmware Update - VSX Software Upgrade

Console into both VSX switches and pre-stage the firmware.

In this example we are pre-staging the firmware to sw-spine-001 and sw-spine-002

  1. Check images first.

    show images
    

    Potential output:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Primary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.09.0010
    Size    : 480 MB
    Date    : 2022-02-01 01:04:17 UTC
    SHA-256 : 52b2a6d2c5c039ed8eb0dbd6a3313ea93d268dd91688d2e3b295e03f946eb177
    
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Secondary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.11.1010
    Size    : 501 MB
    Date    : 2023-03-28 04:53:23 UTC
    SHA-256 : 7c3594162675c5d95d06e4a465546e6fac8b60b8fce9a82ab82d303f8defd2cd
    
    Default Image : primary
    Boot Profile Timeout : 5 seconds
    
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Management Module 1/1 (Active)
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Active Image       : secondary
    Service OS Version : GL.01.08.0003
    BIOS Version       : GL-01-0013
    
  2. Upload the firmware to the desired image.

    In this example we are uploading it to the secondary.

    copy sftp://root@10.252.1.12//var/www/ephemeral/data/network_images/ArubaOS-CX_8325_10_08_1021.swi secondary
    
    write mem
    

    Expected output:

    Copying configuration: [Success]
    
  3. Once the upload is complete, check the images and make sure the version is correct.

    show image
    

    Potential output:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Primary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.09.0010
    Size    : 480 MB
    Date    : 2022-02-01 01:04:17 UTC
    SHA-256 : 52b2a6d2c5c039ed8eb0dbd6a3313ea93d268dd91688d2e3b295e03f946eb177
    
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX Secondary Image
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version : GL.10.11.1010
    Size    : 501 MB
    Date    : 2023-03-28 04:53:23 UTC
    SHA-256 : 7c3594162675c5d95d06e4a465546e6fac8b60b8fce9a82ab82d303f8defd2cd
    
    Default Image : primary
    Boot Profile Timeout : 5 seconds
    
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Management Module 1/1 (Active)
    ------------------------------------------------------
    Active Image       : secondary
    Service OS Version : GL.01.08.0003
    BIOS Version       : GL-01-0013
    
  4. After the firmware is uploaded to both VSX switches, you will need to start the software update from the VSX primary member.

    Since we uploaded to the secondary image, we choose that one to boot to.

    vsx update-software boot-bank secondary
    

    This will trigger the upgrade process on the VSX pair and it will start the dialogue explaining what will happen next, i.e. if any firmware/driver upgrades are needed (i.e. the unit would reboot twice if this was the case) and it will show you on the screen the current status of the upgrade process. In VSX upgrade process the secondary VSX member will always boot first.

    Once software update is complete verify the image version on both switches.

    show version
    

    Potential output:

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ArubaOS-CX
    (c) Copyright 2017-2020 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Version      : GL.10.11.1010
    Build Date   : 2023-03-28 04:53:23 UTC
    Build ID     : ArubaOS-CX:GL.10.11.1010:966f173e8e4e:202303280333
    Build SHA    : 966f173e8e4e519b5296fa51297754f663ef2ad8
    Hot Patches  : 
    Active Image : secondary
    
    Service OS Version : GL.01.08.0003
    BIOS Version       : GL-01-0013
    

Mellanox Firmware Update

SSH into the switch being upgraded.

  1. Fetch the image from ncn-m001.

    image fetch scp://root@10.252.1.4/root/onyx-X86_64-3.9.3210.img
    
  2. Install the image.

    image install onyx-X86_64-3.9.3210.img
    
  3. Select the image to boot next.

    image boot next
    
  4. Write memory and reload.

    write memory
    reload
    
  5. Once the switch is available, verify the image is installed.

    show images
    

    Expected output:

    Installed images:
    Partition 1:
      version: X86_64 3.9.0300 2020-02-26 19:25:24 x86_64
    
    Partition 2:
      version: X86_64 3.9.1014 2020-08-05 18:06:58 x86_64
    
    Last boot partition: 2
    Next boot partition: 1
    
    Images available to be installed:
    1:
      Image  : onyx-X86_64-3.9.1014.stable.img
      Version: X86_64 3.9.1014 2020-08-05 18:06:58 x86_64
    

Dell Firmware Update

SSH into the switch being upgraded.

  1. Fetch the image from ncn-m001.

    image install http://10.252.1.4/fw/network/OS10_Enterprise_10.5.1.4.stable.tar
    
  2. Check the image upload status.

    show image status
    

    Potential output:

    Image Upgrade State:     download
    ==================================================
    File Transfer State:     download
    --------------------------------------------------
      State Detail:          In progress
      Task Start:            2021-02-08T21:24:14Z
      Task End:              0000-00-00T00:00:00Z
      Transfer Progress:     7 %
      Transfer Bytes:        40949640 bytes
      File Size:             604119040 bytes
      Transfer Rate:         869 kbps
    
  3. Reboot after the image is uploaded.

    write memory
    reload
    
  4. Once the switch is available, verify the image is installed.

    show version
    

    Potential output:

    Dell EMC Networking OS10 Enterprise
    Copyright (c) 1999-2020 by Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    OS Version: 10.5.1.4
    Build Version: 10.5.1.4.249