Obtaining firmware and device drivers
During the installation of the BladeCenter S system, you might have to update the firmware for one or more of the components. Therefore, consider obtaining all firmware updates before you begin the installation process.
- Advanced management module
- Blade servers
- I/O modules, including the SAS connectivity module and the SAS RAID controller module
- Disk storage modules
In addition, some of the optional hardware devices that you can order for the BladeCenter S system have device drivers that you must install.
For example, Ethernet controllers are integrated on each blade server system board. The Ethernet controllers provide 1000-Mbps full-duplex capability only, which enables simultaneous transmission and reception of data to the external ports on the Ethernet switches. You do not have to set any jumpers or configure the controller for the blade server operating system. However, you must install a device driver in the blade server to enable the blade server operating system to address the Ethernet controller.
See the documentation that comes with your hardware options for information about installing any required device drivers.
To obtain the latest firmware and device drivers, complete the following steps:
- Go to the IBM® BladeCenter® software and device drivers Web site .
- Select BladeCenter S to display the matrix of downloadable files.
- Select the blade servers and other devices that you will install in the BladeCenter S chassis to download the firmware and device drivers.