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Firmware updates

Lenovo XClarity One uses the management hubs to apply firmware updates to your managed devices. When you initiate a firmware update from the XClarity One portal, XClarity One pushes the required update packages to the appropriate management hub and then sends a request to the hub to apply the update on the target devices. The management hub sends status, progress, and log data back to the XClarity One portal during the update process so you can monitor progress.

The Things To Do panel displays a card when new firmware updates are available. From the todo, you can view the alerts for each new firmware update.

You can install a firmware update on a specific device from the Managed devices page or from a specific device’s Firmware inventory page by clicking the Update icon (Update icon). If the target devices have an assigned template, review the updates that are selected based on the template rules to complete the installation. If no template is assigned, follow the steps in the wizard to complete the installation.

Attention
Some components require the device to be restarted to complete the firmware update, such as unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI), network cards, RAID adapters, and disks. During the update process, the server might be restarted automatically one or more times until the entire process is complete. Ensure that any running workloads have either been stopped or moved to a different server.
Attention
Performing power operations on managed devices is disabled by default. Before updating firmware, ensure that you enable this function from the XClarity One portal and from the management hub that manages that target devices. For more information, see Management functions.
Attention
To avoid out-of-memory errors, update no more than 300 devices simultaneously.

During the update process, if one component fails, the management hub continues to apply updates on the remaining components for the device and for other devices in the same job.

Prerequisite firmware​

In some cases, prerequisite firmware might be needed to install the intended firmware version. XClarity One automatically installs prerequisite firmware, when available.

Firmware rules and criteria​

You can choose a default update rule to use generally for all device types and components. Then, you can then optionally select a custom rule for each type of device and component. If you do not select a custom rule, the device type inherits the default rule, and the components inherit the device-type rule. Changing the device-type rule also changes the components that inherit that rule.

The following default rules are available.

  • No default rule. You must select a custom rule for each device and component.

  • By tagged version. The following tags are supported.

    • Latest version. Firmware on the device is compared to the latest firmware version that is available in the firmware-updates repository.

You can choose the one of the following custom rules.

  • No rules. (default) The device or component type is not included in the template and is not checked for compliance.

  • Latest version. (default) Firmware on the device is compared to the latest firmware version that is available when the template is created.

    Important
    The version does not change when a later firmware update becomes available after the template is created.

  • Specific version. Firmware on the device is compared to the selected version, regardless of what is available in the repository. You can choose any version that is available in the repository.

Immediate vs prioritized updates​

Some components (such as unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI), network cards, RAID adapters, and disks) require the device to be restarted to complete the firmware update. Devices with these components are restarted automatically one or more times during the update proces

By default, devices are restarted immediately to complete the update process.

You can choose to wait to update firmware on components that require a restart until you manually restart the device by selecting the Prioritized activation option. Additional restarts are then performed until the update-process completes. With this option, firmware that can updated without a restart are completed immediately. Only firmware updates on components that require a restart are delayed.

When Prioritized activationis enabled, a todo is raised to notify you that devices need to be restarted to complete the update process.

You can find a list of devices that must be restarted from the Managed devices page by filtering for devices in the Pending state. These devices are identified by the Restart Required icon (Restart required icon).

Important

  • Ensure that any running workloads are stopped or moved to a different device before updating firmware that requires restart or before manually restarting a device to complete the update process.

  • After a prioritized update completes, it might take several minutes before the correct firmware level is reflected in the portal.

  • When enabled, the Wake-on-LAN boot option can interfere with XClarity One operations that power off the server, including firmware updates if there is a Wake-on-LAN client in your network that issues “Wake on Magic Packet” commands.

Forced updates​

By default, firmware is updated on selected components only when the target firmware versions are later than the installed versions. All other components are skipped.

You can force XClarity One to update firmware on components even if the current firmware version is up to date by selecting the Force update option.