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Firmware updates

Lenovo XClarity One uses the hubs to apply firmware updates to your managed devices.

When you initiate a firmware update from the XClarity One portal in the cloud, the hub retrieves the required update packages from Lenovo Support website. When you initiate a firmware update from the XClarity One portal as a local VM, the hub retrieves the required update packages from XClarity One. The hub then applies the update on the target devices. During the update process, the hub sends status, progress, and log data back to XClarity One 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 firmware updates on one or more devices using templates. For more information, see Device templates.

You can also install firmware updates on a specific device from the Managed devices page or from a specific device’s Firmware inventory page by clicking the Update icon (Deploy template 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

  • Firmware payloads must be in the repository before you can update firmware on your devices. When using XClarity One as a local VM, ensure that the firmware packages are imported in XClarity One before you attempt to update the firmware (see Firmware repository).

  • XClarity One updates firmware only on components that are supported by the platform.

  • 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.

  • Performing firmware updates, device settings, operating system deployments and power operations on managed devices are disabled by default. Before updating firmware, ensure that you enable this function from the XClarity One portal and from the hub that manages that target devices. For more information, see Management features and functions.

  • You cannot apply a template to a device whose compliance check failed. Unassign the template and assign it again to trigger another compliance check.

During the update process, if one component fails, the 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 process.

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 be updated without a restart are completed immediately. Only firmware updates on components that require a restart are delayed.

When Prioritized activation is 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 performing updates that require a 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 if there is a Wake-on-LAN client in your network that issues “Wake on Magic Packet” commands.