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OS device-driver update considerations

Before you begin updating OS device drivers for managed devices by using Lenovo XClarity Administrator, review the following important considerations.

Note
You must have lxc-os-admin, lxc-supervisor, lxc-admin or lxc-hw-admin authority to manage and deploy device drivers and to perform power actions on managed servers from the Windows Driver Updates pages.

Network considerations​

  • Required ports and Internet addresses must be available before you attempt to download UpdateXpress System Packs (UXSPs). For more information, see Port availability and Firewalls and proxy servers.

  • XClarity Administrator must have access to management and data network to access the operating system.

  • XClarity Administrator must be able to communicate with the target server (both the baseboard management controller and the server’s data network) over the network interface (Eth0 or Eth1) that was selected when you configured the XClarity Administrator network access and that the interface is configured with an IPv4 address or an IPv6 auto ULA address.

    To specify an interface to be used for operating-system deployment, see Configuring network access).

    For more information about the operating-system deployment network and interfaces, see Network considerations.

  • IP addresses must be are unique for the host operating system.

  • XClarity Administrator can use the Windows Remote Management service (WinRM) listening over HTTPS or HTTP to run device-driver update commands on target Windows systems HTTPS is the default. To use HTTP, click All Actions > Global Settings on the Windows Driver updates: Apply page, and then clear Use HTTPS for Windows driver updates.

    Attention
    When using HTTP, Windows user credentials are sent over the network without encryption and can be easily viewed using commonly available network troubleshooting tools.

Managed-device considerations​

  • Windows device drivers is not supported for ThinkAgile, ThinkSystem SR635, and ThinkSystemSR655 servers.

  • Only ThinkSystem, Lenovo System x, and Lenovo Flex System servers are supported.

  • XClarity Administrator does not validate the relationship between the management controller and operating system. The baseboard management controller is used to power on or off the server.

  • Ensure that the LAN-over-USB interface is enabled. LAN-over-USB is used when updating OS device drivers.

  • For XClarity Administrator 4.1 and later, you cannot download OS device-driver updates for the following servers from the web interface. Instead, manually download updates from ibm.com and then import the updates into XClarity Administrator.

    • IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4

    • IBM System series M4

    • IBM System x3100 M5 and x3250 M5

    • IBM System x3850 X5 and x3950 X5

    • IBM System x3850 X6 and x3950 X6

    • IBM Flex System

Operating-system and device-driver considerations​

  • You can update device drivers for the following operating systems.

    • Windows Server 2012 R2

    • Windows Server 2016

    • Windows Server 2019

    Note
    XClarity Administrator is tested with only Windows versions that are supported by Microsoft at the time when the XClarity Administrator version was released.

  • Windows Remote Management (WinRM) must be configured for HTTPS on the target server (see Configuring Windows Server for OS device-driver updates).

  • PowerShell must be supported on the target server.

  • You must provide information that is needed to access the host operating system on the target server, including the OS IP address and credentials (see Managing access to operating-systems on managed servers). You must provide credentials for a user account that has administrator authority.

  • XClarity Administrator updates only device drivers that are out of compliance. Device drivers are out of compliance when the version on the server is earlier than version in the selected UXSP. Device drivers that are equal to or later than version in the selected UXSP are skipped.

  • Device-driver compliance is accurate only when hardware is present. If hardware is not present, device drivers are still applied to the server. When the missing hardware is added to the server, Windows loads the latest version.

  • System x servers do not support some predefined device drivers that come with XClarity Administrator. To deploy device drivers to these servers, create a custom profile that includes only the needed device drivers.