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Considerations for upgrading software and firmware with SAN OS software

To ensure a successful upgrade, keep in mind some key considerations as part of your planning.

The following table describes the storage array components that are automatically updated as part of the upgrade process and the storage array components that must be upgraded separately.

Components included in the upgradeComponents that must be upgraded separately
  • Management software – System Manager is the software that manages the storage array.
  • Controller firmware – Controller firmware manages the I/O between hosts and volumes.
  • Controller NVSRAM – Controller NVSRAM is a controller file that specifies the default settings for the controllers.
  • IOM firmware – The I/O module (IOM) firmware manages the connection between a controller and a drive shelf. It also monitors the status of the components.
  • Supervisor software – Supervisor software is the virtual machine on a controller in which the software runs.

In some configurations, ThinkSystem System Manager might be used on a storage system that uses components of ThinkSystem Storage Manager that must be upgraded separately. Check whether any of the following conditions apply:

  • If you use the command line interface (CLI) or scripts that rely on the CLI to help manage your storage system, upgrade ThinkSystem Storage Manager.
  • As part of the upgrade process, the host's multipath/failover driver and/or HBA driver might also need to be upgraded so the host can interact with the controllers correctly. If hosts running operating systems other than Microsoft Windows have I/O connections to your storage system, upgrade the multipath drivers for those hosts. See the procedures in the Express Configuration for your operating system.

You can view your current software and firmware versions in the Software and Firmware Inventory dialog box. Go to Support > Upgrade Center, and then click the link for Software and Firmware Inventory.

When to stop I/O​

If your storage array contains two controllers and you have a multipath driver installed, the storage array can remain processing I/O while the upgrade occurs. During the upgrade, controller A fails over all of its LUNs to controller B, upgrades, takes back its LUNs and all of controller B’s LUNs, and then upgrades controller B. After the upgrade completes, you might need to manually redistribute volumes between the controllers to ensure volumes return to the correct owning controller.

Pre-upgrade health check​

A pre-upgrade health check runs as part of the upgrade process. The pre-upgrade health check assesses all storage array components to make sure the upgrade can proceed. The following conditions might prevent the upgrade:

  • Failed assigned drives
  • Hot spares in use
  • Incomplete volume groups
  • Exclusive operations running
  • Missing volumes
  • Controller in Non-optimal status
  • Excess number of event log events
  • Configuration database validation failure
  • Drives with old versions of DACstore

You also can run the pre-upgrade health check separately without doing an upgrade.