Skip to main content

Considerations for upgrading software and firmware with ThinkSystem SAN Manager

Before you use ThinkSystem SAN Manager to upgrade multiple storage arrays, review the key considerations as part of your planning.

Current versions​

You can view the current ThinkSystem SAN OS software versions from the Manage page of SAN Manager for each discovered storage array. The version is shown in the ThinkSystem SAN OS Software column. The controller firmware and NVSRAM information is available in a pop-up dialog box when you click on the ThinkSystem SAN OS version in each row.

Other components requiring upgrade​

As part of the upgrade process, you might also need to upgrade the host's multipath/failover driver or the HBA driver so that the host can interact with the controllers correctly.

For compatibility information, refer to the Lenovo Interoperability Matrix. Also, see the procedures in the Express Guides for your operating system.

Dual controllers​

If a storage array contains two controllers and you have a multipath driver installed, the storage array can continue to process I/O while the upgrade occurs. During the upgrade, the following process occurs:

  1. Controller A fails over all its LUNs to controller B.
  2. Upgrade occurs on controller A.
  3. Controller A takes back its LUNs and all of controller B's LUNs.
  4. Upgrade occurs on 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.

Immediate or staged upgrade​

You can activate the upgrade immediately or stage it for a later time. You might choose to activate later for these reasons:

  • Time of day – Activating the software can take a long time, so you might want to wait until I/O loads are lighter. The controllers reboot and fail over during activation so performance might be lower than usual until the upgrade completes.
  • Type of package – You might want to test the new software and firmware on one storage array before upgrading the files on other storage arrays.

To activate staged software, go to Upgrade Center > Activate Staged OS Software.

Health check​

A health check runs as part of the upgrade process, but you can also run a health check separately before you begin (go to Upgrade Center > Pre-Upgrade Health Check).

The health check assesses all storage system components to make sure that 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