Firmware update using manual cleaning¶
The firmware update cleaning step allows one or more firmware updates to be applied to a node. If multiple updates are specified, then they are applied sequentially in the order given. The server is rebooted once per update. If a failure occurs, the cleaning step immediately fails which may result in some updates not being applied. If the node is placed into maintenance mode while a firmware update cleaning step is running that is performing multiple firmware updates, the update in progress will complete, and processing of the remaining updates will pause. When the node is taken out of maintenance mode, processing of the remaining updates will continue.
Note
Only Redfish driver supports firmware updates currently.
When updating the BMC firmware, the BMC may become unavailable for a period of
time as it resets. In this case, it may be desirable to have the cleaning step
wait after the update has been applied before indicating that the
update was successful. This allows the BMC time to fully reset before further
operations are carried out against it. To cause the cleaning step to wait after
applying an update, an optional wait argument may be specified in the
firmware image dictionary. The value of this argument indicates the number of
seconds to wait following the update. If the wait argument is not
specified, then this is equivalent to wait 0, meaning that it will not
wait and immediately proceed with the next firmware update if there is one,
or complete the cleaning step if not.
How it works - via Management Interface¶
The update_firmware cleaning step accepts JSON in the following format:
[{
"interface": "management",
"step": "update_firmware",
"args": {
"firmware_images":[
{
"url": "<url_to_firmware_image1>",
"checksum": "<checksum for image, uses SHA1, SHA256, or SHA512>",
"source": "<optional override source setting for image>",
"wait": <number_of_seconds_to_wait>
},
{
"url": "<url_to_firmware_image2>"
},
...
]
}
}]
The different attributes of the update_firmware cleaning step are as follows:
Attribute |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Interface of the cleaning step. Must be |
|
Name of cleaning step. Must be |
|
Keyword-argument entry (<name>: <value>) being passed to the step |
|
Ordered list of dictionaries of firmware images to be applied |
Each firmware image dictionary, is of the form:
{
"url": "<URL of firmware image file>",
"checksum": "<checksum for image, uses SHA1>",
"source": "<Optional override source setting for image>",
"wait": <Optional time in seconds to wait after applying update>
}
The url and checksum arguments in the firmware image dictionary are
mandatory, while the source and wait arguments are optional.
For url currently http, https, swift and file schemes are
supported.
source corresponds to redfish.firmware_source and by
setting it here, it is possible to override global setting per firmware image
in clean step arguments.
Note
At the present time, targets for the firmware update cannot be specified. In testing, the BMC applied the update to all applicable targets on the node. It is assumed that the BMC knows what components a given firmware image is applicable to.
Applying updates¶
To perform a firmware update, first download the firmware to a web server, Swift or filesystem that the Ironic conductor or BMC has network access to. This could be the ironic conductor web server or another web server on the BMC network. Using a web browser, curl, or similar tool on a server that has network access to the BMC or Ironic conductor, try downloading the firmware to verify that the URLs are correct and that the web server is configured properly.
Next, construct the JSON for the firmware update cleaning step to be executed.
When launching the firmware update, the JSON may be specified on the command
line directly or in a file. The following example shows one cleaning step that
installs four firmware updates. All except 3rd entry that has explicit
source added, uses setting from redfish.firmware_source to determine
if and where to stage the files:
[{
"interface": "management",
"step": "update_firmware",
"args": {
"firmware_images":[
{
"url": "http://192.0.2.10/BMC_4_22_00_00.EXE",
"checksum": "<sha1-checksum-of-the-file>",
"wait": 300
},
{
"url": "https://192.0.2.10/NIC_19.0.12_A00.EXE",
"checksum": "<sha1-checksum-of-the-file>"
},
{
"url": "file:///firmware_images/idrac/9/PERC_WN64_6.65.65.65_A00.EXE",
"checksum": "<sha1-checksum-of-the-file>",
"source": "http"
},
{
"url": "swift://firmware_container/BIOS_W8Y0W_WN64_2.1.7.EXE",
"checksum": "<sha1-checksum-of-the-file>"
}
]
}
}]
Finally, launch the firmware update cleaning step against the node. The
following example assumes the above JSON is in a file named
firmware_update.json:
$ baremetal node clean <ironic_node_uuid> --clean-steps firmware_update.json
In the following example, the JSON is specified directly on the command line:
$ baremetal node clean <ironic_node_uuid> --clean-steps \
'[{"interface": "management", "step": "update_firmware", "args": {"firmware_images":[{"url": "http://192.0.2.10/BMC_4_22_00_00.EXE", "wait": 300}, {"url": "https://192.0.2.10/NIC_19.0.12_A00.EXE"}]}}]'
Note
Firmware updates may take some time to complete. If a firmware update
cleaning step consistently times out, then consider performing fewer
firmware updates in the cleaning step or increasing
clean_callback_timeout in ironic.conf to increase the timeout value.
Warning
Warning: Removing power from a server while it is in the process of updating firmware may result in devices in the server, or the server itself becoming inoperable.
How it works - via Firmware Interface¶
The update step can be used via cleaning or servicing, it accepts a JSON in
the following format:
[{
"interface": "firmware",
"step": "update",
"args": {
"settings":[
{
"component": "bmc"
"url": "<url_to_firmware_image1>"
"wait": <number_of_seconds_to_wait>
},
{
"component": "bios"
"url": "<url_to_firmware_image2>"
},
...
]
}
}]
The different attributes of the update step are as follows:
Attribute |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Interface of the step. Must be |
|
Name of the step. Must be |
|
Keyword-argument entry (<name>: <value>) being passed to the step |
|
Ordered list of dictionaries of firmware updates to be applied |
Each firmware image dictionary, is of the form:
{
"component": "The desired component to have the firmware updated, only bios and bmc are currently supported",
"url": "<URL of firmware image file>",
"wait": <Optional time in seconds to wait after applying update>
}
The component and url arguments in the firmware image dictionary are
mandatory, while the wait argument is optional.
For url currently http, https, swift and file schemes are
supported.
Applying updates¶
To perform a firmware update, first download the firmware to a web server, Swift or filesystem that the Ironic conductor or BMC has network access to. This could be the ironic conductor web server or another web server on the BMC network. Using a web browser, curl, or similar tool on a server that has network access to the BMC or Ironic conductor, try downloading the firmware to verify that the URLs are correct and that the web server is configured properly.
Next, construct the JSON for the firmware update step to be executed. When launching the firmware update, the JSON may be specified on the command line directly or in a file. The following example shows one step that installs two firmware updates.
[{
"interface": "firmware",
"step": "update",
"args": {
"settings":[
{
"component": "bmc",
"url": "http://192.0.2.10/BMC_4_22_00_00.EXE",
"wait": 300
},
{
"component": "bios",
"url": "https://192.0.2.10/BIOS_19.0.12_A00.EXE"
},
]
}
}]
It is also possible to use runbooks for firmware updates.
$ baremetal runbook create --name <RUNBOOK> --steps \
'[{"interface": "firmware", "step": "update", "args": {"settings":[{"component": "bmc", "url":"http://192.168.0.8:8080/ilo5278.bin"}]}}]'
$ baremetal node add trait <ironic_node_uuid> <RUNBOOK>
$ baremetal node <clean or service> <ironic_node_uuid> --runbook <RUNBOOK>
Finally, launch the firmware update step against the node. The
following example assumes the above JSON is in a file named
update.json:
$ baremetal node clean <ironic_node_uuid> --clean-steps update.json
$ baremetal node service <ironic_node_uuid> --service-steps update.json
In the following example, the JSON is specified directly on the command line:
$ baremetal node clean <ironic_node_uuid> --clean-steps \
'[{"interface": "firmware", "step": "update", "args": {"settings":[{"component": "bmc", "url":"http://192.168.0.8:8080/ilo5278.bin"}]}}]'
$ baremetal node clean <ironic_node_uuid> --clean-steps \
'[{"interface": "firmware", "step": "update", "args": {"settings":[{"component": "bios", "url":"http://192.168.0.8:8080/bios.bin"}]}}]'
$ baremetal node service <ironic_node_uuid> --service-steps \
'[{"interface": "firmware", "step": "update", "args": {"settings":[{"component": "bmc", "url":"http://192.168.0.8:8080/ilo5278.bin"}]}}]'
$ baremetal node service <ironic_node_uuid> --service-steps \
'[{"interface": "firmware", "step": "update", "args": {"settings":[{"component": "bios", "url":"http://192.168.0.8:8080/bios.bin"}]}}]'
Note
For Dell machines you must extract the firmimgFIT.d9 from the iDRAC.exe
This can be done using the command 7za e iDRAC_<VERSION>.exe.
Note
For HPE machines you must extract the ilo5_<version>.bin from the
ilo5_<version>.fwpkg
This can be done using the command 7za e ilo<version>.fwpkg.
