The system update process involves the updating of your entiresystem environment.
Start here to update to version 8.1.0 or later from version 7.7.0 or later.
If you are updating from a release before version 7.7.0, follow the instructions in that previous release.
For the most recent information about restrictions before you update, see the following site:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S1004336
| Sequence | Update task |
|---|---|
| 1 | Before you update, become familiar with the prerequisites and tasks involved. During the automatic update procedure, the clustered system updates each of the nodes systematically. Decide whether you want to update automatically or update manually. During an automatic update procedure, the clustered systemupdates each of the nodes systematically. The automatic method is the preferred procedure for updatingsoftware on nodes. However, you can also update each node manually. |
| 2 | Ensure that CIM object manager (CIMOM) clients are working correctly. When necessary, update these clients so that they can support the new version ofsystem code. |
| 3 | Ensure that multipathing drivers in the environment are fully redundant. |
| 4 | Update your system.The system update includes component firmware updates. The drive firmware update is a separate process. |
| 5 | Update other devices in thesystem environment. Examples might include updating hosts and switches to the correct levels. |
Note: The amount of time can vary depending on the amount of preparation work that is required and
the size of the environment. Generally allow approximately 1 hour per node for an update. A manual update will most likely take longer.
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Firmware and software for the system and its attached adapters are tested and released as a single package. The package number increases each time that a new release is made.
Some code levels support updates only from specific previous levels, or the code can be installed only on certain hardware types. If you update to more than one level above your current level, you might be required to install an intermediate level. For example, if you are updating from level 1 to level 3, you might need to install level 2 before you can install level 3. For more information about the prerequisites for each code level, see this website:
https://datacentersupport.lenovo.com/During the automatic update process, each node in a system is updated one at a time, and the new code is staged on the nodes. While each node restarts, there might be some degradation in the maximum I/O rate that can be sustained by the system. After all the nodes in the system are successfully restarted with the new code level, the new level is automatically committed.
During an automatic code update, each node of a working pair is updated sequentially. The node that is being updated is temporarily unavailable and all I/O operations to that node fail. As a result, the I/O error counts increase and the failed I/O operations are directed to the partner node of the working pair. Applications do not see any I/O failures. When new nodes are added to the system, the update package is automatically downloaded to the new nodes from the system.
The update can normally be done concurrently with normal user I/O operations. However, performance might be impacted. If any restrictions apply to the operations that can be done during the update, these restrictions are documented on the product website that you use to download the update packages. During the update procedure, most of the configuration commands are not available. Only the following commands are operational from the time the update process starts to the time that the new code level is committed, or until the process is backed out:
To determine when your update process completes, you are notified through the management GUI. If you are using the command-line interface, issue the lsupdate command to display the status of the update.
Because of the operational limitations that occur during the update process, the code update is a user task. However, if you have problems with an update, contact your support center. Do not try to troubleshoot update problems without technical assistance. For further directions, see the topic about how to get information, help, and technical assistance.
Before you update, ensure that the multipathing driver is fully redundant with every path available and online. You might see errors that are related to the paths that are going away (fail over) and the error count increasing during the update. When the paths to the nodes are back, the nodes fall back to become a fully redundant system. After the 30-minute delay, the paths to the other node go down.
If you are using IBMSubsystem Device Driver (SDD) or IBM Subsystem Device Driver Device Specific Module (SDDDSM) as the multipathing software on the host, increased I/O error counts are displayed by the datapath query device or datapath query adapter commands to monitor the state of the multipathing software. For more information, see the IBMMultipath Subsystem Device Driver User's Guide for more information about the datapath query commands.
If you are using IBM Subsystem Device Driver Path Control Module (SDDPCM) as the multipathing software on the host, increased I/O error counts are displayed by the pcmpath query device or pcmpath query adapter commands to monitor the state of the multipathing software.
When you update software on a system that has secondary volumes of running Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships, write performance might be degraded on the primary volumes, and Global Mirror relationships can be automatically stopped with one or more errors with error code 1920. You might want to proactively stop such relationships before you update the software to avoid the write performance degradation, and restart the relationships after the update completes.
The audit log content that was on your system before the update is sent to a file in the/dumps/audit directory on the configuration node. The audit log will now contain content that occurs from commands that are run after a successful update of the system.