Managing server firmware

MetalSoft is able to upgrade (or downgrade) the firmware for certain vendors (as of version 6.1):

  • Dell

  • HP

  • Lenovo

The process is performed via the Site Controller that will download the required firmware binaries to the Site Controller repository from which they are applied on servers.

Mass firmware upgrades

Mass upgrades are controlled via Firmware Catalogs and Firmware Baselines:

  1. Firmware Catalogs are typically derived from the vendor’s own catalogs such as the Dell VMWare ESXI 7-related firmware but could be general catalogs.

  2. Firmware Baselines are collections of Firmware Catalogs (typically one for each vendor) that are attached to:

    1. Server types - Will be applied every time a server with the specific server type is registered

    2. OS templates - Will be applied every time a server is deployed with the specific OS template if not already deployed.

    3. Data centers - Will be applied every time a server in a specific data center is deployed.

Upgrading a server’s individual components

At register time the system will check for the firmware of the various components of the server.

A separate, daily request is done to check for available upgrades using the server’s upgrade site (where available). Click “Check for available upgrades” to force a check.

Available upgrades will appear in the component’s list.

Firmware upgrade individual component

Component upgrades are typically done in one go to avoid rebooting the server multiple times. Check the components that need to be upgraded and click “Upgrade selected components to latest” to trigger a mass upgrade which will reboot the server.

If the server is allocated the user and all it’s delegates will be notified on email and the term for the upgrade will be set 24h from the moment of the button press.

Enabling automatic firmware upgrades

To enable automatic firmware updates go to Firmware upgrade > Automatic upgrade. Select Enabled from the dropdown and set an interval of at least 1h as the target upgrade interval.

To define which server types and components will be upgraded if upgrades are available, create policies by clicking on Add firmware upgrade policy.