Preserve the existing Recovery Appliance configuration when updating Oracle ILOM system firmware.

You can update Oracle ILOM system firmware while the host is powered on. The Oracle ILOM firmware image includes firmware for the service processor (SP, Oracle ILOM) and the server's host components (FPGAs). The Oracle ILOM firmware update goes into effect immediately. However, the update of host components is deferred until the affected host is power cycled. Because Oracle ILOM can be updated while the host is powered on, this feature reduces the total system downtime.

Update the firmware using the Oracle ILOM command-line interface.

1. Log in to Oracle ILOM with an account with Admin privileges.

2. Load the firmware image from the stored location using the load -source command followed by the directory path to the firmware image you want to install. Type:

   -> load -source protocol://server_IPaddress/<path_to_image>/<image.pkg>

   Where protocol can be: http, https, ftp, tftp, sftp, scp

   For example, if you are accessing the server through a tftp server with an IP address of 198.xxx.yyy.123 in a directory called ilom/jdoe and with the <image.pkg> named firmware.pkg, enter the following command:

   -> load -source tftp://198.xxx.yyy.123/tftpboot/ilom/jdoe/firmware.pkg

   The following information is displayed:

   An upgrade takes several minutes to complete. Oracle ILOM will enter a special mode to load new firmware. No other tasks can be performed in Oracle ILOM until the firmware upgrade is complete and Oracle ILOM is reset.

   You can choose to postpone the server BIOS upgrade until the next server power off. If you do not do that, you should perform a clean shutdown of the server before continuing.

3. Answer the following prompts:

   Are you sure you want to load the specified file? y

   Preserve existing SP configuration (y/n)? y

   Note:

   This prompt preserves your existing Oracle ILOM settings after the firmware update is complete. A y preserves the existing Recovery Appliance configuration.

   Preserve existing BIOS configuration (y/n)? y

   Note:

   This prompt preserves your existing BIOS configuration settings after the firmware upgrade is complete.

   Delay BIOS upgrade until the next poweroff or reset (y/n)? y

   Answer "Y" (yes) to the Delay BIOS Upgrade question and, if the host is ON and there are host components to be updated, the host remains powered on and the host component updates are deferred until the next time the host powers off and powers on (next reset/reboot).

   Answer "N" (no) to the Delay BIOS Upgrade question and, if the host is ON and there are host components to be updated, the host is forced OFF so that host component updates can be applied immediately. After Oracle ILOM reboots, the host is powered on automatically if it was forced off.

   Note:

   If the server has a pending BIOS upgrade, the power reset could take longer to complete. This is expected behavior, as it is necessary to power cycle the server to upgrade the BIOS firmware. If the upgrade includes an FPGA update, the process can take as long as 26 minutes to complete.

4. Wait for the Oracle ILOM status message to confirm that the process is complete.