Technical data

10 Array controller ﬁrmware

Each array controller contains Read-Only Memory (ROM), which holds the ﬁrmware that operates the

controller. In dual-controller conﬁgurations, the two controllers must execute the same ﬁrmware version.

Included in this section:

• Determining the currently-installed ﬁrmware version

• Updating controller ﬁrmware

• Cloning controller ﬁrmware

• Recovering corrupted ﬁrmware

NOTE:

After updating MSA controller ﬁrmware,besuretocheckthestatusoftheMSAforunexpectedissues.

Verify the status of the connections, deﬁned proﬁle types, redundancy settings, and storage conﬁguration.

Determining the currently installed ﬁrmware version

To determine the ﬁ rmware version currently running on a controller, do one of the following:

• On the MSA controller LCD panel, use the arrow keys to scroll backwards through the messages until

the ARRAY CONTROLLER FIRMWARE VER <version> message is displayed.

• Each time the MSA controller is restarted, view the ﬁrst message that displays the ﬁrmware version.

• In the CLI, use the SHOW VERSION command.

Updating controller ﬁrmware

Because the MSA can operate in a variety of operating system environments, several updating methods

are available. To perform an update, obtain the following items from the MSA website:

• Controller ﬁrmware (on the Software, Firmware & Drivers page.)

• Firmware updating guide (on the Technical Documents page.)

Cloning controller ﬁrmware

NOTE:

Cloning is possible only in dual-controller conﬁgurations.

Each time a system with two controllers is powered on or restarted, or if a second controller is hot-plugged

into a single-controller conﬁguration, the ﬁrmware versions on the controllers are compared. If the

ﬁrmware versions on the two controllers are different, the array controller LCD panel prompts to clone the

ﬁrmware from one controller to the other, so that they have the same version.

The determination as to which ﬁrmware version is used is based on the following criteria:

• If the MSA is being powered up with both controllers inserted, then the most recent version of ﬁrmware

is used regardless of which controller it resides on.

• If the MSA is already operating and an optional controller is hot-plugged, then the version of ﬁrmware

that is on the original (non-hot-plugged) controller is used regardless of its version. This ensures that

any host-initiated I/O to the controller is not interrupted.

maintenance and service guide

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