Linux best practices using HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) and Software Delivery Repository (SDR)

2
Abstract
Are you a Linux administrator who must install and update HP-specific components (drivers, software, and firmware) in
a Linux environment? The goal of this paper is to help you understand what options you have for installing and updating
these components on HP ProLiant servers and HP blade servers.
We will focus on environments running either SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. All other
enabled, regional, and community Linux distributions require a Management Component Pack (MCP). An MCP is an
OS-specific bundle containing software, utilities, and agents. The MCPs as well as the other enterprise, regional, and
community Linux distributions are not the focus of this paper.
After you install the Linux OS using the Linux distribution media, you can choose to install and update your components
using any of the following methods or combine them to meet the needs of your environment:
• You can use the drivers that are available in your Linux distribution or kernel updates.
• You can use HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM) to install and update all or selected drivers, software, and firmware
components delivered with the HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP).
• You can use a dependency-resolving installation tool found in your Linux distribution to install and update the driver
and software components from the HP Software Delivery Repository (SDR).
Although we support components that ship with your Linux distribution, this paper focuses on installing and updating
your environment using the SPP and SDR. Utilizing the SPP along with distribution-supplied components will help you to
get the most benefit of the extra features provided by your ProLiant servers.
HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP)
The SPP replaces the ProLiant Support Pack (PSP) and Smart Update Firmware DVD. It provides the ProLiant server and
blade server drivers, utilities, and management agents that were previously available in the PSP. The SPP also includes
firmware, which was previously available on the Smart Update Firmware DVD.
The SPP ISO includes:
• A boot environment
• HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM), the SPP deployment tool
• Driver, software, and firmware components for HP ProLiant servers and blade servers
Before each SPP release, we perform integration testing of these components to make sure that we validate firmware,
driver, or system software inter-dependencies.
Installing the SPP components with HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM)
HP SUM is the deployment tool delivered with the SPP in the /hp/swpackages directory. It is also available from the
Linux SDR,
http://downloads.linux.hp.com/SDR/, under the Extras link. For information about the prerequisites that you
need to run HP SUM on a supported Linux OS, review the HP SUM Release Notes or SPP Release Notes.
Key features of HP SUM include:
• HP SUM has knowledge of inter-component dependencies. You can deploy components to a single server or
one-to-many servers and network-based targets, including:
– iLOs
– OAs
– VC Ethernet
– Fibre Channel modules
• HP SUM lets you choose which components to update. You can update all components or only the components that
you select.