[OmniOS-discuss] Ang: Re: Ang: Rolling FW upgrade on LSI 9207

[Johan Kragsterman]

-----Stephan Budach <stephan.budach at jvm.de> skrev: -----
Till: Johan Kragsterman <johan.kragsterman at capvert.se>
Från: Stephan Budach <stephan.budach at jvm.de>
Datum: 2015-01-22 10:54
Kopia: <omnios-discuss at lists.omniti.com>
Ärende: Re: Ang: [OmniOS-discuss] Rolling FW upgrade on LSI 9207

Hi Johan,

Am 22.01.15 um 10:39 schrieb Johan Kragsterman:
> Hi!
>
>
>
> -----"OmniOS-discuss" <omnios-discuss-bounces at lists.omniti.com> skrev: -----
> Till: <omnios-discuss at lists.omniti.com>
> Från: Stephan Budach
> Sänt av: "OmniOS-discuss"
> Datum: 2015-01-22 09:50
> Ärende: [OmniOS-discuss] Rolling FW upgrade on LSI 9207
>
> Hi guys,
>
> I do have two zpools of mirrored vdevs, where each vdev is spread over two LSI 9207-8i HBAs. Is it possible to perform a round-robin FW upgrade on the LSI HBAs, without rebooting the box? I'd like to keep the zpools up while I am performing the upgrade and I thought of breaking the mirrors, performing the FW upgrade on the first 9207, re-attaching the devices and doing the same again for the other half of the zpools vdevs.
>
> Has anyone done this before, or is a host reboot mandantory?
>
>
>
> Stephan!
>
> As I said before, I would NEVER put myself, and my infrastructure services, in the position where I couldn't find a maintanance window to take it down, to perform a firmware upgrade.
>
> IMHO, there are too much that can go wrong, and if it goes wrong....well, then you're in big trouble...
Yeah - I do know that, but it happens, that I don't have a choice at 
this time. Also, I didn't say, that I couldn't take down the whole 
server, but I'd rather avoid that. I also don't see any issues with my 
request, despite that I don't know, if a FW upgrade on the HBA, along 
with a subsequent reset of that same HBA will suffice, or if the mpt 
driver will go crazy on me for that.
I am well experienced with ZFS to perform the rest without expecting any 
issues related to ZFS. I will certainly announce a maintenance window 
for this action, anyway. This NGS store hosts over 60 VMs.
>
> If you couldn't even afford to take it down for a firmware upgrade, how would you handle a major problem with firmware or bricked HBA's? Bad things happens now and then, especially when you're not prepared for them...
Well… it depends on the level of preparation you are willing - are able 
- to put in. This host gets backed up via zfs send/recv each 4th hour, 
so it's not, that I am completely unprepared. However, this is a 
transision phase for us and we are planning for HA in the coming months.

Thanks,
budy



Stephan!

Well, I didn't consider data loss as the problem, but service down time, since you are reluctant to take it down, it is probably a problem for you with down time. And if down time for firmware upgrade a problem for you, I'm sure downtime for fixing a major firmware issue or a bricked HBA problem would be a lot worse...



Regarding your planning for HA setup, it is most interesting for this list, since A LOT OF PEOLPLE have discussed it here, and major concerns have been expressed.

It would be interesting to follow your project on the list, not only for me, but MANY on this list, I'm sure!!!

So, would you be interested in sharing your HA project with the list?

I don't think the list so far been involved in a project that you could follow from start to goal, so that would be very interesting, as well as to be able to follow your choice of infrastructure and sofware solutions!

I also guess, that for you, to share this with the list, would give you a nice support, since you would involve a lot of people with a lot of experience...

If you choose to share this with the list, pls start a new thread with perhaps: HA project as the subject.

If you like, I can start the thread with asking you questions about your project?


Regards Johan