Small Change to Cisco UCS Manual Upgrades
Posted: June 29, 2015 Filed under: Cisco UCS | Tags: clear startup version, CSCus73964, default infrastructure pack, failed start activation Manual upgrade/activation is disallowed because the Default Infrastructure Policy Startup Version is set Retry the operation after changing the version to Not Set, startup version 8 CommentsI was performing my first upgrade past 2.2(3) this weekend (upgrading to 2.2(5)) and I came across a small change that took some googling to figure out. Eventually, I found the resolution in the Release Notes. If you’re performing a manual upgrade to 2.2(4b) or later, you have to clear the Startup Version of the Default Infrastructure Pack. This action is the result of bug fix CSCus73964 and can be found in the Behavior Changes section of the 2.2 Release Notes.
The error occurred when trying to Activate the firmware of the IO Modules. It states, “Failed start activation. Manual upgrade/activation is disallowed because the Default Infrastructure Policy ‘Startup Version’ is set. Retry the operation after changing the version to ‘Not Set.'”
The UCSM GUI option to clear the startup version on the Auto Install tab was grayed out so I couldn’t clear it from there. The Firmware Management CLI Guide offered the CLI solution to clearing it, though, and it worked fine.
Recent Cisco UCS Enhancements
Posted: June 17, 2015 Filed under: Cisco UCS | Tags: 2.2, 2.2(4), 2.2(5), cisco ucs, fabric interconnect traffic evacuation, per fabric interconnect chassis reacknowledgement, release notes, server packs, ucs, ucs server pack, ucs server packs Leave a commentReading the release notes is always a good idea – but boring. But I perked up today when I was perusing the latest release notes for 2.2(5) for an upcoming implementation. Here are a few items I think are mentionable. Note that all these features were released in 2.2(4).
Server Packs
Clearly I didn’t deploy any UCS’s around the time that 2.2(4) was released because I totally missed this feature. In the distant IT past (pre 2.1 days), both the Infrastructure and Server firmware had to be at the same level to stay in support. Then came 2.1 which introduced backward compatibility with older Server firmware. Now you’re not necessarily forced to upgrade your blade firmware at the same time as your Infrastructure firmware. Nice. Now with 2.2(4) and Server Packs, blade firmware is backward compatible with Infrastructure firmware. Even better. Of course, this comes with caveats. That being that this feature starts at 2.2(4). So at this point, only 2.2(4) and 2.2(5) support such a configuration. But this is cool. Below is the latest mixed firmware version table from the release notes.
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