White paper Managing Firmware and BIOS updates …manuals.ts.fujitsu.com/file/13709/sv-vmware-fwbios...White paper Managing Firmware and BIOS updates with VMware vRealize Orchestrator

White paper Managing Firmware and BIOS updates with VMware vRealize Orchestrator and ServerView

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White paper Managing Firmware and BIOS updates with ServerView on VMware vRealize Orchestrator

This document gives an overview of the solutions that are offered with ServerView VMware Integration Packs in regards to updating firmware and BIOS according to specific repository requirements like the VMware HCL.

Content

Introduction and Purpose 2 Prerequisites 3 1. Solution overview 4 2. Installing the environment 5 3. Repository preparation 6 4. Processing the firmware and BIOS update 8 5. Further Information 10

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Introduction and Purpose ServerView Integration Packs provides customers the ability to manage FUJITSU PRIMERGY and PRIMEQUEST server’s lifecycle integrated in leading enterprise and cloud management solutions like VMware vCenter and vRealize. VMware vCenter provides customers with the ability to manage their virtual environment based on ESXi. vRealize Orchestrator is addressing all workloads requiring automation and scripting approaches in VMware environments. It is delivered with customer’s vCenter package. ServerView Integration Packs in VMware vCenter and vRealize enhance the management capabilities of vCenter and vRealize by PRIMERGY specifics (please see Figure 1 below). ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration Packs therefore are used to manage PRIMERGY specific lifecycle features like configuration and update management for customers’ needs in regards of automation and scripting.

Figure 1: ServerView VMware Integration Overview

Out-of-band management, also known as lights-out management, uses a dedicated management channel that enables admins to monitor and manage any given server by means of a remote connection. In Fujitsu's PRIMERGY servers, this capability is implemented via the integrated Remote Management Controller (iRMC). The iRMC is an autonomous system that resides on a PRIMERGY’s system board and comes with its own operating system, web server, Linux file system as well as a separate user management and independent alert management. Moreover, it remains powered on even when its host switches to standby mode, thus giving administrators a chance to do maintenance work whenever they think it is necessary – even after business hours. The iRMC and its predecessors have been a core component of PRIMERGY servers and the ServerView Suite for more than a decade, and throughout this time its capabilities have constantly expanded. This is also true for the most recent edition of iRMC, which has been augmented with a set of important functional enhancements: the controller now comes with an integrated SD card and supports comprehensive lifecycle management from within the system. And since most functionalities required to perform these tasks are integrated ("embedded") into and controlled by the iRMC, we subsume them under the term "embedded Lifecycle Management," or eLCM for short. eLCM provides embedded Server Management lifecycle features that are used by ServerView VMware Integration packs for example. (see Figure 2 as well)

Figure 2: ServerView embedded Lifecycle Management



This whitepaper describes how to update FW and BIOS of PRIMERGY servers in VMware environments driven by ServerView Integration in vRealize Orchestrator that supports following features:

- Full vCenter cluster update: ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration enables customers to not update each server separately, but process the update for all servers in a vCenter cluster. The hosts are processed in a line. Beside the full vCenter cluster update ability for sure also single servers can be updated by ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration

- Cluster aware update – evacuation of VMs: The update is processed offline, which means a helper OS is booted and the update is done there. The helper OS comes with the ServerView embedded Lifecycle Management (eLCM) which is an integrated SD card with the PRIMERGY base board management controller iRMC. The ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration asks vCenter to evacuate the Virtual Machines and waits for it before the update is executed by eLCM. ESXi therefore is put to maintenance mode.

- Specific repositories like VMware HCL: ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration needs to access a repository that contains firmware and BIOS update packages. FUJITSU provides a web repository containing all relevant firmware and BIOS packages. By default, eLCM uses the latest firmware or BIOS version available on this repository. In case of specific version requirements the ServerView Repository Server and Content collector should be deployed in a virtual machine. It gives the ability to create a local copy or extract of the FUJITSU web repository containing only the firmware and BIOS versions that shall be updated for the specific use case.

Please see Figure 2 below for further details on the ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration for Update Management.

Figure 3: vRealize Orchestrator Update process

Prerequisites Following components and software are necessary to let the firmware and BIOS update by ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration operate properly:

- VMware environment o vCenter Enterprise Plus Edition V6.0 or higher o vRealize Orchestrator V6.0 or higher o vCenter and vRealize Orchestrator have to be compatible o vRealize Orchestrator must be registered with vCenter



- FUJITSU hardware and iRMC

o PRIMERGY with iRMC S4 or iRMC S5 o iRMC S4 FW 8.03F or higher o iRMC S5 FW 1.25 or higher o eLCM SD card with each PRIMERGY server

- FUJITSU ServerView components

o ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration V1.4.3 or higher o Access to the FUJITSU web-repository http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/globalflash/ or a local one o Optional if specific repository content shall be used

ServerView Repository Server deployed on a VM running CentOS V6.6 or higher resp. RHEL V6.6 or higher ServerView Content Collector V1.50.03 or higher - deployed on the ServerView Repository Server and local

workstation (Windows version)

1. Solution overview

The standard offline update workflow for all hosts in a vCenter cluster is processed as described in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: Standard offline vCenter cluster update

Customers requiring a specific repository additionally need to take care of the ServerView Repository Server with Content Collector that gives the ability to create a specific repository by selecting firmware and BIOS and to export a configuration file. Please find the details in Figure 5 below.

http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/globalflash/




Figure 5: Cluster update with specific repository

2. Installing the environment

Firewall settings: Following ports must be open: Topic Port Protocol Communication vCenter and iRMC 623 UDP Communication vCenter and iRMC 80 TCP Communication vRO and iRMC 443 HTTPS Communication vRO and vCenter 443 HTTPS vCenter preparation: vCenter cluster settings need to be configured properly so that Virtual Machines can be shifted to other hosts. Mainly DRS settings need to be in mode “Fully Automated”. (Please see Figure 6)

Figure 6: vCenter DRS

Furthermore the iRMC settings need to be configured with the vCenter IPMI Power Management in the ESXi Host configuration tab (see Figure 7). Therefore the MAC and IP address must be entered additionally to the credentials. Please be aware that the firewall settings have to be configured properly, which means port 623 UDP must be open from vCenter Server to the iRMC.



Figure 7: vCenter Power Management

vRealize Orchestrator preparation: vRealize Orchestrator must be deployed and registered with vCenter and the ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration workflow for Update Management needs to be imported:

- Single Server Update: eLCM offline update workflow - vCenter Cluster Update: cluster eLCM offline update workflow

Figure 8: vRealize Orchestrator preparation

Optional: ServerView Repository Server preparation: A Virtual Machine running Cent OS 6.6/RHEL 6.6 or higher needs to be deployed. According to the manual (see chapter 5) ServerView Repository Server needs to be installed with the system (e.g. rpm -i RepServer-.x86_64.rpm) Content Collector needs to be running on that virtual machine (contentcollector.sh and contentcollector.jar) according to the manual (see chapter 5). Additionally the ServerView Content Collector should be running on any Windows workstation (contentcollector.exe and contentcollector.jar) to create the repository configuration file.

3. Repository preparation

In case of a project specific repository like the VMware HCL some preparation with the repository needs to be done. This chapter can be skipped otherwise. Specific repository configuration file Initially and every time an updated repository shall be used, the configuration file needs to be created with any local workstation or on the ServerView Repository Server. ServerView Content Collector can be started by the given executable and processed till the “Select Systems” section by default values. In this step the server systems that should be part of the repository need to be selected. (see Figure 9)



Figure 9: Content Collector - Select Systems

In the next step customer can select the controller FW and BIOS versions to the given server systems. For example the VMware HCL can be used a base for the selection of the FW/BIOS. (see Figure 10)

Figure 10: Content Collector - FW/BIOS selection

Afterwards the configuration can be saved in an xml file (see Figure 11 button “Save configuration”). The file can be accessed in the following path and shall be saved: <download_location>/Firmware/Tools/ContentCollector/config.xml

Figure 11: Content Collector - Config File



ServerView Repository Server configuration As explained in chapter 2, a Linux VM needs to be deployed and ServerView Repository Server needs to be installed on it. Please disable the cronjob that downloads the repository regularly. Furthermore the source of Content Collector needs to be copied on this system. In a first step a location/folder for the BIOS/FW repository needs to be created that is called <desired_location> in the further steps. Please copy the config.xml file that has been created before to the following path: <desired_location>/DownloadManager/globalflash/Tools/ContentCollector In case of an updated repository file (config.xml) just replace the existing one. The ServerView Repository Server needs to point to the repository that is created by the ServerView Content Collector. Therefore a link has to be set that is displayed here: /Repository/Provisioning -> <desired_location>/DownloadManager/globalflash ServerView Content Collector then needs to download the specific repository from the FUJITSU webserver java -jar ContentCollector.jar -repository <desired_location> -eLCM -auto After executing the above statement a specific repository according to the config.xml file will be created and provided to your datacenter by the ServerView Repository Server. If it shall be done regularly it could be part of a cron job.

4. Processing the firmware and BIOS update The ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Cluster Update workflow has to be executed in vRealize Orchestrator. In a first step the vCenter cluster that shall be updated needs to be selected. (see Figure 12)

Figure 12: vR Orchestrator - select cluster

Afterwards the iRMC credentials for the hosts need to be set (see Figure 13). If the IPMI credentials in vCenter haven’t been set it could be processed with the menu item as well.



Figure 13 vR Orchestrator - enter credentials

As the cluster update shall run without user interaction when a host will be set to maintenance mode this needs to be selected with the next menu item (see Figure 14).

Figure 14 vR Orchestrator - set parameters

In the following step the repository information needs to be set. In case of the default FUJITSU web repository you don´t need to modify anything here. If a specific repository shall be used as explained in the chapter 6 the IP address of the host running the ServerView Repository Server needs to be entered (just http://x.x.x.x). Furthermore potential proxy settings can be configured.



Afterwards the update for the full vCenter cluster will be processed host by host until all hosts are finished. First host is set to maintenance mode after all VMs are shifted and being updated by the ServerView eLCM Update Manager Express. After update is finished and maintenance mode is left the next host will be processed by the ServerView vRealize Orchestrator workflow.

5. Further Information

- ServerView vRealize Orchestrator Integration manual o http://manuals.ts.fujitsu.com/file/12302/sv-orch-plugin-en.pdf

- ServerView Repository Server manual o http://manuals.ts.fujitsu.com/file/12272/sv-update-rep-en.pdf

- ServerView Content Collector manual o http://manuals.ts.fujitsu.com/file/12000/sv-contcoll-en.pdf

- Web repository o http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/globalflash/

- Software Downloads o http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/

Contact FUJITSU LIMITED Website: www.fujitsu.com 2018-1-31CE-EN

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White paper Managing Firmware and BIOS updates …manuals.ts.fujitsu.com/file/13709/sv-vmware-fwbios...White paper Managing Firmware and BIOS updates with VMware vRealize Orchestrator