The System Updates page has up to five tabs: Storage, Networking, HCI, Data Protection, and Server.

Storage

The Storage tab displays a list of all available system code, management software, and drive firmware updates across all supported systems. It includes the system name, update category, update type, the current version, and recommended version. The Recommended Update column is a hyperlink to the code allowing the user to quickly access the update code. Selecting the “>” icon expands the row to display the Release Summary with more details about the update and a link to the release notes for the system update.

This page also allows users to stage Unity XT code updates to the array. By selecting the Unity XT family arrays and the Stage to Array button, the code in the Recommended Update column is downloaded to the arrays. The user can log in to Unisphere and initiate the code upgrade at an appropriate time.

The user can filter the results by selecting the Filter icon, sort any of the columns and export the list to a CSV file.

Note: The System Updates listing in Infrastructure Observability does not support PowerScale/Isilon, PowerFlex, and PowerSwitch.

Networking

The Networking tab provides a list of recommended switch firmware updates for Connectrix switches.

HCI

The HCI tab allows users to initiate multisystem updates from Infrastructure Observability. Users can run pre-check, code download, and system update tasks on their VxRail clusters. The top of the page provides a chart with the VxRail software distribution for all monitored VxRail clusters. The bottom of the page lists each cluster along with various information such as current version, target version, and vCenter hostname. Observability intelligently provides a list of all possible target versions based on the current cluster version. Selecting the details icon provides additional information about the current installation timestamp, the update file size, and the component current and target versions.

When preparing for a cluster update, users can run the Pre-check task. The Pre-check task determines the cluster’s readiness for a system update and includes the checks found in VxVerify. The Pre-check task produces a pass/fail status with a job report that lists the details of each check. If a check fails, the job report provides a link to a knowledge base article that users can review to help remediate the issue before proceeding with a code download and system update. This is covered in more detail in the Infrastructure Observability administration section of this paper.

The Download task downloads and stages the update bundle onto the VxRail Manager VM of the cluster. This operation performs a change analysis between the existing software version running on the cluster and the selected target version. It then identifies and bundles only the necessary component files needed for the system update. This intelligent bundling can significantly reduce file transfer size and download times for all clusters, and particularly for those clusters at remote sites with limited bandwidth.

Once the Pre-check and Download tasks are successful, users can confidently run the Update task. Users can select a combination of tasks at once. For example, instead of running each task individually, they could select both the Pre-check and Download tasks and then come back and initiate the Update task. They could also select all three tasks. If a task failure occurs, the remaining tasks will not run.

Data Protection

The Data Protection tab lists recommended updates for PowerProtect DM instances and PowerProtect DD series appliances.

Server

The Server tab lets users initiate BIOS and firmware updates for their PowerEdge servers and chassis. OpenManage Enterprise v3.10 or later with CloudIQ Plugin v1.2 or later are required and the Remote Management option must be enabled in the CloudIQ Plugin in OpenManage Enterprise. Also, users must have the Server Admin role in Observability to initiate updates. See Identity Management for more information about Observability roles.

The user first creates a compliance report choosing a baseline of target firmware and driver versions based on the latest or recent Lifecycle Controller Catalogs for Enterprise Servers. By default, a compliance report is created for all servers against the latest available versions exists and cannot be edited or deleted.

After selecting the baseline, the user chooses a set of target devices. To simplify the selection process, a filter is available to choose target devices based on System name, Product, OpenManage Enterprise Collector, Site, Location, and Custom Tags.

Once the compliance report is created, the user can see a bar chart showing a summary of urgent, recommended, optional, and up to date upgrades.

Clicking the name opens the compliance report. The Group by pull-down menu lets the user group the updates by System or by none. When they are not grouped, they are ordered by severity and then service tag. After the user selects which updates they want to perform, the Update button becomes selectable.

When the user clicks the Update button, they select various options. Under the Schedule Update section, users can choose to apply the updates now, on the next reboot, or schedule them. If they choose to apply the update now or schedule them, they then choose the reboot type:

• Graceful reboot with forced shutdown
• Graceful reboot without forced shutdown
• Power cycle

Under the Server Options section, the user chooses each of the following for firmware updates. The selections are ignored for driver updates.

• Reset iDRAC
• Clear job queue

The Summary page provides a summary of the devices and components being updated. Clicking Finish sends the update request to the appropriate OpenManage Enterprise server. Users can monitor the update on the Jobs page.