Solaris

Hello, I am going to upgrade the Firmware on a T5 Sparc server running Solaris 11.2 and just wanted to clarify a couple of things please.

I have downloaded the Firmware patch P24441083_96, however this says it is based on ILOM 3.2.6. Ive been trying to find the download ilom 3.2.6 but each time the documentation refers me to the same procedure I used to download the 9.6.5.a firmware zip above so am thinking the FW patch will also upgrade the ilom FW??

There does seem to be a difference between the upgrade procedures for 11.2 and 11.3 so if anyone has already upgraded the FW at 11.2 im presuming I can just upgrade by 'pkg install firmware/system/T5-xx' etc etc or is there a better way, in fact is it better upgrading to 11.3 first then upgrading the FW??

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.


Thanks.

Use the ILOM webgui to update the firmware!

I would recommend using sysfwdownload -u <fw>.pkg from hypervisor OS.

This package will update all the firmware(s) required (ALOM, System etc.), be sure to read the README first!.

As for release required, this really depends what you need / want, check out this link :
Minimum Supported Versions of the Firmware, OS, and Software -
SPARC T5-2 Server Product Notes.

Depending on the services ran on the machine, firmware compatibility can come in question in some cases like Oracle VM (LDOMS) live migration, booting hypervisor from EFI labled disks and similar.

I have no issues in running specified firmware (9.6.5.a) on solaris 11.2.14.5 and 11.3.7.6 hypervisors on t5 machines.

Notice, i had some bugs on 11.3.8.6 with network LDC channel resets while making changes to virtual machines, which is fixed (haven't tested this) in latest 11.3 release from Oracle site.

Hope that helps
Regards
Peasant.