IBM Storwize V7000 Upgrade Procedure

IBM Storwize V7000 Upgrade Procedure

Recently upgraded the firmware on two V7000 Storwize systems. Both went smoothly by using the GUI manager.  While one node is being upgraded the other takes over control so there is no downtime. However, there might be a possible performance decrease during the upgrade.  After the upgrade I've noticed the error logs are no longer being filled with software errors; which I knew the new firmware was to fix.

Storwize V7000

Download the following files from the www.ibm.com/support website:

1. The latest IBM Storwize V7000 code level(firmware).
2. The latest IBM Storwize V7000 Upgrade Test Utility.

The V7000 Upgrade Test Utility can be used to check for known issues which may cause problems during a Storwize V7000 software upgrade.

From the Storwize V7000 Gui Manager:

1. Go to the Configuration>Advanced panel in the GUI

2. Select Upgrade Software

3. Press the Launch Upgrade Wizard button

4. When prompted, upload the upgrade test utility package to the system and click Next

5. When prompted, enter the software version you intend to upgrade to and click Next. This field will be automatically populated with the latest available software version if it is available

6. The following page will contain the results of the upgrade test. Review the output from the upgrade test utility to see if any actions are required before starting the upgrade

7. If you wish to continue with the firmware upgrade at this time, click Next to proceed with the upgrade process. Otherwise click Cancel to exit the upgrade wizard

The V7000 Code(firmware) upgrade process will take about an hour and a half during which time the fans may run at maximum speed. Check the error logs for entries stating the firmware upgrade has been completed.

During the automatic upgrade process, each node in a system is upgraded one at a time, and the new code is staged on the nodes. While each node restarts, there might be some degradation in the maximum I/O rate that can be sustained by the system. After all the nodes in the system are successfully restarted with the new software level, the new software level is automatically committed.

During an automatic software upgrade, each node of a working pair is upgraded sequentially. The node that is being upgraded is temporarily unavailable and all I/O operations to that node fails. As a result, the I/O error counts increase and the failed I/O operations are directed to the partner node of the working pair. Applications do not see any I/O failures. When new nodes are added to the system, the software upgrade file is automatically downloaded to the new nodes from the Storwize V7000 system.