Upgrading disk firmware

About disk firmware upgrades

Disk firmware is updated automatically when one of the following is true:

You add new disks or a disk shelf.
Data ONTAP detects disk firmware updates in the /etc/disk_fw directory after a reboot.

Each filer is shipped with a /etc/disk_fw directory that contains the latest firmware revisions. Disk firmware updates can be added to this directory at the following times:

During a Data ONTAP upgrade
Disk firmware updates are often included when a new release family upgrade becomes available. They are occasionally included for upgrades within release families.
During a manual firmware upgrade
If you encounter problems with certain disk types or you receive a notice from Network Appliance, you might be directed to download a disk firmware upgrade from the NOW site.

Disk firmware is specific to disk drive manufacturers, and disk firmware upgrades can include updates to firmware for one or more disk drive types. Because your filer might use drives from multiple drive manufacturers, whether you are affected by a disk firmware update depends on the contents of the disk firmware upgrade and the types of drives on your system.

Disk firmware upgrades can take many minutes depending on the number of drive types and disk drives per type on your filer. During a disk firmware upgrade, the disks of the affected drive types are not available.

Note
Because disk firmware upgrades are time consuming and can affect filer availability, Network Appliance recommends that you verify whether a disk firmware upgrade will take place during a Data ONTAP upgrade. To do so, follow the instructions described in Detecting outdated disk firmware.

Detecting outdated disk firmware

Autosupport messages include information about disk firmware installed on your filer. The NOW Installed Product pages use these messages to monitor the firmware versions on your filer and to post notices when installed disk firmware in the /etc/disk_fw has been superseded. These notices indicate that the disk firmware on at least some of your disks will be upgraded during your next Data ONTAP upgrade, which can help you plan your upgrade.

To use the NOW Installed Products service to monitor disk firmware versions:

Autosupport must be enabled on your filer.
For more information about Autosupport, see the Storage Management Guide.
You must have registered your Network Appliance products.
For more information, see Product Registration on the NOW site at http://now.netapp.com/Self-Service/Forms/frmProductReg.asp.

To determine if your filer has outdated disk firmware, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	Use a Web browser to go to http://now.netapp.com/.
2	Click Installed Products.
3	Display the product details for the filer(s) you are upgrading by entering search criteria for a specific system or displaying a list of systems at your company.
4	In the AutoSupport Status category, click on Analysis. Result You see a list of System Level Notices for your filer. If there is a notice that newer disk firmware is available for your filer, a disk firmware upgrade will take place with your next Data ONTAP upgrade. If there is no disk firmware notice, the disk firmware on your system is up to date.

When to upgrade disk firmware manually

If you receive error messages about the firmware compatibility, you must manually upgrade the disk firmware using one of the following procedures:

Manually update disk firmware with the disk_fw_update command.
See Command for upgrading disk firmware.
Download new disk firmware from the NOW site, then run the disk_fw_update command.
See Obtaining disk firmware updates.

Note
When you upgrade the filer software, disk firmware is updated automatically as part of the filer software upgrade process. A manual update is not necessary unless the new firmware is not compatible with the filer disks.

Command for upgrading disk firmware

You use the disk_fw_update command from the filer console on a running system to update firmware on all disks or a specified disk on a filer. The disk_fw_update command upgrades disks for which firmware files are present in the /etc/disk_fw directory and which need to be updated. It does not upgrade other disks.

The disk_fw_update command is applicable to both SCSI disks and Fibre Channel disks.

For more information, see the NetApp disk_fw_update(1) man page.

Note
This command makes disks inaccessible for up to two minutes, so network sessions using the filer should be terminated before running the command. This is particularly true for CIFS sessions, which otherwise are terminated while this command executes.

Obtaining disk firmware updates

System firmware updates are available from the Disk Drive & Firmware Matrix, on the NOW site at http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/diskfw/. Download and upgrade disk firmware according to the instructions.