AIX Hosts need downtime to update CX700 FLARE Code?

[vtaixer]

We are new to the EMC world and our EMC CE says due to the AIX native HBA drivers inability to handle the datapath repeatedly switching between the SPs, as it would during a FLARE upgrade or LCC replacement, the AIX hosts need to be stopped to ensure data integrity. He further states that it does not matter what brand of HBA we use, the issue is in the AIX native drivers required by IBM.
We did not hear of this from anyone or any document while we were investigating SAN products. This does not jibe with EMC's NDU claim.
Can anyone explain further?

Thanks very much.

 

[onefortheroad]

I've run the EMC CPG for a Flare upgrade to see what is says specific to your issue, here's the explanation hope it hels:
AIX Servers:
• Stop all I/O from any connected AIX server during the NDU process if it is running the native HBA driver. Refer to Primus Solution emc67186 for more information.

If updating the array to Release 14 or higher, the AIX host ODM definitions may need to be updated. Read the readme.1st file at the following location to determine the appropriate ODM set to install.
The ODM definitions can be downloaded from this location also.
ftp.emc.com/pub/elab/aix/ODM_DEFINITIONS