Rollback of firmware on DS4300??

[kat000003]

Hi guys and gals.

I recently updated my DS4300 unit with firmware and I would like to know if it possible to roll back to the previous level of firmware?? I might need to test this, to see if the firmware update was the cause of performance-related issues on some of my P51A servers...

Hope you can help.

Thanks
Justus

 

[khalidaaa]

Maybe what i will post is not related to your problem but i faced this problem once and here is the link

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1250297&page=1

i was asked this question before doing the update and my boss was asking it there is a recovery plan if something went wrong and i called the engineer and he said if something went wrong while updating the firmware then he will call IBM and stay with them on the line to fix and maybe uncommit the updates and go back to the previous version! was not convincing to me or my boss but we did it and it was successful

Regards,
Khalid

 

[kat000003]

Hi Khalid.

I read your post, thanks, but I did not see any indication of a 'rollback' that was done on the firmware...???

Do you perhaps know of any documentation that wouldbe able to assist? As you mentioned, I want to return to the previous version, even if only for 1 week. This will allow me to test my disk IO and then, if I am sure that the problem is not with the firmware, I can just update the firmware again...

Justus

 

[DukeSSD]

ibm do not support back leveling firmware.

unless they withdraw a level..... in which case they post up the last good level.

that is why there is only one level on the web site and no instructions to backlevel.

they only tend to release a new level to fix a problem in the old level, so they don't post the old level because it had some problem.

check out the storage site to find the matrix of compatible / supported levels of fibre card driver, firmware, switch firmware, storage device firmware and software.

don't just update the DS firmware and wait to see if it works, plan it properly.

To get you started:

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/product/interop.html

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk/ds4000/interop-matrix.html

there are probably hundreds of other bits of advice on the ibm site but you probably know what a nightmare it is to find stuff on, good luck.

 

[kat000003]

DukeSSD, the problem was not planning or implementation or anything to that effect. The upgrade went as planned, but afterwards, we noticed that some of the functionality on Adabas had slowed down.

A restore of the Adabas DB for instance, took 5 minutes prior to the update and after the weekend that the update was completed, shot up to 90 minutes for the exact same restore!!!! With no other changes being implemented... Now it only makes sense that the firmware update had something to do with this, so that is what I want to test. If it turns out that it is not firmware related, I will immediately update to the latest level. I only wanted to know this for testing purposes.....

Justus

 

[DukeSSD]

OK, as long as you checked the operating system, fibre adapter firmware and device driver, san switch firmware and storage manager software were all compatable before you did the update then it looks like there is a bug in the new DS firmware.

You'll be lucky to find a back level and the procedure to use it though, even with IBM's help.