Upgrading procedure

NOTE: When using PCI pass-through, if you upgrade the firmware on an IO Accelerator, you must cycle the power for the change to take place. Restarting the virtual machine does not apply the change.

Upgrading device firmware from VSL 1.x.x or 2.x.x to 3.x.x

CAUTION: You cannot downgrade an HP IO Accelerator device firmware to an earlier version after you have upgraded the device.

CAUTION: Upgrading IO Accelerator devices that were previously configured for VSL 1.x.x or 2.x.x to work with VSL 3.x.x requires a low-level media format of the device. No user data is maintained during the media format process. Be sure to backup all data on your IO Accelerator device as instructed before upgrading the firmware.

Version 3.1.x of the HP IO Accelerator VSL supports new features, including the latest generation of IO Accelerator architecture and improved Flashback protection. These features require the latest version of the firmware. Every IO Accelerator device in a system running 3.1.x or later must be upgraded to the latest version of the firmware.

For example, if you have a system running 2.3.1 HP IO Accelerator VSL with IO Accelerator devices previously installed, and you want to install new IO Accelerator Gen2 devices (that require the latest version of the firmware), then you will need to upgrade all of the existing devices to the latest firmware version.

Upgrade path

Depending on the current version of your HP IO Accelerator device, to preserve the internal structure of the device, you might have to perform multiple upgrades. The following path is the minimum upgrade path that you must follow. Upgrade the HP IO Accelerator VSL software on the system, and upgrade the firmware to the compatible version in the following order:

1.2.4 > 1.2.7 > 2.1.0 > 2.2.3 > 3.1.x

For VSL upgrade information for the HP IO Accelerator, see the HP IO Accelerator Release Notes on the HP website (http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support-drivers.html). General upgrade instructions, including the firmware update instructions, are available in the HP IO Accelerator User Guide for each operating system.

Overformatting not supported

The –o overformat option is not supported in the 3.x.x VSL software. All upgraded HP IO Accelerator devices are formatted to the maximum advertised capacity, regardless of whether the device was overformatted prior to the upgrade.

Be sure to follow the upgrade path and make sure that all previously installed IO Accelerator devices are updated with the appropriate 2.3.1-compatible firmware.

If you plan to use IO Accelerator Gen1 devices and IO Accelerator Gen2 devices in the same host, perform this upgrade on all existing IO Accelerator Gen1 devices before installing the new IO Accelerator Gen2 devices.

1.Prepare each existing IO Accelerator device for upgrade: a. Backup user data on each IO Accelerator device.

Software installation 17