Chapter 3: Basic System Operations
Upgrading Firmware
StorNext M660 Metadata Appliance Hardware Guide
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Components and Upgrade Time Estimates
For All Firmware Upgrades
• Full access to all GUI features are not available during the upgrade.
The GUI should not be started until the upgrade is complete.
For StorNext 5 and Later Upgrades
• The upgrade is applied to each node in reverse order, beginning
with the secondary node. When the secondary node has completed
its upgrade, the system will failover from the primary to the
secondary, and begin upgrading the primary system. While the node
firmware upgrade is being applied, metadata operations are not
interrupted. Access to a limited StorNext GUI is available on the
MDC node acting as primary during the upgrade of the node acting
as secondary.
• Both MDC nodes will need to reboot after the metadata array
firmware update is applied.
Note:
As of StorNext 5 Release 5.1.1, MDC node reboots after
metadata array firmware updates are no longer required.
For Upgrades Prior to StorNext 5
• Each StorNext firmware update requires a reboot of both nodes. In
some cases, multiple reboots of the nodes are required.
Component
Upgrade Time Estimate (approx. minimum)
MDC node
30 to 60 minutes per node*
Metadata Array
20 minutes**
* Reboot times could vary widely, depending on the size of the SAN in
your environment, whether or not MDC node firmware needs to be
upgraded, and the StorNext Release installed prior to the upgrade.
** Since metadata array operations, and the StorNext file system will
be suspended during the array firmware upgrade, this is a
downtime
upgrade
.
Note:
See sections below for information on additional reboots that
may be required for specific StorNext Releases.
