Updating BIOS on Dell Perc 6/i Integrated RAID controller

[Jeff Zylstra]

I am getting the following message on my Dell R710 server with Perc 6/i RAID controller:

I copied this from the Dell OpenManage Software....

The current firmware version  6.2.0-0013 is older than the required firmware version 6.3.0-0001 for a controller of model 0x1F0C: Controller 0 (PERC 6/i Integrated)

I am wondering if anyone has done this particular update already, and what it is like.  Specifically, I'm wondering how you booted the system to do it, if it was non-destructive, and if I should update my system BIOS before or afterwards?  And maybe what kind of time commitment I'm looking at.  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

[Jeff Golas]

Thats a PERC update for the scsi/raid controller. I've done many in the past with no problems, but I HIGHLY recommend doing a full backup of whatever's on that disk first...especially having dealt with a corrupted array a couple months ago (diff issue).

[Jeff Zylstra]

Thats a PERC update for the scsi/raid controller. I've done many in the past with no problems, but I HIGHLY recommend doing a full backup of whatever's on that disk first...especially having dealt with a corrupted array a couple months ago (diff issue).

Oh yes.  I'm planning on doing it over a weekend, when I'll have time to deal with issue but not the technical backup.  How about doing the BIOS upgrade.  Is there anything there that might brick my system?

[Jeff Golas]

I think on a 710, the bios has 2 copies that even if it fails, it switches back to the previous one. I never had issues doing bios updates.

Make sure you get all the other firmwares too, like the backplane, and DRAC if you have that (you can do the DRAC anytime, even while its online).

[Jeff Zylstra]

I think on a 710, the bios has 2 copies that even if it fails, it switches back to the previous one. I never had issues doing bios updates.

Make sure you get all the other firmwares too, like the backplane, and DRAC if you have that (you can do the DRAC anytime, even while its online).

Excellent.  Good to know.  I always worry that some of these things may be inter-dependent and one thing will cause problems elsewhere.  Good to know that's not the case.  Thanks, Jeff.