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We have two important production servers on (fairly ancient) Supermicro X8DT6 motherboards. I've never updated BMC firmware before, but I'm keen to see if we can get some HTML5 kvm consoles running on these machines, and to know if the upgrade is safe to do while the server continues to operate.

The BMCs are running 

Firmware Revision : 2.08
Firmware Build Time : Dec 2 2011 19:21:51

according to the BMC web interface (the revision is confirmed in ipmitool).

It appears that Supermicro has updated IPMI firmware version 2.22 available for the X8DT6-F motherboard which I assume is a family member of the X8DT6.

It appears possible to upload the firmware file (X8DT6222.ima in this case) via the BMC web interface. The document with the download bundle has the following note, however:

2.0  System will reboot after upgrade complete.

Does that reboot refers only to the BMC, or to the whole server?

rorycl
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    Do not just assume that the firmware is compatible. It's most likely not, if it's not meant for that exact model, Also, it's extremely unlikely there will be a release of a HTML5 version for such an old machine - you will be stuck with Java – Sven Sep 08 '19 at 21:03
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    @Sven In SuperMicro nomenclature the -F means that the motherboard has a dedicated IMPI interface that is all it means. So if the IPMI firmware is for the X8DT6 then it correctly supports the -F and non-F models. – Rowan Hawkins Mar 29 '21 at 23:32

1 Answers1

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A BMC update requires a reboot of the whole server, so you will have to schedule a downtime for it on your production servers.

Tilman Schmidt
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  • Thanks for the helpful answer, Tilman. Sorry for the slow acceptance. – rorycl Oct 22 '19 at 06:48
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    This is incorrect, A system bios update requires a reboot. A BMC update should work without issue most of the time. If you are skipping several versions of BMC then a hang many happen. If it hangs, the only fix is to unplug the power cords until both PSU lights go out. It is not a time issue, both supplies need to have 0 power which does take a few seconds from when the cords are pulled. – Rowan Hawkins Mar 29 '21 at 23:30
  • Interesting. Back when I was still using Supermicro boards I never found a way to do a BMC update without a reboot. Do you have any reference how to proceed? – Tilman Schmidt Mar 30 '21 at 06:46