Update BIOS on Sun Fire X4150 server

Question

I have some Sun Fire X4150 servers with a very old BIOS release (1ADQW015), which seems to have some compatibility problems with WMware ESX Server 3.5 and Windows 2008 R2 virtual machines; so I want to update the BIOS on them.

The problem: according to this page, if your servers run ELOM (mine do), you first need to update to the latest ELOM release, then to the interim transition release, then finally you can update to the latest one.

Ok, I'm willing to do that... but it looks like Sun (now Oracle) will happily let you download the latest firmware DVD (3.3.0), but it will not let you download the transition release (2.0) if you don't have a support contract.

Well, I actuall don't care at all about the servers' management controllers (we don't even use them), so upgrading from ELOM to ILOM is totally irrelevant to me; but I need to update the servers' BIOS. So my question is: can I update the servers' BIOS to the latest version without doing the full ELOM-to-ILOM migration, or will this not work (or even make the servers unusable)? Do BIOS versions and SP ones need to be matched, or can one be updated without bothering with the other?

Bonus question: if this whole ELOM-to-ILOM thing actually is needed in order to update the BIOS, can that 2.0 CD-ROM be obtained without having a support contract with Sun/Oracle (which we are definitely not going to sign, being that quite old hardware)?

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Update:

I tried upgrading only the BIOS on one of the servers, and it didn't boot anymore. So it really looks like a full firmware upgrade is needed, and the management controller and BIOS versions should be kept in sync.

So... where can I find that *&!£%$% 2.0 CD-ROM? Or at least the transition firmware that can be found on it?

Solution

So here it is: https://dev.lugh.ch/sun.iso.

Update: Unfortunately I don't have this ISO anymore, sorry.

Comments

[weeheavy]

Do you need "Sun Fire X4150 Tools and Drivers CD 2.0 ISO image"? Its about 840MB. I have access to it.

[Massimo]

Yes, that's exactly what I need. Could you place it somewhere where I can download it?

[weeheavy]

I'm uploading it at the moment. Not sure if this will go well though - 4 hours to go and I'll leave work in 20 minutes. If this won't work: do you mind about slow download speeds? (100KB/s)?

[Massimo]

I actually care only about the two firmwares that should be on it, the latest ELOM one and the transition ELOM/ILOM one; they should be in the "remoteflash" directory in that ISO image. But I'd prefer to have the full image, should I need something else that may be in it.

[Massimo]

If you can make it available at a slow speed anytime soon, I'll just start downloading it and get it tomorrow; I'm leaving work, too.

[Admin]

got a new link to that x4150 iso or newer? I have 1.0 and that's really, really old. Oracle told me it'd be $80,000 to get a support contract to allow me to download it from them. Ridiculous.

[Massimo]

Got it, and it's exactly what I needed. Thanks again.

[Massimo]

Argh... a remote update procedure that requires PHYSICALLY REMOVING POWER TO THE SERVER FOR 10 SECONDS! Those guys at Sun must be really crazy :-/

[Admin]

Hi Weeheavy / Massimo, Could you please give me the link where I can download the same .ISO file. As I am need of the same software to upgrade the BIOS of my SunFire X4150 Server. I could not find the file by clicking on the link given above (dev.lugh.ch/sun.iso). Your help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Regards