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We've experienced different firmware update approaches.. this is a wish list rather than a requirement since in the end, it can all be scripted if needed. Currently, these are manpower intensive and require a lot of co-ordination since the upgrade operation has to be performed by the hardware support team but the end user defines the intervention window.

a. Some BMC updates can be applied out of band, over the network with appropriate BMC rights. It would be very nice if Ironic could orchestrate these updates since they can be painful to organise. One aspect of this would be for Ironic to orchestrate the updates and keep track of success/failure along with the current version of the BMC firmware (maybe as a property?). Typical example of this is when a security flaw is found in a particular hardware model BMC and we want to update to the latest version given an image provided by the vendor.

b. A set of machines have been delivered but an incorrect BIOS setting is found. We want to reflash the BIOSes with the latest BIOS code/settings. This would generally be an operation requiring a reboot. We would ask our users to follow a procedure at their convenience to do so (within a window) and then we would force the change. An inventory of the current version would help to identify those who do not do the update and remind them.

c. A disk firmware issue is found. Similar to b) but there is also the possibility for partial completion where some disks correctly update but others not.

Overall, it would be great if we can find a way to allow self service hardware management where the end users can choose the right point to follow the firmware update process within a window and then we can force the upgrade if they do not do so.

Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: Julia Kreger <juliaashleykreger at gmail.com>
Reply-To: "OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)" <openstack-dev at lists.openstack.org>
Date: Friday, 30 March 2018 at 00:09
To: "OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)" <openstack-dev at lists.openstack.org>
Subject: [openstack-dev] [ironic] baremetal firmware lifecycle management

    One of the topics that came up at during the Ironic sessions at the
    Rocky PTG was firmware management.
    
    During this discussion, we quickly reached the consensus that we
    lacked the ability to discuss and reach a forward direction without:
    
    * An understanding of capabilities and available vendor mechanisms
    that can be used to consistently determine and assert desired firmware
    to a baremetal node. Ideally, we could find a commonality of two or
    more vendor mechanisms that can be abstracted cleanly into high level
    actions. Ideally this would boil down to something a simple as
    "list_firmware()" and "set_firmware()". Additionally there are surely
    some caveats we need to understand, such as if the firmware update
    must be done in a particular state, and if a particular prior
    condition or next action is required for the particular update.
    
    * An understanding of several use cases where a deployed node may need
    to have specific firmware applied. We are presently aware of two
    cases. The first being specific firmware is needed to match an
    approved operational profile. The second being a desire to perform
    ad-hoc changes or have new versions of firmware asserted while a node
    has already been deployed.
    
    Naturally any insight that can be shared will help the community to
    best model the interaction so we can determine next steps and
    ultimately implementation details.
    
    -Julia
    
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