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Re: [Veritas-bu] Off Topic: Firmware and driver versions?
2010-05-12 10:04:28
On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 6:54 AM, Marianne Van Den Berg <mvdberg AT stortech.co DOT za> wrote:
In a big SSO environment with
mixed O/S media servers attached to tape and disk (via different HBA’s) –
who dictates what driver/firmware versions should be used on tape drives, hba’s,
switches?
The NBU hardware compatibility
list is very basic and list ‘tested’ versions for tape drives, not
recommended.
As far as switches and HBA’s
are concerned, the compatibility guide says: “Consult the hardware
vendor's web site for up-to-date firmware and driver updates.”
My viewpoint is that the tape vendor
should supply all these compatibilities. I’d like to know how it’s
done in your environment and who initiates the whole process…
For tape drives, we rely on the opinion of our field service rep - whenever he's out here, we ask what's a recommended release for the drives and the library and schedule accordingly. I don't think we've seen specific firmware issues on the tape side.
On the host side, to some extent we are starting to lose control, and that's not a bad thing. Multipathing software is coming out of the OS vendors (MPIO, DMP, etc.). Every now and then we go through and do a firmware/driver update but I don't think we've been the 100% supported/current in over 3 years (when we did a McData to Brocade switch migration).
For the SAN switches, we upgrade the firmware when we get around to it. I'm a few releases behind but we can't upgrade continually or we'd be doing nothing else. If there's a bug that I've run into that I need to fix, then I'll bump the priority.
It's always a fine juggling act between being current, supported, and meeting the business requirements, all the time balancing that with your available time. .../Ed _______________________________________________
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