Updating the firmware

You can upgrade the IBM® WebSphere® DataPower® XC10 Appliance software by using firmware updates. Download new firmware versions from the Fix Central website and update your appliance software.

Before you begin

You must be assigned the Appliance administration permission to perform these steps.

Check to ensure that all active jobs are complete before starting the firmware update process. The firmware update process interrupts any jobs that are actively running, which can cause the data to become inconsistent. Ensure that you have planned for this behavior before beginning the update process.

Important: If you are installing the firmware for the first time on a new appliance, you must run the clear-all command on the appliance after the firmware update completes. See Initializing and configuring IBM WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance for more information about running this command after the firmware update.

About this task

You can update the firmware of the appliance by downloading a new firmware update from IBM and updating your appliance with the new firmware. You can run the firmware update in the user interface or on the command line.

Important: If your appliances are in a collective, you must complete the firmware upgrade process on one appliance before starting the process on another appliance within the collective. If you attempt to update the firmware on multiple appliances in the collective simultaneously, data loss might occur.
Important: After you upgrade either 9235-92X or 7199-92X appliance types with Version 2.0.0.x firmware, you cannot roll back to Version 1.0 firmware. You can roll back and upgrade between Version 2.0.0.x or firmware levels freely.

Procedure

  • Download the firmware upgrade:
    Navigate to IBM Fix Central and download a firmware update to your local file system. From the Fix Central page, select WebSphere as the Product Group and WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance from the list of products. Download the firmware upgrade that is appropriate for your appliance hardware type:
    • Appliance firmware updates for Appliance type 9235-92X are a single file with .scrypt2 extension.
    • Appliance firmware updates for Appliance type 7199-92X are a single file with .scrypt3 extension.
    These scrypt files are signed to ensure the integrity of update being run. If you are using the user interface to run the firmware upgrade, save this file on the computer that you use to access the user interface. If you are using the command-line interface to run the firmware upgrade, save this file on a server that you can access from the appliance.
  • To run the firmware update in the user interface:
    1. Log on to the user interface.
    2. Navigate to the Settings panel.
      • From the menu bar at the top of the WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance user interface, navigate to Appliance > Settings.
      • From the Home panel, click the Customize settings link in the Step 1: Set up the appliance section.
    3. Expand Firmware. This section displays the level of firmware that is currently installed on the appliance.
    4. Install a new firmware update.
      1. Click Browse... to navigate the file system for the new firmware update file.
      2. Select the new firmware update file and click OK.
      3. Click Upgrade. The amount of time the firmware update takes to upload is dependent on your connection speed. A message is displayed when the upload has completed and the firmware update is starting. When the update begins the appliance is restarted, your screen does not indicate any progress or display any changes on the user interface. The changes are not displayed because your session ended when the appliance restarted and the user interface is not available during the upgrade process.
        Important: The appliance restarts several times during the firmware upgrade process. Do not interrupt the process or manually restart the appliance during the firmware upgrade.
        To confirm the firmware update is complete, you must log in again when you expect the update is complete. The actual firmware update takes an average of about 10 minutes to 15 minutes after it starts but can possibly take longer. If you want to monitor the progress of the firmware upgrade, use the start-progress command in the command-line interface.
  • To run the firmware update in the command-line interface:
    1. Connect to the appliance with the command line or through the serial console. See Using the command line interface to run operations on your appliance for more information.
    2. Put the .scrypt file on the appliance. From the command-line interface, run the following command:
      file get <url_to_scrypt_file> <firmware_file>
      Where url_to_scrypt_file is the local server where you saved the .scrypt file from Fix Central, and firmware_file is the name of the .scrypt file that you want to use on the appliance.
    3. Install the firmware update. Run the following command:
      firmware upgrade <firmware_file>
      Important: During the firmware upgrade process, the appliance restarts several times. Do not interrupt the process or manually restart the appliance during the firmware upgrade.
    4. Run the start-progress command to monitor the progress of the appliance startup. When this command returns STARTED, the firmware upgrade is complete.

Results

The appliance has the updated firmware version. To confirm the firmware upgrade was successful, you can view the current firmware level in the Firmware section of the Appliance > Settings panel. This panel also displays the appliance model type and appliance serial number. Repeat these steps for the other appliances in your collective.

What to do next

If you are installing the firmware for the first time on a new appliance, you must run the clear-all command on the appliance after the firmware update completes. See Initializing and configuring IBM WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance for more information about running this command after the firmware update.
Parent topic: Updating WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance
Next topic: Using the Update Installer to install maintenance packages
Related tasks:
Quick start: Installing the appliance hardware
Initializing and configuring IBM WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance