Cisco has stepped it up again with their latest release of code, Version 1.4(1). There are lots of new features packed into this release! You now have support for the UCS B230 Blades and all new support for the UC C-Series servers, talk about total management! This simply put makes it possible to manage virtually your entire datacenter from one place, and on top of that you get an all new UCS manager too!

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This is not to say that this release doesn’t come with its fair share of quirks however. When we were loading this on our lab gear for the very first time we quickly noticed that this setup was a little different than the previous releases. In 1.3 everything was packaged into a bundle and was easily imported.  This time it’s a little different but still not very difficult if you know the ropes. The real trick is to follow the steps and not wait around. When we were upgrading IO modules we were waiting for the new version of the code to appear after the upgrade and after some long waiting times the IO modules would restart and still show the old code. After re-reading the guide we realized it was waiting on us to complete all the other steps before it would show the newest revision. The next time we tried we moved right along through all the steps, not waiting on the IO Modules, by the time we got to the Fabric Interconnects everything was starting to look exactly as it should. It was a little time consuming but the pay off was awesome!

A few of the steps we followed are below (View the Upgrade Guide <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/upgrading/from1.3.1/to1.4.1/b_UpgradingCiscoUCSFrom1.3.1To1.4.1.html" target="_blank">Here</a>)

1. Upload the necessary firmware bundle(s)

2. Configure the I/O modules to use the new bundles (Update firmware), and “Activate firmware” on them leaving the “Ignore Compatibility” checkbox as well as the “Set Startup Version Only” checkbox checked.

3. This is where we got hung up a bit—as the instructions weren’t very clear on when we should move on to the next component, which is the Cisco UCS Manager software itself. In short, the IO modules will not run any code version that is newer than the UCS Manager software that is currently running. So even though we tried to upgrade the code on the IO modules to 1.4(1), they stayed back at 1.3(n).

 4. We moved on to the UCS Manager, and activated the firmware there. This took a little while and kicked our session to the UCS Manager software out until the update had been applied.

 5. From here we moved on to the Fabric Interconnects—and it is during this process that the IO modules are rebooted again, in a 1:1 relationship with the Fabric Interconnect they’re connected to.

     a. This first started with the Subordinate Fabric Interconnect—we activated the firmware there, let it reboot, and it also rebooted its attached IO module

     b. Then we moved to the Primary Fabric Interconnect—same thing here.

 Overall not a bad experience and as I said before it was definitely worth it, the new software can now support up to 20 5108 Chassis and 1024 VLANs, and you can schedule your service profile changes.. Just to name a few!