Upgrade Requirement:
Recommended - HP recommends users update to this version at their earliest convenience.

This release supports the Generation 3 versions of the HP Workload Accelerator for ProLiant servers, which includes the following models:
ioScale3 is the hardware equivalent of the Fusion IO ioMemory SX300 Devices

ioDrive3 is hardware equivalent of the Fusion IO ioMemory PX600 Devices

Prerequisites:

Important Upgrade Notes:

• Upgrade Path:
• Depending on the current firmware version of the Workload Accelerator, multiple firmware updates may be required to preserve internal structures. The minimum path is:
  • 4.0.2 > 4.x.x
• Version 4.0.2 is the earliest VSL version available for Generation 3
  • An upgrade to a later version requires a reformat of the HP Workload Accelerator, erasing all user data on the device in the upgrade process.
  • A backup of all data on the HP Workload Accelerator is mandatory before installing a later version of 4.x.x
• Firmware upgrade is required for all Workload Accelerator cards with 4.0.2 or later in the server, when multiple cards are installed. See Firmware Update Procedure below for manual upgrade steps.
• You must first uninstall any previous version before installing this software. See the procedure below or review the installation notes which are included in the HP Workload Accelerator User Guide.
• Back up all important data
• Existing cards using 3.x.x or prior version may require a seperate later 3.x.x firmware upgrade to the cards in the server. Do NOT attempt to upgrade these cards using 4.0.2 or later. These must only be upgraded with a later version of the 3.x.x firmware. You can locate the latest 3.x.x firmware for these existing cards under the software support section for those existing PCIe io accelerators or workload accelerators on HP.com
• Before upgrading, run a fio-bugreport command-line utility and save the output. This will capture device information for each device in the system.
• Before installing the IO Accelerator software, stop all virtual machines and put the ESXi host into maintenance mode (using vSphere client or vCLI).
• The offline bundle may be within a .zip archive. Unpack the offline bundle for installation.


• vCLI Installation Overview
  In order to install and manage the IO Accelerator software and driver, you may install vCLI (vSphere Command-Line Interface) to run against your ESXi system. You should install a vCLI package on a physical machine running Linux or Windows. For more information on VMware's vCLI, see http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/ .
  NOTE: HP does not recommend using the vCLI on a virtual machine that is hosted on your ESXi system. The IO Accelerator installation and configuration processes involve putting the ESXi host into maintenance mode.
• A command line interface can also be used to install the IO Accelerator provided the user has access to the ESXi host server.

IO Accelerator Management Interface

ioSphere 3.9.0 is the latest ioDrive management interface and is included as a seperate download ioSphere-3.9_ESXi-5.x.zip, it is recommended for use with 4.0.2 and later VSL versions.

• Unzip and extract the files in ioSphere-3.9_ESXi-5.x.zip into a common directory
• Locate the document Fusion-io_ioSphere_3.9.0_Installation_Guide_2014-06-11.pdf
• Install the management interface using the instructions in the guide

To ensure the integrity of your download, HP recommends verifying your results with the following MD5 Checksum values:

Reboot Requirement:
Reboot is required after installation for updates to take effect and hardware stability to be maintained.

Installation:

The HP IO Accelerator software is downloaded via zip file. Installation instructions are provided below.
VERSION 4.0.2 File
filename: ESXI-5.x_VSL-4.0.2.zip
FW file: ioaccelerator_4.0.2-20140410.fff
FW Version: Installs as version 8.5.28.116474 for 1.0, 1.3, 1.6, 2.6, 3.2TB devices and installs as version 8.5.28.116476 for 5.2, 6.4TB devices
Software Installation Overview:

1. Ensure the prerequisites have been satisfied before proceeding.
2. If needed, uninstall previous versions of the IO Accelerator driver, software and the utilities. Instructions for uninstalling current and previous versions of the driver are available below and also in the User guide.
3. Download the latest version of the IO Accelerator software and the driver command-line utilities to a remote machine.
4. Transfer the files to the target system using vCLI, VSphere or SCP (using SSH).
5. Install the software.
6. Reboot the ESXi system; this will load the driver and attach the IO Accelerator device(s).
7. Upgrade the firmware to the latest version if needed. See the Firmware Update section for more information.
   firmware file = <filename>.fff
8. Configure the IO Accelerator to support VM Disks.

I. Downloading the VMware ESXi Driver and support files:

1. Download the installation package to a remote machine running the vCLI or vSphere client.
2. Unzip the package. The IO Accelerator is available as an offline bundle.
3. Download and unzip the remote utilities package if installing from a remote Linux machine (optional).
   1. Install the rpm for the specific Linux distribution.
      • Example: fio-remote-util-<version>.x86_64.rpm
        Note: install the fio-remote-util for the appropriate Linux distribution on the remote machine.

II. Transfer the files to the ESXi server
Note: HP recommends saving the file(s) to a datastore on the host.
Example:. /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/bundles, where <datastore> is the name of the datastore.
Transfer methods:

• vSphere Client
• vCLI vifs command
• SCP/WinSCP (using SSH)

Transfer all the files to the datastore using one of the above methods.
At the end of the transfer, /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/bundles will contain the zip and FW files

III. Install the IO Accelerator driver (command line)
Note: The VMware Update Manager (VUM) plug-in for Virtual Center Server may be used to install the IO Accelerator software on multiple hosts. Please see the vCenter Server documentation for more details on VUM.
To install the IO Accelerator driver and utilities, run the following commands against your ESXi system.

1. Ensure prerequisites are satisfied and the system is in maintenance mode.
2. SSH/login to the host system.
3. Install the IO Accelerator driver and utilities.
   • # esxcli software vib install -d <path>/<offline-bundle>.zip
     • the <offline-bundle> is the full path name of the offline bundle zip file on the hypervisor host.
     • the utilities are installed as part of this vib.
4. Reboot the ESXi host system.
5. To install the CIM provider (optional), run the following command:
   1. esxcli software vib install -d <cimprovider-bundle> -- no-sig-check
   2. cimprovider-bundle is the cimprovider zip file

• Ensure the firmware is up-to-date.
• Run fio-status from the host shell and look for the Firmware line, e.g. Firmware v6.0.0, rev 108609 Public
  • The firmware should be version 108609. All of these versions are in the ioaccelerator_108609_1.fff archive file.
• If the firmware is not up-to-date or the output shows the device is running in minimal mode, the firmware will need to be updated.

Upgrading the firmware:

1. Ensure the prerequisites are met, specifically
   • If the device was previously using IO Accelerator software 2.x or earlier, please upgrade to each release according to the prerequisites.
   • Ensure existing IO Accelerators are updated before installing new ones.
   • the host system is in maintenance/Tech Support mode.
2. Ensure the firmware is on the ESXi host. If not, download the firmware and place the firmware onto the ESXi host (make note of the firmware location).
3. SSH into the host CLI, navigate to the directory that contains the firmware, and perform the upgrade:
   • fio-update-iodrive [-f -d <device-name>] <firmwarefile.fff>.
   • For example: fio-update-iodrive ioaccelerator_108609_1.fff or to force the upgrade fio-update-iodrive -f -d /dev/fct0 ioaccelerator_108609_1.fff
     NOTE: The firmware update process is expected to take significant time and may appear that the process is hung, but let it continue.
4. Reboot the host.
5. Verify the firmware version. Ensure the device does not have any warnings or is in minimal mode.

V. Uninstalling the IO Accelerator Software Package and Command-line Utilities
ESXi 5.0 uninstall command:esxcli [--server <servername>] software vib remove -n block-iomemory-vsl
ESXi 4.x uninstall vCLI procedure:
To uninstall a previous IO Accelerator package, run this command using the vCLI (from a remote machine).

1. Determine the bundle 'bulletin' name:
   1. vihostupdate --server <server-name> --query
   2. Sample output:

End User License Agreements:
Hewlett-Packard End User License Agreement

Upgrade Requirement:
Recommended - HP recommends users update to this version at their earliest convenience.

Important:

Version 4.0.2 and later are required for Generation 3 and later Workload Accelerator cards
Do not attempt to downgrade Generation 3 and later Workload Accelerators to VSL 3.x.x or earlier versions!
Version 4.0.2 must not be used on Generation 2 and earlier generation Workload Accelerator cards.

Supported Devices and Features:

HP Workload Accelerators for ProLiant Servers.

• Generation 3 HP Workload Accelerators for HP ProLiant Servers.
  • Includes Workload Accelerator 3 product with part numbers of 763834-B21, 763836-B21, 763838-B21, 763840-B21, 775666-B21, 775668-B21, 775670-B21, 775672-B21
  • Supports only the 4.0.2 or later versions of the Workload Accelerator software
  • Is compatible with supported HP ProLiant G6-Gen8 servers

Workload Accelerator Software version 4.0.2 supports the following Operating Systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 x64, R2
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012, R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 R2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 (up to 5.10), 6 (up to 6.5)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 (up to 11 SP3)
• VMware ESXi 5.0, 5.1, 5.5
• OEL 5 (up to 5.10), 6 (up to 6.5)
• CentOS 5 (up to 5.9), 6 (up to 6.5)
• Solaris 10 (update 11),11, 11.1
• Ubuntu 12.04, 13.04, 13.10

Version 4.0.2 and later are required for Generation 3 and later Workload Accelerator cards
Do not attempt to downgrade Generation 3 and later Workload Accelerators to VSL 3.x.x or earlier versions!
Version 4.0.2 must not be used on Generation 2 and earlier generation Workload Accelerator cards.