Upgrading CIMC (including firmware, BIOS, LOM, Ethernet Adapter, LSI)

Cisco Integrated Management Controller is Cisco proprietary out-of-band management for servers. This is HP's iLO equivalent on Cisco UCS (Unified Computing System) servers.

Note: UCS are servers which are capable of running virtual machines (VMWare ESXi or other hypervisors).

Recently, I did an upgrade on the UCS server's CIMC (which include all the components mentioned in the title). I will go through the steps here. You can also upgrade individual components if needed. My server was running ESXi but that is irrelevant.

Note: Go through the Release Notes of the firmware at Cisco.com and make sure you can go from the source version to the destination version. You have to be logged in to be able to download the software.

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Here are the steps:

​Gracefully shut down all the VMs running on the UCS server (this isn’t required but recommended) 
Open the CIMC interface by going into the CIMC IP Address (ignore any certificate errors) 

Note: This is not the same as ESXi IP. 

Note: I prefer using Internet Explorer than using Chrome for this upgrade (even though my choice of browser is Chrome). 

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Click on Launch KVM Console (most times than never, Launch KVM will pop up a Java security error. Even after accepting the security error, Java would fail to launch. 

To fix the Java error, go to your PC’s Start button --> Control Panel --> Java --> Security --> Edit Site List --> Add the CIMC IP Address like this: https://10.10.10.1 
Note: I am running Java 8 Build 71 

If the hypervisor you are running is ESXi, you will see a similar screen to the one below: ​

Click on Virtual Media --> ‘Activate Virtual Devices’ 
Click on Virtual Media --> ‘Map CD/DVD Drive’ and browse to where you have downloaded the firmware from cisco.com 
Restart the server so it can boot from Firmware file this time. 
(F12 and F11 if its an ESXi) 

Press F6 on the boot screen to get in the Boot Menu. (you might have to press F6 multiple times just to make sure you hit it at the right moment) ​

Select vKVM mapped CD/DVD ​​

UCS Host Upgrade Utility will start ​​

It can a while to load the firmware files (I guess this depends on network connectivity - mine was pretty good but still it took around 10 minutes).

When you get the license agreement, click 'I Agree'.

Now the following screen is where you need to select the components you are planning to upgrade. Select the components (Now click on 'Update' or 'Update All' (I selected All). At that time the upgrade process on each component would start. 

You would get the option to select Secure Boot Option. I selected 'No' as I wasn't using this feature.

You can see the progress throughout the process (almost)

Depending on the source and target version, you might lose connection to this window while some components are being updated. Don't panic. Give it time.

​Note: Some versions where you won't lose access to the KVM Console, you would lose connection when you exit the installer when the firmware is finally applied (Adapter or BIOS firmware).

Server would go through a power cycle and would load up the hypervisor. You can go the CIMC webpage to make sure that version is actually upgraded.
Hope this helps!