Firmware upgrade advise

Infrastructure & Networking Adapters and Cables Ethernet Adapter Cards
1

Hi all. I’m hoping someone can help me with some firmware upgrade advise.

I have a MNPH29C-XTR dual port card that is still running firmware 2.9.1000, but on the Mellanox website it shows the latest firmware as 2.9.1200 for the same model and PSID as my card, yet when installing the Linux driver it runs an automatic firmware upgrade check and claims the latest available driver is the already installed 2.9.1000 firmware.

So is there a reason why it doesn’t find and install the 2.9.1200 or why I should not upgrade to 2.9.1200 manually on this card?

My hesitation in trying an upgrade is that the filename of the 2.9.1200 firmware is listed as “fw-ConnectX2-rel-2_9_1200-MNPH29C-XTR_A2-A5-FlexBoot-3.3.400.bin.zip”, which mentions A2-A5, whereas my card when installing the Linux driver states its Part Number as “MNPH29C-XTR_A2-A4”, so I’m wondering if they are compatible after all, despite the Model and PSID matching.

I’d be tempted to leave the card as it is with the 2.9.1000 firmware, except when I came to fit the card in the intended server it would not boot & just got stuck in a boot loop, resetting every time after it tries to initialise this card, so I’m hoping a firmware update may fix the issue. The card works fine in my test server however.

I’ve currently fitted an MNPA19-XTR single port card that already has the 2.9.1200 firmware installed (same linux driver still claims the 2.9.1000 is the latest firmware for that card too, despite 2.9.1200 being installed already) which is working just fine in my server, but I’d like to get the dual port card working if possible.

Would appreciate any advise or ideas?

Thanks

2

Thanks Viki for confirming that for me.

I initially though it was checking online for a newer version, and was failing due to the A2-A4 and A2-A5 Part Number discrepancy, but if it only checks what’s included with the driver then that makes sense.

I’ll go ahead and flash the newer firmware and see if that does anything to fix my boot issue.

3

Hello,

You can upgrade the firmware version to 2.9.1200 without any worries, it is even recommended to upgrade the firmware to the latest.

The latest firmware version is not build-in in the driver because MNPH29C-XTR is an EOL (end of life) card and also reached to its EOS (end of support) period and is not maintained anymore by MLNX_OFED driver but there should not be any problem to upgrade the firmware separately from the driver.

Best Regards,

Viki