by OK, so today I totally ignored my own methods of doing stuff.
Specifically, as a sysadmin, I not only have to update systems all the time (that is, software, packages, updates, patches, etc) – but I also have to keep on top of firmware updates. I suspect many or most of you do the same. Jack of all trades and all that.
Today, I was updating the firmware for a Sun X4250. The combined ilom+bios deal.
Now, when I _usually_ do these kinds of updates (for example, uploading the firmware via a web browser ilom session), I am most often careful to just let it go– and well, do not much else. Firmware updates are of course, touchy, scary, etc – if something blows up. I don’t want an over-exercised processor or network load to interfere with that.
Today, I ignored all of that, and while I was waiting for today’s firmware update to go– I decided to kill some time and go watch a few of the newest quicktime movie trailers on apple’s site.
And of course, the aforementioned firmware update blew. “image is corrupt!” the pop-up box exclaimed.
Fortunately, the ilom on that box is smart enough to check/re-check the firmware image before blindly applying it, like in the old days. I got a get-out-of-jail-free card, and was able to try again.
This time– nothing else going on. And- this time, it worked.
Lesson learned? Don’t forget the OLD lessons learned. “Firmware updates are touchy– be careful, don’t do anything else”. Even with multi-gigahertz processors and really good network connections, sh*t happens.
My gut feeling is I had just a little too much going through my workstation’s nic for a brief nanosecond, and my upload skipped a beat.
PS: OK, after seeing the trailer AGAIN, I have *got* go go see “Zombieland” soon…….