1.4 Patches, firmware and image sync

Key points

1. imageupdate syncs a running node with its software image. By default it only shows what would change. The -w option writes the changes.

   What NVIDIA says (1)

   “Performing dry run (use synclog command to review result, then pass -w to perform real update)”

   — NVIDIA Base Command Manager 11 Administrator Manual (PDF)

2. A software image is the directory tree that BCM copies onto nodes. cm-chroot-sw-img enters it as a chroot and mounts the special directories that package scripts need.

   What NVIDIA says (2)

   “Therefore the BCM utility, cm-chroot-sw-img, is strongly recommended to take care of this.”

   — NVIDIA Base Command Manager 11 Administrator Manual (PDF)

   “root@basecm11:~# cm-chroot-sw-img /cm/images/default-image”

   — NVIDIA Base Command Manager 11 Administrator Manual (PDF)

3. Redfish is the industry standard API for managing servers through their BMC. BCM's firmware command can update the main BIOS and also subsystems such as NICs.

   What NVIDIA says (2)

   “the modern way of managing BIOS and firmware is with the Redfish standard.”

   — NVIDIA Base Command Manager 11 Administrator Manual (PDF)

   “Firmware updated via Redfish need not be just the PC main system BIOS, but can also be the flashable software of subsystems, for example: NICs.”

   — NVIDIA Base Command Manager 11 Administrator Manual (PDF)

Key terms

• Base Command Manager: NVIDIA cluster management software that provisions nodes from software images, monitors them and installs workload managers.
• Software image: The directory tree of a node OS kept on the head node and copied to nodes at provisioning.
• imageupdate: The cmsh command that syncs a running node with its image; it does a dry run unless you pass -w.
• Redfish: A standard REST API for managing servers through their BMC, used by BCM 11 for BIOS and firmware.

Sample question

You run imageupdate -n node001 in cmsh. What happens?