Upgrading the i40e NVM Firmware on Routing Engines with VM Host Support

On routers with dual Routing Engines, you must use the request chassis cb (offline | online) slot slot-number to power cycle the Routing Engine. Thereby, you can avoid using an external power cycler and avoid abrupt power cycling of backup RE, which may cause file system errors.

To upgrade i40e NVM firmware on routers with dual Routing Engines:

1. Upgrade the device with the Junos OS image version which supports i40e NVM firmware upgrade. See Table 2.

   Copy and install the jfirmware-vmhost package to the device.

   If the file has been obtained from JTAC, use FTP or SCP to load the firmware file on the device. Save the file in the /var/tmp directory.

   user@host> request vmhost software add /var/tmp/jfirmware-vmhost-x86-64-19.2R1.tgz

2. Upgrade the NVM firmware.

   To initiate the upgrade, use the following command:

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   user@host> request system firmware upgrade re i40nvm
   Part             Type           Tag   Current   Available  Status
                                          version   version
   Routing Engine 1 RE i40e-NVM   7     4.26      6.01         OK
   Perform indicated firmware upgrade ? [yes,no] (no) yes
    
   Firmware upgrade initiated, use "show system firmware" after reboot to verify the firmware version

   Monitor the upgrade status by using the show system firmware command. If the upgrade is initiated the output displays PROGRAMMING (0%) as the status. However, note that the status PROGRAMMING (0%) does not increment during the process.

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   user@host> show system firmware
   Part             Type           Tag Current   Available Status
                                       version   version
   Routing Engine 0 RE BIOS        0            0.53.1             OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE BIOS        0            0.43               OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE FPGA        1            28.0.0             OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE SSD1        3            0.0.0              OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE SSD2        3            0.0.0              OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE i40e-NVM    7       4.26 6.01          PROGRAMMING   (0%)

3. Switch to the backup Routing Engine by using the request chassis routing-engine master switch command to switch primary role to other RE (i.e, RE1).

   Note:

   This step is necessary, because in Step 6 you have to power cycle the Routing Engine which is undergoing the NVM upgrade (i.e, RE0) from RE1

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   user@host> request chassis routing-engine master switch
   Toggle mastership between routing engines ? [yes,no] (no) yes
   
   Resolving mastership...
   Complete. The other routing engine becomes the master.
    

4. Reboot the device by using the request vmhost reboot command from the Routing Engine which is undergoing the NVM upgrade (i.e, RE0).

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   user@host> request vmhost reboot

5. Monitor the console output. You may have to perform power recycle of the Routing Engine multiple times. When you are prompted for a power cycle on your console, use external power cycle for power cycling the Routing Engine. Or, you can use the command request chassis cb slot slot offline as described in Step 6.

   The following message is displayed on the console prompting you to perform a power cycle:

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   “Please Power Cycle your system now and run the NVM update utility again to complete the update. Failure to do so will result in an incomplete NVM update.
   Upgrade complete please power reboot
   You may notify to  power reboot again after reboot if required”
   

6. From RE1, power cycle the RE0 using following command request chassis cb slot slot offline.

   To power off RE0, use the command request chassis cb slot 0 offline and to power on RE0, use the command request chassis cb slot 0 online.

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   user@host> request chassis cb slot 0 offline
   Offline initiated, use "show chassis environment cb" to verify

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   user@host> request chassis cb slot 0 online
   Online initiated, use "show chassis environment cb" to verify

7. After a successful upgrade, verify the version of the firmware.

   Note:

   The Current version is displayed as 6.1 instead of 6.01.

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   user@host> show system firmware
   Part             Type           Tag Current   Available Status
                                       version   version
   Routing Engine 0 RE BIOS           0      			0.53.1          OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE BIOS           0      			0.43            OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE FPGA           1      			28.0.0          OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE SSD1           3     			0.0.0           OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE SSD2           3     			0.0.0           OK
   Routing Engine 1 RE i40e-NVM  7   6.1    			6.01            OK   

   Note:

   In case, you have run the request vmhost snapshot command with a Junos OS image which does not support i40e NVM firmware upgrade, (if the SSD recovery snapshot has a Junos OS version older than the Junos OS versions mentioned in Table 3) we recommend you to take a snapshot using the request vmhost snapshot command again. Hence, in case of a recovery process, the SSD recovery snapshot will have a Junos OS image which supports NVM 6.01.

8. Similarly, while upgrading i40e NVM on RE1, power cycle RE1 from RE0.

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   user@host> request chassis cb slot 1 offline
   Offline initiated, use "show chassis environment cb" to verify

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   user@host> request chassis cb slot 1 online
   Online initiated, use "show chassis environment cb" to verify

9. You need to perform this step only if the image you downloaded does not contain debugfs based mechanism to stop LLDP.

   Download the lldp-patch-for-i40e-upgrade.tgz package. Copy and install the file in the /var/tmp/ directory on each Routing Engine.

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   user@host> request vmhost software add /var/tmp/lldp-patch-for-i40e-upgrade.tgz
   Verified lldp-patch-for-i40e-upgrade signed by PackageDevelopmentEc_2018 method ECDSA256+SHA256
   [ re_name = RE-PTX-2X00x8 ]
   Pushing script(s) to host ...
   Install the script(s) under host-os....
   Script(s) copy done
   

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   user@host>show version | match lldp
   lldp-patch-for-i40e-upgrade
   

10. Reboot the device by using the request vmhost reboot command. The upgrade process is complete when the Routing Engine comes back online.

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    user@host> request vmhost reboot