Updating the Firmware on All Gateways

This section describes how to upgrade or downgrade all the gateways configured in an ICPAM server.

Tip            To upgrade the firmware for a single gateway, see Updating the Firmware on Individual Gateways.

Before You Begin

Review the following before upgrading the gateways.

·         This procedure loads the same firmware image to all gateways configured in ICPAM. If you check the options Set as active image and Reset Gateway, the gateways will reset with the new image as the active running image.

·         An Active image is the image that will be operational when the gateway is reset. A Running image is the firmware image currently used to operate the gateway.

·         Gateways must have the same firmware version as the ICPAM appliance server software. This includes the major version, minor version, maintenance version, and the build number. If any difference in versions exists between the gateway and the appliance, then only a restricted set of operations (such as image upgrade) can be performed.

·         Gateways operate normally while the firmware image is being copied from the TFTP server, but are out of service while being reset. When a gateway is down, the doors for that gateway remain locked if the lock is fail-secure, and unlocked otherwise. See Understanding Door Modes, Door Schedules, and the First Unlock Feature for more information.

·         If you deselect the options Set as active image and Reset Gateway, then the firmware image is copied to the gateways, but is not made the Active or Running image. You must use the File Manager to manually activate the image on each gateway, as described in Step 9, and then reset the gateway as described in Step 10.

·         Review the recommendations in the Select the Following Options When Upgrading Gateway Firmware.

·         Gateways not configured in ICPAM are not impacted by this procedure.

·         Gateways are upgraded in batches of 5, with a 15 minute delay between batches.

·         10 minutes after all the gateways are updated, a summary event is posted to ICPAM. Any gateways that are still in the Issued state are described as upgrade still in progress.

·         You cannot issue another Bulk Image Upgrade command until the summary event is posted.

Procedure

To upgrade or downgrade the firmware images for all gateways, complete the following steps.

Step 1            Complete the instructions in Uploading Firmware Images to a TFTP Server

Step 2            Log in to the ICPAM desktop client.

See Logging into ICPAM Client.

Step 3            Select Hardware - Tree from the Doors menu.

Step 4            Right-click the Access GW Driver and select Bulk Image Upgrade.

bulk_image_upgrade_selection.png

 

Tip            You can also access the Bulk Image Upgrade command using the Door/Location-based Hardware module. Select Door/Location-based Hardware from the Doors menu, and then select Gateway Controllers from the View menu. Right-click a location or site and select Bulk Image Upgrade from the menu.

Step 5            In the Bulk Image Upgrade window, enter the image location and select the upgrade options.

a.  Enter the Image Name.

        If the image is located on the ICPAM TFTP server, click Browse to select a firmware image name.

        If the image is located on a different TFTP server, enter the filename manually.

bulk_image_upgrade.png

 

b.  Enter the TFTP server IP address.

The ICPAM appliance TFTP server IP address is entered by default.

c.  Enter the directory Path on the TFTP server for the firmware image.

        Leave this field blank if using the default location for the built-in ICPAM TFTP server.

        Be sure the path and filename are valid. The administration tool does not verify remote server paths.

d. Select the following options to define what that will occur after the image is loaded to the gateway:

        Set as active image: (checked by default) make the firmware file new Active image for all gateways. The active image is the firmware that will become the running image when the gateway is reset.

    Delete credentials: delete credentials on all gateway.

        Delete configuration: delete the module configuration on all gateways. The configuration is automatically reloaded when the module establishes communication with the ICPAM appliance.

        Delete events: delete all events stored on all gateways.

        Reset Gateway: perform a soft reset to powercycle all gateways. Resetting the gateway changes the active image to the running image. All gateways will be down during the reset. Uncheck this box to reset the gateways individually.

    Reset time: enter the time in 24-hour notation that the gateways will begin to reset with the new firmware image. If this field is left blank, the gateways will begin to reload in batches of 5 when you click OK.

    Force upgrade of all gateways: check this box to force an upgrade of all configurations and credentials on all gateways in this system.

Note     See the Select the Following Options When Upgrading Gateway Firmware.

Step 6            Click OK to close the window and begin copying the firmware image to the gateways.

·         Any actions selected in Step 5d are initiated. For example, the default option Set as active image makes the new image Active. The gateways must still be reset for the image to become the Running image.

·         Gateways are upgraded in batches of 5, with a 15 minute delay between batches.

·         When all options are selected, wait an additional 10-15 minutes for the firmware upgrade to complete on each gateway.

Note        If you did not check the Reset Gateway option, the firmware image is copied to the gateways and defined as Active, but is not made the Running image. See Step 10 and Step 9 to manually activate the image and reset each gateway.

Step 7            Verify the upgrade status.

a.  In the Hardware - Tree module, select the Access GW Driver.

b.  In the Extended Status field for the driver, select the Command Status tab.

bulk_image_upgrade_command_status.png

 

c.  Expand the Bulk Image Upgrade entry to view the upgrade status for each gateway. The possible states include the following:

        ISSUED: The upgrade command was issued to the gateway.

        SUCCEEDED: The gateway image upgrade was successfully completed.

        FAILED: The gateway image upgrade Failed for the reason in the description.

        COMPLETED: ICPAM cannot determine if the upgrade SUCCEEDED or FAILED. Completed indicates the command execution is complete, but you must manually verify the success or failure of the image upgrade using the File Manager.

Note        The status is shown as COMPLETED if the gateway reboots while the status is still ISSUED. This can happen if the gateway has a large number of events in its queue when the module reboots, so the final status is not reported. Right-click the gateway icon in the Hardware - Tree module and select File Manager to view the status of the loaded firmware images.

Step 8            Review the summary event posted to the ICPAM Events module.

a.  Select Events from the Events & Alarms menu, under the Monitoring submenu. 

b. Double click the summary event to view details of the bulk image upgrade.

events_module_main_window.jpg

 

Note        •  The summary event is posted 10 minutes after all the gateways are updated.
     Any gateways that are still in the Issued state are shown as Upgrade in progress in the Data field.
     You cannot issue another Bulk Image Upgrade command until after all the summary event is posted.

Step 9            (Optional) Use the File Manager to verify the active and running firmware image for a gateway. 

Tip           You can also change the active image using the File Manager.

a.  Right-click a gateway (blue icon) and select File Manager.

appxc_gateway00484.jpg

 

b. Select the Image tab to display a list of the firmware images currently loaded on the gateway.

gateway_file_manager.png

 

Each row displays the following information about the firmware image:

        Name: the image filename.

        Version: the firmware version number.

        Download Time: the time and date when the image was downloaded to the gateway.

        Active: The active image will become the running image when the gateway is reset. The image marked Yes is the active image on the gateway.

        Running: The running image is the image currently used to operate the gateway. The image marked Yes is the current running image on the gateway.

c.  To change the active image, select an image name and click the Active Image button.

This button is available only if the selected file is not the Active image.

d. To make the active image the running image, you must reset the gateway. Right-click on the gateway icon and select Reset Gateway, as described in Step 10.

e.  Click Close to accept the changes and close the window.

Step 10         (Optional) Reset individual gateways.

This step is necessary if you did not select the option to Reset Gateway in Step 5d. The Active image becomes the running image only after the gateway is reset.

To reset the gateway, right-click a gateway (blue icon) in the Hardware - Tree module, and choose the Reset Gateway command.

appxc_gateway00487.jpg

 

See also:

Upgrading and Configuring Gateways

Upgrading Gateway Firmware Images Using ICPAM