A question that I used to get quite regularly popped up again in the past week. It was basically a query about the version of firmware on QLogic 24xx & 25xx HBAs, and should customers flash/upgrade the firmware to newer/later versions?
The first thing to note is that the firmware for the QLogic HBAs is bundled with the driver package. The firmware and driver are both loaded when the ESXi host is booted. No separate firmware has to be installed on these HBAs. However, according to QLogic’s KB article 1870, there might be occasion when you need to upgrade to a later driver package than that shipped with the ESXi. The point is that the newer driver package will once again bundle both the driver and the firmware, so again no need to consider upgrading firmware separately. I would always speak to one of our support representatives first however, before undertaking a driver upgrade.
Note that this is for the HBA only. For the Hardware iSCSI Adapter and the QLogic CNAs, the firmware is NOT embedded with the driver. Read the KB 1870 for more details. QLogic KB article 1849 has information regarding the latest drivers and firmware for VMware.
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