The SAN Volume Controller software can be installed or upgraded after you download the software package from the SAN Volume Controller Web site.
The software installation or upgrade procedure copies the new software level to the cluster and starts an automatic installation process. During the installation process, each node is restarted. While each node restarts, there might be some degradation in the maximum I/O rate that can be sustained by the cluster. The amount of time that is needed to install or upgrade the software is dependent on the size of the cluster and the size of the software update package. The size of the software update package is determined by the number of components that are being replaced. After all the nodes in the cluster are successfully restarted with the new software level, the new software level is automatically committed.
The installation operation can normally be performed concurrently with normal user I/O operations. If any restrictions apply to the operations that can be performed during the upgrade, these restrictions are documented on the SAN Volume Controller Web site that you use to download the software packages. During the software upgrade procedure, only the following SAN Volume Controller commands are operational from the time the install process starts to the time that the new software level is committed, or until the process has been backed-out.
All other commands fail with a message that indicates a software upgrade is in progress.
To determine when your software upgrade process has completed, you will be notified through the SAN Volume Controller Console or, if you are using the command-line interface, issue the svcinfo lssoftwareupgradestatus command to display the status of the upgrade.
Because of the operational limitations that occur during the software upgrade process, the software installation is a user task.