From 9c285766067da4714510a4be7e5f2ec74fe77369 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: sirajyasin <38433478+sirajyasin@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:19:18 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Update firmware guidelines for deployment Added notes on iDRAC firmware downgrade limitations and best practices for component firmware alignment. --- operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md b/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md index 2e34b10eac..994b43b296 100644 --- a/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md +++ b/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md @@ -682,6 +682,11 @@ An example design of three on-premises instances from the same NFC/CM pair, usin As a best practice, the following BIOS and firmware versions need to be installed on the servers prior to deployment, based on the selected runtime version and BOM. For reference, version N is the latest available runtime version. N-1 and N-2 are the previous supported runtime versions. +>[!NOTE] +> iDRAC versions earlier than 7.20.30.50 had known limitations with firmware downgrade support. As a result, if a target system was running newer firmware on any component (BIOS, PERC, Broadcom, Mellanox, CPLD), iDRAC would not flag the mismatch and would skip the downgrade. This behavior was corrected starting with iDRAC 7.20.30.50. +> +> Although the newer iDRAC versions makes a best-effort attempt to align component firmware with the catalog for the given runtime, certain downgrade scenarios may trigger attribute rollbacks that can lead to BIOS corruption, as documented by Dell. For this reason, the recommended practice is to ensure that all component firmware versions are equal to or lower than the versions listed for the corresponding runtime release. + #### Nexus Cluster runtime version N ##### BOM 1.7.3 From 77c1a4bf9e12b751d43e457b45032e4bc35e9854 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Diana Richards Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 16:01:09 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] grammar fix Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> --- operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md b/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md index 994b43b296..660721aba5 100644 --- a/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md +++ b/operator-nexus/howto-platform-prerequisites.md @@ -685,7 +685,7 @@ For reference, version N is the latest available runtime version. N-1 and N-2 ar >[!NOTE] > iDRAC versions earlier than 7.20.30.50 had known limitations with firmware downgrade support. As a result, if a target system was running newer firmware on any component (BIOS, PERC, Broadcom, Mellanox, CPLD), iDRAC would not flag the mismatch and would skip the downgrade. This behavior was corrected starting with iDRAC 7.20.30.50. > -> Although the newer iDRAC versions makes a best-effort attempt to align component firmware with the catalog for the given runtime, certain downgrade scenarios may trigger attribute rollbacks that can lead to BIOS corruption, as documented by Dell. For this reason, the recommended practice is to ensure that all component firmware versions are equal to or lower than the versions listed for the corresponding runtime release. +> Although the newer iDRAC versions make a best-effort attempt to align component firmware with the catalog for the given runtime, certain downgrade scenarios may trigger attribute rollbacks that can lead to BIOS corruption, as documented by Dell. For this reason, the recommended practice is to ensure that all component firmware versions are equal to or lower than the versions listed for the corresponding runtime release. #### Nexus Cluster runtime version N