Updating Generation 4 Appliance Firmware

Overview

This topic presents the required steps to update the firmware (flash the BIOS) in your Generation 4 (T-800/T-1200) appliance.

Prerequisites

Prepare a Bootable USB Drive

Before you begin updating the firmware on your appliance, you must have a single partition, DOS-bootable USB drive with 2 GB available storage formatted to FAT32.

  1. Create the DOS-bootable USB. You can use any tool.

    You can use a free tool called Rufus. You can download Rufus from here.

    1. Insert the USB drive to be formatted.

    2. Open the Rufus tool (or your preferred tool).

    3. Select the USB device.

    4. Select FreeDOS as the Boot selection.

    5. Click Start.

  2. Copy and extract the firmware version.

    1. Download this file - Download G4 firmware package - from the Tufin Download center.

      This file contains the firmware version update.

    2. Extract the contents to the USB drive.

Back up TOS Data

Updating the firmware should not affect the hard drives or storage devices. However, before changing the firmware, we always recommend backing up Tufin Orchestration Suite (TOS) and storing the backup externally.

Update the Firmware

You can update your firmware directly to the version that you extracted to the USB drive.

Flash the BIOS

You must follow these steps to flash a firmware version. The flash cycle requires approximately 15-20 minutes.

  • Do not interrupt the BIOS update after the process has started. Interrupting the update may cause the BIOS to become corrupted and the appliance will malfunction. To return a malfunctioning device, you will need a return merchandise authorization (RMA).

  • Perform the BIOS update from the physical machine's console. Do not perform the update remotely.

  1. Insert the prepared USB drive into the Tufin appliance.

  2. Power on/reboot the Tufin appliance.

  3. During the BIOS power-on self-test (POST), press Del.

  4. Navigate to the BOOT menu and change the following settings:

    • Boot Mode Select: UEFI

    • Boot Option #1: UEFI AP: Built-in EFI Shell

  5. Navigate to Save & Exit/Save Changes and Reset and press Enter.

    The appliance boots to the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) shell:

    The device mapping table lists your removable USB drive as fs0.

  6. Enter fs0: to mount the USB drive.

  7. Enter ls to view the directories on the USB drive.

  8. At the prompt, type the following commands: 

    9. # cd BIOS
    # flash.nsh tufin_x1135v1.bin

    The BIOS update will flash automatically and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

  9. When prompted, press any key to continue.

    The system powers off and back on.

  10. Press F11 during the POST.

    The temporary boot menu appears.

  11. Select the <USB boot device> from the menu and press Enter to continue the boot process from the USB.

  12. Type dir to view the directories on the USB drive.

  13. At the prompt, type the following commands:

    # cd IPMI
    # IPMIUPD.bat

    The flash process begins and continues for about 45 minutes.

    14. Do not abort or interrupt the update procedure.

    You will get a message when the update finishes.

  14. When complete, power off the appliance (with the power button) and remove the USB.

  15. Power on the appliance.

  16. During the BIOS power-on self-test (POST), press Del.

Validate the Flash

  1. Press F3 from the BIOS Setup Utility main menu.

  2. Press Yes.

  3. Verify that the BIOS version is 3.5.V1.

  4. Navigate to the IPMI page using the keyboard arrow keys.

  5. Verify that the IPMI version is 06.73.06.

  6. Press F4 to save changes and exit.

  7. The appliance reboots.

If you have any issues with this update, contact Tufin Support.