July 6, 2011 Using FTP to update L300 Firmware NComputing L300s can download and apply firmware updates from FTP servers located virtually anywhere in the world. This document describes how use FTP to update L300 firmware across LAN subnets or over the WAN. You ll need access to (or you can setup from scratch) a properly configured FTP server. Essentially any FTP server that supports user accounts will work. The latest versions of L-series vspace for Windows store L300 firmware update files in the following directories: vspace 4 hosts have firmware files in: C:\Program File\Common Files\NComputer vspace 6 hosts have firmware files in: C:\Program Files\NComputing\NComputing vspace\bootsrv Perhaps the easiest way to set up the needed FTP environment is to simply add a Windows FTP server onto one of your vspace hosts. NComputing doesn t recommend any one FTP server as better than another. However, this document s NCconsole section has an example that uses FileZilla Server configured to perform the firmware update role. (FileZilla Server is an open source community project.) Note: Your FTP server s default file transfer type MUST be set to binary mode. Since the installation default for many FTP server products is ASCII mode, you may need to make a setup modification on your chosen server. If you wish to use an FTP server that s completely separate from your vspace hosts, you ll need to copy the following four files from the appropriate vspace 4 or 6 host directory over to the USERID s configured default folder on your FTP server: Index.txt Index2.txt l300_fw_ver_n_n_n_n.tar.gz (where n can be 0 through 9) l300_fw_ver_n_n_n_n.tar.gz (where n can be 0 through 9)
Initiating FTP firmware updates from the L300 Graphical User Interface To initiate a firmware update directly from the L300, click the L300 GUI s Device setup button and select the Update tab. Below is a screen shot showing a typical L300 Update screen. Figure 1 L300 GUI Update tab prior to firmware update Perform the following five steps to launch an immediate FTP firmware update from the GUI: 1. Select and fill out one of the Update tab s two FTP specific radio buttons: OR a. Search and update from an FTP server AND fill the FTP URL field with the name of the server (and optional directory/folder) where you ve stored the latest firmware, b. Update from a specified firmware file on an FTP server AND fill the FTP URL field with the fully qualified name of the server, directory, and specific firmware tar.gz filename (this second example is shown in the above screen shot) 2. Enter your FTP server s USERID into the User name field 3. Fill-in the Password and Confirm fields with the USERID s password. Typing exactly the same text into both fields generates a Matching passwords entered message. 4. Click the Update Now button and then click OK on the follow-up confirmation box to verify that you want to save settings and perform the update. Figure 2 Confirmation message to make sure you want to perform update 5. Wait while the new firmware is downloaded and applied, and once the update is complete, the L300 will reboot itself. (see sequence of screen shots below) Page 2
Figure 3 Firmware download progress bar Figure 4 Download complete and firmware update being applied will reboot in about 60 seconds Once the L300 reboot completes, click the Device information button. Figure 5 Click Device information button to check firmware version The Device information screen verifies the update was successful by listing the firmware version currently installed in the L300. Figure 6 Checking the version of firmware currently installed on the L300 Page 3
Using the NCconsole to remotely initiate an FTP firmware update You can also use the NCconsole application to initiate and view the results of L300 firmware updates. By using standard multi-select conventions or by setting up NCconsole device groups, you can update multiple L300 s by issuing a single command. The following screen shot shows an example in which FileZilla Server has been installed onto a vspace 4 host, and the server is being configured to make the default directory for a specific user account point to the vspace 4 firmware folder (the username for that Windows account will be used as the USERID for L300 updates): Note: Although vspace 4 and vspace 6 hosts locate their firmware in different Windows directories, a particular revision number firmware file located on a vspace 4 host is identical to the same revision number firmware file on a vspace 6 host. Therefore, if you use both vspace 4 and vspace 6 hosts in your environment, you only need to set up one FTP server on EITHER a vspace 4 or vspace 6 host, and you can use it to serve updates to all L300s in your environment. Note: the firmware folder for vspace 4 is located at: C:\Program File\Common Files\Ncomputer while the firmware folder for vspace 6 is located at: C:\Program Files\NComputing\NComputing vspace\bootsrv Page 4
As mentioned in this documents section on updating firmware via the L300 GUI, the Update tab allows defining a specific firmware file, but NComputing recommends you use the best practice of just allowing the L300 to use the firmware directory s index2.txt file to determine the correct update firmware to load. To update the firmware on a specific L300, right-click the target L300 in the right-hand console pane and select the Update Device Firmware option. Fill-in the L-Series L300 Device Firmware Updater pop-up box, and click the OK button. The update command is immediately sent without any Are you sure? verification prompt. Below is an example pop-up box filled out so the L300 applies the best practice of using the firmware directory s index2.txt file to determine the latest firmware in the folder. (That s done by simply leaving the File name field blank, but that option only works if the target L300s already contain firmware version 1.3.0 or newer.) In the example, we ve specified the FTP server by its WINS server name cpq-celeron25, but you can also fill-in an IP address or if the server is known to your DNS server you can specify the server s FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name). The box below shows defining a specific firmware file for the L300 to load from the FTP server, and this method works for firmware version 1.0.0 or newer. Page 5
Note that the NCconsole also allows you to organize your L-series access devices into device groups that can be used for conveniently applying actions to all devices in a group. The screen shot below shows right-clicking (in the left-hand pane) a device group named To Update FW and then selecting the Update Device Firmware option for the entire device group. Clicking OK after filling out the resulting pop-up sends the firmware update command to EVERY L-series access device in the device group. The command is sent immediately without any Are you sure? verification prompt. (The screen shots in this example show the update command being defined and sent to the simplest possible group a group containing a single device.). Page 6