Feature Overview (aka. Goal Summary)  

An elevator pitch (value statement) that describes the Feature in a clear, concise way.  Complete during New status.

Extend Metal3’s firmware update capabilities to include NIC firmware updates on supported Dell and HPE servers, in addition to the existing support for BMC and BIOS.

Goals (aka. expected user outcomes)

The observable functionality that the user now has as a result of receiving this feature. Include the anticipated primary user type/persona and which existing features, if any, will be expanded. Complete during New status.

Users can update NiCs through Metal3, specifically

• Intel E8xx (ice driver)
• NVIDIA Mellanox CX6/7 (mlx_5 driver)
  Firmware updates are supported during both Day 0 (initial provisioning) and Day 2 (post-deployment maintenance) operations.

  Requirements (aka. Acceptance Criteria):

A list of specific needs or objectives that a feature must deliver in order to be considered complete.  Be sure to include nonfunctional requirements such as security, reliability, performance, maintainability, scalability, usability, etc.  Initial completion during Refinement status.

• Firmware updates for supported NICs can be done via Metal3.
• Updates are validated on Dell and HPE hardware (with Intel E8xx and NVIDIA CX6/7)
• The feature is included in the 4.20 release and documented accordingly.

Usage:

One of the mandates of the O-RAN project is to integrate server hardware management into the e2e LCM workflows provided by OCP. NIC firmware management is currently a gap.