Introducing Automated Firmware Updates

From time to time, AWS develops firmware updates to address known issues with the EC2 fleet.  These updates are staged on the instance and installed the next time the host reboots. To expedite the delivery of these improvements, VMware has developed a non-disruptive workflow to ensure updates are applied in a timely manner.

What is the impact?

The automated firmware update process is unscheduled and transparent and waits one (1) day between back-to-back host reboots within the same cluster.  While the process aims to be completely transparent, host reboots can expose underlying hardware faults.  As a result, you may observe that a host is replaced shortly after being rebooted.

How does it work?

The automated firmware update process has been enabled to expedite firmware updates within existing SDDC deployments. The process will add a new non-billable host to augment the cluster’s capacity.  Once this new host is online and healthy, the service will initiate the firmware update process by first placing the host into maintenance mode, all workloads will be vMotioned to other hosts in the cluster, and then the host will be rebooted. Once the host is back online and confirmed healthy to run workloads, the non-billable host is removed. This activity will be logged in the SDDC activity log under ” Firmware update.” 

While this process is highly recommended, it can be disabled by working with the organization’s Customer Success Manager (CSM) or VMware Account Representative. They can submit a request to opt-out of the automatic firmware update pool. 

For further questions, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or VMware Account Representative.