Eaton 9PX 3000i RT 2U, NETWORK-M2, and upgrading the latter’s firmware to 3.1.15

At ${WORK} we have a number of UPSs. Two of them are Eaton 9PX3000iRT2U, each with a NETWORK-M2 NMC (744-A3983). I noticed the NMCs didn’t run the latest firmware, 3.1.15. Let’s upgrade them, or so I thought.

The NMCs in UPS 1 and 2 ran 2.0.5, so I uploaded the 3.1.15 tar file on the first NMC. That didn’t go well. After my patience ran out, I removed the card, waited five seconds, and remounted the card. Luckily, I didn’t brick it.

For the second NMC, I decided on a more cautious approach. First, I upgraded to 2.1.5, then to 3.0.5, and finally to 3.1.15. Only 3.0.5 showed all of the upgrade steps in the web interface, leading up to the reboot step. Versions 2.0.5 and 2.1.5 never went beyond the transferring firmware step, at least in the web interface.

Maybe it’s time to buy a couple of NETWORK-M3 NMCs.