Upgrading the HP 5400zl in 2026

[swarm32]

The venerable Procurve 5400 zl has gone through a lot of managerial and support website changes over the years since it was first introduced in the late 2000s. Procurve.com made way for hp.com , made way for HPE.com , made way for Aruba. Eventually the ZL2 aka 5400R Variant was produced and also discontinued.
This is a tale of upgrading an early release controller from a blank flash drive.
For starters:

• You cannot directly load a 15.x firmware from the 2007 era boot room
• A blank CF card is just formatted fat32 by the firmware
• Getting the intermediate firmwares can be a PITA due to HPE/Aruba's new support policies and bizarre way of categorizing things.

Obtaining the firmware

1. There's a very annoying to locate link for the older switches where you can enter in your email address and it will give you a 24-hour link to download the firmwares.
   
   1. Link 1 here: https://asp.arubanetworks.com/downloads
   "Starting Feb 23, 2026, the redirection has been discontinued from the old ASP URL. "
   2. Link 2 here: https://networkingsupport.hpe.com/
   3. Depending on the device/browser things get a little weird. On the lower left is a box for "Software and Documents (email required) that brings you to the email page.
2. You will need to search by an older base model # such as J8697A to view all the needed files. For some reason the drop downs on the right only show the 15.x and 16.x releases if you drill down to the 5400zl
   1. Search link: https://networkingsupport.hpe.com/globalsearch#q=J8697A&tab=Software&sortCriteria=date%20ascending&numberOfResults=100
3. You will at a minimum need these releases to get onto a 15.x or 16.x release
   
   1. K.12.62 (for BootROM updates only)
      1. yl-zl-Software-K1262.zip
      2. Link (probably won't work): https://h30326.www3.hpe.com/hpn/yl-zl-Software-K1262.zip?merchantId=ASP_DROPBOX
   2. K.13.49 (for BootROM updates only)
      1. yl-zl-Software-K1349.zip
      2. Link (probably won't work): https://h30326.www3.hpe.com/hpn/yl-zl-Software-K1349.zip?merchantId=ASP_DROPBOX
   3. K.13.68 (for BootROM updates only)
      1. yl-zl-Software-K1368.zip
      2. Link (probably won't work): https://h30326.www3.hpe.com/hpn/yl-zl-Software-K1368.zip?merchantId=ASP_DROPBOX/li>
4. Also recommend grabbing a 15.x Release as well as there's another bootroom update, such as
   
   1. K.15.06.0017 (final K.15.06 version)
      1. yl-zl-6600-3500-Software-K15060017.zip
      2. Link (probably won't work): https://h30326.www3.hpe.com/hpn/yl-zl-6600-3500-Software-K15060017.zip?merchantId=ASP_DROPBOX
5. And finally your target 16.x release such as
   
   1. K.16.02.0035
      
      1. K_16_02_0035.swi
      2. Link (probably won't work): https://h30326.www3.hpe.com/hpn/K_16_02_0035.swi?merchantId=ASP_DROPBOX
6. Now that you have your collection of assorted firmwares, you will need to prepare to load them on the switch starting with the oldest release
   
   1. If the switch boots on it's own, use tftp
   2. If the switch CF has been wiped
      
      1. Xmodem the first release
      2. or carefully load the first release onto the CF card as BMT.swi

Loading the first firmware using XModem
I happen to have an IBM x40 running Fedora w/dock that has a serial port so, I used that to do the first bootstrapping of the switch using minicom. The directions will vary depending on the initial BOOT ROM version of the controller.

1. make sure the firmware SWI file is extracted in an easy to path to location
2. launch minicom with the -s ( setup ) option
3. set the appropriate initial serial port parameters, in my case /dev/ttyS0 , 9600 8N1
4. boot the switch and wait for it to fail to the BOOT Rom loader prompt
5. use the lsdev command to verify the boot room sees the CF card
6. use the format command to reformat the CF card ( just in case )
7. change the serial port speed to something faster , such as 115200  using the sp command
   
   1. You will need to change the serial port speed in minicom after hitting enter
8. use the do command to star an Xmodem download
9. start an XModem transfer in minicom, selecting the appropriate SWI file for the starting boot firmware release
10. Wait patiently for the transfer to finish
11. If successful, the BOOT ROM will start a CRC check and then trying to load the firmware
12. Let the switch boot and confirm that it's on the chosen firmware release
    1. You may need to change the serial port speed again in minicom in order to log in

Loading the first firmware directly to the CF Card
WIP

Loading remaining firmware via a flash drive

1. Locate a flash drive, preferably USB2.0 and 4GB or less in size
2. Format the drive at the device level to FAT32 ( no partitions )
3. copy the needed SWI files onto the fiash drive, making sure to keep a list of all the file names
4. from the switch OS, use the command copy usb flash <firmware.swi> secondary to copy the next firmware in the chain
   
   1. example: copy usb flash K_13_68.swi secondary
5. reboot the switch to the new firmware
   
   1. boot system flash secondary
6. wait for any BOOT ROM Updates to complete
   
   1. Note: the final boot room update for 15.x and higher will sometimes not reboot the switch on it's own. If the console says the install was successful and the switch doesn't boot on it's own after ~30 minutes, power cycle the switch.
7. confirm you have loaded into the correct switch firmware version
8. proceed to update to the next release, using the primary firmware location instead
9. repeat the process, alternating which release is primary & seondary until you're on the target release

More details to follow when I update the next controller that's been in storage forever.