HP SAN switch: upgrading the firmware

This was supposed to be a quick update about how we managed to reconfigure our HP Storageworks 4/8 SAN switch. Alas, it isn't. After managing to get the java configuration interface back up and running, the thing still would fail on certain configuration actions like renaming aliases.
It seemed sensible to me to upgrade the firmware, the latest firmware according to the HP support website is 6.2.2f, whereas our switch still runs on 5.3.0; carbon dating pointed out that this version might be about 5 years old.
Support page:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=1143865&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=1143864&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=54
Obviously, the sluggish java web start interface did not allow for any firmware updates, a 200+ MB management tool called Data Center Fabric Manager is necessary for this. The setup does not configure a username or password, it assumes that you read the manual which includes the default username and password: Administrator and password. 
Once that minor annoyance has been dealt with, you can add your switch one smile: there is an option called firmware management! We can upload new firmware versions to a repository on an FTP server, because FTP is this high tech protocol that everyone just loves you know. After adding the latest firmware, we can start the upgrade, with the following result:

Right. We need 6.1. HP is an awesome company and apart from creating annoyances, they also provide stuff to solve them. Downloading 6.1, adding it to the repo. Result:

Great. What else do they provide. Interim B-Series Firmware V6.x upgrade path for HP StorageWorks Fibre Channel Switches. Looking good, the website lists some even older versions, with an interesting footnote: effective date - September 2011. No idea what that is supposed to mean. Maybe our calendar system is a bit off and HP got it right.

After ending up with 1.44 GB of firmware upgrades, my colleague figured out a Java version that was willing to execute the java interface presented by firmware 5.3.0 without any complaints: Java 1.5 update 1. Kinda old and a reason to continue the update adventure. The update to 6.0.1a went smooth and resulted in a broken EZManager (simple version of the interface) and a nicely working advanced interface (http://<ip>/switchExplorer.html) Updating to 6.1.2b did not change this issue. It might have something to do with cached jar's, I did not investigate this as the advanced interface is ten times better. Same story for the update to the most recent version, version 6.2.2f

End result: http://local-switch-ip/switchExplorer.html works without any issues. The standard interface does not.

Update:
switchExplorer.html still has issues. We ended up updating the zoning configuration of the switch with the same tool I used for updating the firmware. :)