Backing up Smart Arrays before f/w updates

ALL,
Do you know how to backup the smart array config's before an firmware update? We are supporting our customer remotely and we need to ensure to backup the array card details before a firmware update on this card.

Looking forward for a suggestion on this matter. There are many occurence when a firmware update is done on smart array cards the whole server goes down because the disks can't be contacted :(

thanks a million.

cheers
rajah