Power6 Mid-Range Firmware

Applies to:  9117-MMA and 9406-MMA

This document provides information about the installation of Licensed Machine or Licensed Internal Code, which is sometimes referred to generically as microcode or firmware.


Contents


1.0 Systems Affected

This package provides firmware for System p 570 (9117-MMA), System i570 (9406-MMA) and Power 570 (9117-MMA) servers only.  Do not use on any other systems.

The firmware level in this package is:

Updating your system firmware from EM320_031 or EM320_040 directly to EM320_101 is DISRUPTIVE.

2.0 Cautions and Important Information

2.1 Cautions

Concurrent Maintenance Restrictions

Problems have been identified in the system firmware which impact CEC Concurrent Maintenance on Power6 servers 9117-MMA and 9406-MMA.

These functions must not be performed until the firmware level containing the fixes has been installed on the server.

The fixes for these functions will be available in a future Service Pack.

New minimum system firmware requirements for model MMA systems shipped starting in May 2008

9117-MMA systems shipped beginning in May of 2008 have a unique system VPD value which identifies them to the HMC. These systems will ship with EM320_059 or higher system firmware installed.  Installing a level of system firmware lower than EM320_059 will result in an error condition with SRC B155A46B being logged when the system is powered on.

HMC-Managed Systems

NOTE: For information concerning HMC releases and to access the HMC code packages, go to the following URL:  http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/hmcl/home.html

NOTE:   You must be logged in as hscroot in order for the firmware installation to complete correctly.

Updating firmware from EM320_031 to EM320_101

Prior to updating server firmware from EM320_031 to EM320_101, ensure a backup of partition profile(s) is current and HEA settings are collected (when applicable).

The following steps may be required if the HMC shows Recovery state after updating server firmware.

Restore partition data from the backup
Check/Reset any of the following settings which may have been lost during the server firmware update:
    Promiscuous partition flag
    HEA
    The bootlists in SMS on any and all LPARs.
    Other

9117-MMA Systems with IBM i partition(s) at EM320_040 or EM320_046 updating to EM320_101

9117-MMA systems with IBM i partition(s) currently running server firmware level EM320_040 or EM320_046 must check that the system is enabled to run i5/OS.  This option is specified within the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI), under the Power/Restart Control, Power On/Off System menu.  If this setting is not set to Enabled, change it to Enabled, Save Settings, and then perform a disruptive firmware update (system IPL required) to EM320_101.  After the disruptive firmware update is complete, verify that i5/OS Capable = 'True' on the HMC.  This managed system setting is shown on the HMC, via the System properties, under the Capabilities tab.

System stability may be affected by the installation of downlevel system firmware, or using the i5/OS operating system's firmware installation procedure

Both of these actions may affect systems stability: 

1.  Installation of system firmware via the i5/OS operating system (also know as inband update).

2.  Downleveling the system firmware using the HMC (an out-of-band installation) from EM320_059 or EM320_061 to a lower level, then performing a concurrent firmware installation of EM320_059 or EM320_061.

Neither of the above actions is supported; both may result in SRC 11001611, 11001621 or 11001631 being displayed on the operator panel and logged as a serviceable event in service focal point.  These SRCs indicate a regulator failure, which can be a recoverable error (logged only, no affect on the state of the system) or a hard error (the system powers down due to the regulator error).  Since an HMC is attached to the system, the only supported method of installing system firmware is via the HMC (the way the system was originally shipped from manufacturing).

Do not backlevel from EM320_031 to EM310

Do not attempt to backlevel firmware from the EM320_031 level to the EM310 release level.  This will corrupt the service processor(s) code and will require the service processor(s) to be replaced. Firmware update or upgrade fails with SRC E302F842.
This problem will occur when the following conditions apply:

HMC is at V7.3.2 with fix MH01081 installed and the managed system being updated or upgraded is at firmware level EM310_048.

To determine if MH01081 is installed:
Enter the following command on an HMC command line:
           lshmc -V

This command will produce a report similar to the following:
  MH01081: Pegasus security fix, code update fix, and new DST updates (01-09-2008)

To prevent this failure from occurring, install fix MH01084.

If you have experienced this problem, install fix MH01084, and then reinstall the system firmware.  For information about the recovery procedure  call you next level of support.

2.2 Important Information

IPv6 Support and Limitations

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is supported in the System Management Services (SMS) in this level of system firmware.  There are several limitations that should be considered.

When configuring a network interface card (NIC) for remote IPL, only the most recently configured protocol (IPv4 or IPv6) is retained.  For example, if the network interface card was previously configured with IPv4 information and is now being configured with IPv6 information, the IPv4 configuration information is discarded.

A single network interface card may only be chosen once for the boot device list.  In other words, the interface cannot be configured for the IPv6 protocol and for the IPv4 protocol at the same time.

A failure will occur if the overall device pathname string and its parameters exceed 255 bytes.  One symptom of the string being too long is an odd-looking boot device string  in the AIX start banner as in the following example:

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    Welcome to AIX.
                           boot image timestamp: HH:MM MM/DD
                     The current time and date: 10:15:24 04/22/2008
            processor count: 2;  memory size: 1024MB;  kernel size: 28034141
                                    boot device: /l
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Several things that can be done to try to get the overall string length reduced are:

      A.   Use the compressed form of the IPv6 IP addresses whenever possible.  For example, change the address

             FEA0:0:0:0:3CD6:F0FF:FD00:3004

             to

            FEA0::3CD6:F0FF:FD00:3004

      B.  Keep the TFTP filename as short as possible.

      C.  Leave the gateway IP address blank unless it is required.

4.  When global IPv6 addresses are used for the client and the server, and there are more than two gateways on the same link, the gateway with the best route to the server should be used.  Using a gateway that does not have the best route to the server can cause the ping test or network boot to fail.

Signal Cable in an InfiniBand loop, and InfiniBand I/0 drawer power on/off

The problems noted in this section in earlier levels of this description file were corrected in the EM320_059 firmware level by the last two fixes in the "affects certain systems" section.

ECA702 Released for 9117-MMA Systems

ECA702 was released on 12/07/2007 to update 9117-MMA systems to firmware level  EM310_063_048 (or higher).  In addition to system firmware, the ECA also provides corresponding HMC updates. Product Engineering strongly recommends the installation of the ECA.  Customers wishing to have IBM service perform the installation of this firmware, free of charge, should call 1-800-IBM-SERV or their country's service organization to request mandatory ECA702.

Memory Considerations for Firmware Upgrades

The increase in memory used by the firmware is due to the additional functionality in later firmware releases.

2.3  Planning Information

Processor MES that requires minimum firmware level be installed on the system before MES installation

The EM320_093 or higher firmware level must be installed on the system prior to installing an MES processor upgrade of these processor feature codes that have been shipped from the plant after 06/22/09.
 
Machine Type-Model Processor Feature Code
9117-MMA, 9406-MMA 5620 - 3.5 GHz Proc Card, 0/2 Core POWER6
9117-MMA, 9406-MMA 5622 - 4.2 GHz Proc Card, 0/2 Core POWER6
9117-MMA, 9406-MMA 7380 - 4.7 GHz Proc Card, 0/2 Core POWER6


3.0 Firmware Information and Description

Use the following examples as a reference to determine whether your installation will be concurrent or disruptive.

For systems that are not managed by an HMC, the installation of system firmware is always disruptive.

Note:  The concurrent levels of system firmware may, on occasion, contain fixes that are known as deferred. These deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until the next IPL.  Deferred fixes, if any, will be identified in the "Firmware Update Descriptions" table of this document.  For deferred fixes within a service pack, only the fixes in the service pack which cannot be concurrently activated are deferred.

Note:  The file names and service pack levels used in the following examples are for clarification only, and are not necessarily levels that have been, or will be released.

System firmware file naming convention:

     01EMXXX_YYY_ZZZ

NOTE:  Values of service pack and last disruptive service pack  level (YYY and ZZZ) are only unique within a release level (XXX).
                 For example, 01EM310_067_045 and 01EM320_067_053 are different service packs.
 

An installation is disruptive if:

              Example:  Currently installed release is EM310, new release is EM320                Example:  EM310_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of EM310 is currently
                                   installed on the system                  Example:  Currently installed service pack is EM310_120_120 and
                                     new service pack is EM310_152_130

An installation is concurrent if:

The release level (XXX) is the same, and
The service pack level (YYY) currently installed on you system is the same or higher than the last disruptive service pack level (ZZZ) of the service pack to be  installed.

              Example: Currently installed service pack  is EM310_126_120,
                                 new service pack is EM310_143_120.
 

Firmware Information and Update Description

 
Filename Size Checksum
01EM320_101_045.rpm  22393332 05901

 
EM320 
EM320_101_045

10/22/09

Impact:   Function                Severity:  HIPER

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused the migration of a partition using shared processors to fail with a reason code of 4180043, or caused the source system to hang or crash.
  • DEFERRED:  This fix corrects the handling of a specific processor instruction sequence that was generated on a particular heavily-tuned High Performance Computing (HPC) application. This specific instruction sequence has the potential to produce an incorrect result. This instruction sequence has only been observed in a single HPC application.  However, it is strongly recommended that you apply this fix.
  • The firmware was enhanced such that SRCs B181F126, B181F127, and B181F129 are correctly  managed, and no longer cause unnecessary calls home.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7005603 to be erroneously logged when a F/C 5802 or 5877 19" drawer was concurrently added to the system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1817201 to be erroneously logged during the installation of system firmware.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • On systems using on/off (temporary) memory capacity on demand (COD), the firmware was enhanced  to improve the billing process for this feature.
EM320_093_045

05/04/09

Impact:   Function                Severity:  SPE

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • DEFERRED:  The firmware was enhanced so that the system recovers gracefully from an I/O load time-out, rather than issuing a machine check, which crashes the system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the service processor diagnostics to report a "TOD (time-of-day) overflow" error, instead of an uncorrectable memory error, when failures occurred on memory DIMMs.
  •  A problem was fixed that, in certain configurations, caused the removal of a host Ethernet adapter (HEA) port to fail when using a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operation.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain circumstances, prevented the operating system from recovering a PCI-E adapter on which a temporary enhanced error handling (EEH) error occurred.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the hardware management console (HMC) to show the managed system's status as incomplete after adding a drawer using the concurrent maintenance operation.
  • The firmware was enhanced to improve the service processor's capability to recover from bad bits in the flash memory.  A predictive error, or an unrecoverable error, will be logged against the card that contains the system firmware if the number of correctable or uncorrectable errors exceeds the threshold.
  • The firmware was enhanced so that a call home will be made if the hypervisor issues a "terminate immediate" interrupt. 
  • A problem was fixed that prevented service processor and hypervisor error log entries from being reported to the operating system after a successful partition migration.  This problem only affected the partition that was migrated.
  • The firmware was enhanced so that if a system with redundant service processors is booted with redundancy disabled, a call home error will be logged.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the system from powering on after the "reset to factory settings" option was selected in the advanced system management interface (ASMI) menus.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the migration of an AIX or Linux partition to fail when firmware-assisted dump was enabled.  When this problem occurs, the partition becomes unresponsive on the target system, and the target system may have to be rebooted to recover.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the service processor from automatically booting from the permanent (or P side) if the temporary (or T side) of the firmware flash was corrupted.  When the problem occurred, the service processor stopped instead of booting from the P side.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1818601 to be logged, and a service processor dump to be generated, at runtime.
  • The firmware was enhanced to include processor card #1 in the list of field replaceable units (FRUs) that are called out if an I2C bus error occurs when accessing the processor backplane's vital product data (VPD).
  • A problem was fixed that prevented all of the necessary files from being synchronized between the primary and the secondary service processors.  One possible symptom of this problem was the time-of-day clocks being out of synch after a service processor failover.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • On systems with a host Ethernet adapter (HEA) or host channel adapter (HCA) assigned to a Linux partition, a problem was fixed that prevented the partition from booting if 512 GB, 1 TB, or 1.5 TB of memory was assigned to the partition.  When this problem occurred, SRC B700F105 was logged.
  • On systems with multiple host channel adapter (HCA) cards, a problem was fixed that logical ports on the HCA cards to be intermittently inactive.
  • On systems with the integrated xSeries adapter (IXA), a problem was fixed that prevented the creation of a system plan on the HMC.
  • On systems with redundant service processors, a problem was fixed that caused registry read errors or registry value errors to be generated during the installation of system firmware.
  • On systems running AIX partitions, a problem was fixed that caused AIX to erroneously log a hardware error in which the LABEL field is "INTRPPC_ERR", and the INTERRUPT LEVEL  is "0009 0001", after a concurrent firmware update or partition migration.  This error did not affect the operation of the system or partition. 
EM320_083_045

09/24/08

Impact:  Serviceability                 Severity:  HIPER

System firmware changes that affect all systems:

  • DEFERRED and HIPER:  A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, an application could cause a processor to go into an error state, and the system to crash.
  • DEFERRED and HIPER:  The system initialization settings were changed to reduce the likelihood of a system crash under certain circumstances.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused the system to terminate abnormally with SRC B131E504.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused a system to fail to reboot after a B1xxE504 SRC was logged due to a processor interconnection bus failure.  The same SRC, B1xx E504, was logged when the reboot failed.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that might cause a partition to crash during a partition migration before the migration was complete.
  • DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed such that under certain rare circumstances, if a service processor failover occurred, the new  secondary service processor was not able to communicate with the system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1818A10 to be erroneously generated after the successful installation of system firmware.
  • Enhancements were made to the firmware to improve the FRU callouts for certain types of failures of the time-of-day clock circuitry.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, caused the system to crash if an L2 or L3 cache failure occurred.
  • The firmware was enhanced so that the contents of /tmp are included when a service processor dump is taken.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a predictive SRC, B181EF88, to be erroneously logged after a successful installation of system firmware, and a subsequent slow-mode IPL, of the system.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, caused the system to crash with SRC B7005191 being logged.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the system from rebooting if an error occurred during a memory-preserving IPL.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the diagnostic commands in AIX (diag and lsmcode, for example) from working after a partition migration.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, caused a partition shutdown or partition reboot to hang with SRC D200B077.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, caused the hypervisor to loose its communication link to the service processor and log SRC A181D000.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, might have caused dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operations on memory to fail.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented I/O hardware operations from completing before dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operations were performed on memory.  This caused PCI bus errors, and multiple instances of SRC B7006971 to be logged.
  • A problem was fixed in the hypervisor that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, caused a system-level activation to fail.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7006971 to be generated because the firmware was  incorrectly performing operations on PCI-Express I/O adapters during dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operations on memory.
  • A problem was fixed that might have caused a processor checkstop after a node repair or node add operation.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the message "BA330000malloc error!" to be displayed on the operating system console after a partition migration, even though SRC BA330000 had not been logged.  When this problem occurred, the partition migration appeared to be successful.  However, a process within the partition was either hung or had failed, and in most cased the partition had to be rebooted to fully recover.
  • The firmware was enhanced to improve the description and service actions that are logged with SRC BA210012.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances, prevented a partition migration from completing successfully if processors were removed from the partition being migrated prior to the migration using dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operations.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances, caused a system crash during partition migration operations.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances, caused the hypervisor to crash when it was booting.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems:
  • On systems that are managed by a hardware management console (HMC), a problem was fixed that caused the HMC to show an "Incomplete" state after it attempted to read a file with an incorrect size from the service processor (or system controller).  This problem also occurred if the "factory configuration" option was used on the advanced system management interface (ASMI) menus. 
  •  On systems with I/O drawers attached, a problem was fixed that might have caused some I/O slots in the drawers not to be configured when the system was booted.
  • On i5 partitions using IOP-based I/O adapters which are configured to use i5 clustering (SAN), a problem was fixed that caused the failover of an I/O drawer or tower, to a system which previously owned the drawer or tower, to fail.
  • On systems with a large number of fibre channel disks, a problem was fixed that caused SRC BA210003 to logged (which called out the fibre channel adapter) when the system management services (SMS) boot firmware was searching for a boot disk.
  • In systems with clustered processors, various problems were fixed in the InfiniBand interconnection networks. 
EM320_076_045
 

06/09/08

Impact:  Serviceability                 Severity:  HIPER

System firmware changes that affect all systems:

  • DEFERRED and HIPER: The processor initialization settings were changed to reduce the likelihood of a processor going into an error state and causing a checkstop or system crash.
  • HIPER: A problem was fixed in the hypervisor that might cause a partition migration to fail.
  • HIPER: A problem was fixed that caused large numbers of enhanced error handling (EEH) errors to be logged against the 4-port gigabit Ethernet adapter, F/C 5740, under certain circumstances.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused the firmware to erroneously log VPD errors against the processors. This prevented drawers from powering on.
  • HIPER:  On system with a redundant service processor installed and enabled, a problem was fixed that caused a communications hang between the two service processors.  When this occurred, it triggered a reset/reload of the primary service processor, and the resulting fail-over to the secondary service processor failed in such a way that the system crashed and logged SRC B1813410.  Service processor dumps were also taken.
  • HIPER:  On systems with redundant service processors installed and enabled, the firmware was enhanced so that if a failure occurs during a service processor failover, the firmware will attempt to reset/reload one of the service processors.  This may allow the system to recover and stay up instead of crashing.
  • HIPER:  On systems with redundant service processors installed and enabled, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash if a service processor failover occurred when the VPD files were being synchronized.
  • The firmware was enhanced to improve the system memory error recovery.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the /tmp directory on the service processor  to fill up, which results in an out-of-memory condition.  When this problem occurred, the service processor usually performed a reset/reload.  This is one possible cause of SRC B1817201 being logged.
  • A problem was fixed that caused panel function 02 to fail when trying to set the "next IPL speed" or "next IPL side". 
  • The firmware was enhanced so that serial port S1 is not automatically designated the local console, even if the console is not selected within 60 seconds of the system is first booted.  This enhancement allows the console to be selected again, if no selection was made on the previous boot, instead of defaulting to the S1 port.
EM320_061_031

Mfg Only 
05/09/08

Impact:  Serviceability                 Severity: HIPER
  •  HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused a concurrent firmware installation to hang with SRC BA00E840 being logged.  This problem may also cause a partition migration to hang, under certain circumstances, with the same SRC, BA00E840, being logged.  This SRC will be logged when this level of firmware is installed and will generate a call home;    it should be ignored.  It will not be logged during subsequent installations.
EM320_059_031

Mfg Only 
05/06/08

Impact:  Function                 Severity: Special Attention

New features and functions:

Fixes that affect all  systems:
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused capacity-on-demand (COD) data to be retrieved in an unreadable format from the Anchor (VPD) card.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused enhanced error handling (EEH) to fail on certain I/O adapters.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that might cause the system to terminate while IPLing partitions soon after a system boot.  This problem might also have been seen if the partitions were set to "autostart".  This failure is typically seen on systems with a large amount of memory; SRC B181D138 is usually logged when this error occurs.
  • DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused the system to appear to hang with C10090B8 in the control (operator) panel during a slow mode boot.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the processor clock from being deconfigured with the fabric bus after a hardware error.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the L2 deconfiguration option to be displayed advanced system management interface (ASMI) menus on systems on which it is not supported.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the GX adapter slot reservation option to be displayed on the advanced system management interface (ASMI) menus on systems on which it is not supported.
  • Fixes problem where wrong slot location was provided in message when no slot reservations were available for adding next Feature Code 1800 or 1802 adapter.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the location code reported with enhanced error handling (EEH) errors on certain imbedded slots have a -Cx suffix instead of the correct -T# suffix for the underlying adapter.  This also impacted the HMC's System Planning tool.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the Linux boot loader to lose its command line parameters (and fail to boot a Linux partition) during a reconfiguration reboot.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the "iSCSI" and "network1" aliases to be created incorrectly in the SMS menus; this might have prevented the system or partition from booting from that device.
  • A problem was fixed that caused this informational message to be erroneously sent to the operating system console: 
                                 subq[5][0] destination address is 0!!!
                                Check whether the subq is needed.  If it is, allocate MEM.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the AIX command lsvpd to hang if it was executed during a partition migration.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system or partition to hang at the "Welcome to AIX" banner, following an iSCSI boot, during the installation of AIX.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an iSCSI login to fail under certain circumstances.  When this failure occurred, the message sent to the console looked something like this:
                        iscsiFailed to LOGIN to target, rc = 1
                        failed to login.
                        could not open target 0x9034751 :system04 for r/w, aborting...
                        tcpOPEN: iscsi open failed
                        !BA012010 !
 
  • A problem was fixed that caused the location codes of devices attached to the integrated USB ports to have a duplicate port suffix.  For example, when this problem occurred, the location code of the device was shown as:
                                /usb-scsi@1  U789D.001.DQDGARW-P1-T2-T2-L1 

          instead of the correct location code, which is 

                              /usb-scsi@1  U787D.001.DQDGARW-P1-T2-L1
 

  • Two translation issues were fixed.  The first one caused the string "No alias" to always be displayed on the iSCSI menus in SMS in English even though it should have been translated into the other languages that the SMS menus support.  The second one caused the NIC (network interface card) parameters such as the client IP address in the SMS ping menu to be displayed with message strings in English; these should have been translated as well.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the SMS menus to drop into the open firmware prompt with the message "DEFAULT CATCH!" when the ping test failed.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the operating system from setting the boot device list in NVRAM.
  • A problem was fixed that caused approximately 20-25 occurrences of informational SRC B7005300 to be logged during every IPL, which was filling up the error logs.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the "100 Mbps/full duplex" setting for the HEA 1 Gbps ports from being implemented from the HMC.  When this occurred, there was no error message on the HMC, but the setting never took effect.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the MAC addresses displayed on the HMC, in the HEA logical port information for the second port group, to show invalid addresses.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a service processor dump to be generated with SRC B181EF88 when the advanced system management interface (ASMI) client was closed abruptly, or a network failure disconnected the client and the ASMI.
  • Enhancements were made to improve  the field replaceable unit (FRU) isolation for phase-locked loop (PLL) clock failures on multi-CEC drawer system.  SRCs B114F6D2, B114F6C1, B113F6C1, B157F12E, B18187EF, and B158E500 were typically seen with this type of failure.
  • Enhancements were made to the error analysis firmware to provide better FRU callouts for certain types of processor fabric bus failures.  SRCs B114E504, B114B2DF, and B181B10B were typically seen with this type of failure.
  • Enhancements were made to the firmware to improve the reliability of memory DIMMs.
  • A change was made to the firmware such that predictive SRCs B18138B0, B1813862, or B1813882 are now logged as informational.
System firmware changes that affect certain model MMA systems:
  • On system using the EnergyScale(TM) technology, enhancements were made to include status, log, and error information about the Power Save mode in the service processor error logs.
  • On systems with redundant service processors enabled, a problem was fixed that caused the "restore factory configuration" function on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) to fail.
  • On systems with 7314-G30 drawers attached, a problem was fixed that caused the InfiniBand I/O device to drop packets, which resulted in an unrecoverable error.
  • On systems with 7314-G30 drawers attached, a problem was fixed that caused the drawer to fail when performing concurrent maintenance on the associated InfiniBand loop.
  • On systems with 7314-G30 drawers attached, a problem was fixed that caused the partition to become unresponsive when an InfiniBand cable in a redundantly-cabled loop was disconnected.
Note:  The last two defects in this section corrected the issues detailed in the section titled Signal Cable in an InfiniBand loop, and InfiniBand I/0 drawer power on/off in earlier levels of the firmware description file.
EM320_046_031

06/09/08

 

Impact:  Serviceability                   Severity: HIPER

Fixes that affect all model MMA systems:

  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused a concurrent firmware installation to hang with SRC BA00E840 being logged.  This problem may also cause a partition migration to hang, under certain circumstances, with the same SRC, BA00E840, being logged.  This SRC will be logged when this level of firmware is installed and will generate a call home; it should be ignored.  It will not be logged during subsequent installations.
  • HIPER:  On systems with redundant service processors installed and enabled, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash if a service processor failover occurred when the VPD files were being synchronized.
  • HIPER:  On systems with redundant service processors installed and enabled, the firmware was enhanced so that if a failure occurs during a service processor failover, the firmware will attempt to reset/reload one of the service processors.  This may allow the system to recover and stay up instead of crashing.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused the firmware to erroneously log VPD errors against the processors. This prevented drawers from powering on.
EM320_040_031

03/03/08

 

Impact:  Serviceability                 Severity: Special Attention

Fixes that affect all model MMA systems:

  • DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused a system crash (with SRC B131E504) by changing the initialization settings of the I/O control hardware.
  • A problem was fixed that could cause the hypervisor to hang after a reset/reload of the service processor.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain circumstances, caused the InfiniBand adapter to stop responding to InfiniBand requests.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1813014 to be logged after a successful system firmware installation.  This SRC will be logged when this level of firmware is installed and will generate a call home; it should be ignored.  It will not be logged during subsequent installations.
  • The FRU list was changed so that clock card failures in a multi-drawer system will be easier to debug and require fewer parts to fix.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the service processor to get stuck in a reset/reload loop, which prevented the system from booting to standby.


System firmware changes that affect certain model MMA systems:

  • On systems with redundant service processors enabled, a problem was fixed that could cause a significant increase in system boot time.
  • On systems with two service processors installed and with redundancy disabled, a problem was fixed that caused the secondary service processor to go into the dump state, and remain in the dump state, after a platform dump.
  • On systems with redundant service processors, SRCs B1813833 and B1813834, which were being logged intermittently after a side-switch IPL, were changed to informational.
  • On systems with a 1519-100 tower attached, a problem was fixed that caused the location code of a connector on the integrated virtual IOP to be displayed as Un-SE1-SE1-T1 instead of Un-SE1-T1.
  • On systems with 7134-G30 I/O drawers attached in certain cabling configurations, a problem was fixed that prevented the I/O port labels from being displayed for the port location codes on the hardware topology screens.
EM320_031_031

12/03/07

Impact:  Function                       Severity: Attention

New Features and Functions:

  • Support for redundant service processors with failover on model MMA systems.
  • Support for the concurrent addition of a RIO/HSL adapter on model MMA systems. For more information, see Section 2.1 Cautions,  paragraph Concurrent Maintenance.
  • Support for the concurrent replacement of a RIO/HSL adapter on model MMA systems.  For more information see Section 2.1 Cautions,  paragraph Concurrent Maintenance.
  • Support for the "hyperboot" boot speed option in the power on/off menu on the Advanced System Management interface (ASMI).
  • Support for the creation of multiple virtual shared processor pools (VSPPs) within the one physical pool. (In order for AIX performance tools to report the correct information on systems configured with multiple shared processor pools, a minimum of AIX 5.3 TL07 or AIX 6.1 must be running.)
  • Support for the capability to move a running AIX or Linux partition from one system to another compatible system with a minimum of disruption. 
  • Support for the collection of extended I/O device information (independent of the presence of an operating system) when a system is first connected to an HMC and is still in the manufacturing default state. 
  • Improved VPD collection time on model MMA systems.
  • Support for the migration of DDR2 memory DIMMs during the MES upgrade from a 9117-570 server to a 9117-MMA server when processor card F/C 5621 is ordered when the initial system upgrade MES order is placed.

  • Support for EnergyScaletm and Active Energy Managertm.  For more information on the energy management features now available, please see the EnergyScaletm white paper
EM310 
EM310_074_048

11/10/2008

Impact:  Serviceability                 Severity:  HIPER 

System firmware changes that affect all systems:

  • DEFERRED and HIPER:  The system initialization settings were changed to reduce the likelihood of a system crash under certain circumstances.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused a system to fail to reboot after a B1xxE504 SRC was logged, due to a processor interconnection bus failure.  The same SRC, B1xxE504, was logged when the reboot failed.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rarely occurring circumstances, caused the system to crash if an L2 or L3 cache failure is not discovered and repaired when it initially occurs.
  • The firmware was enhanced so that the contents of /tmp are included when a service processor dump is taken.
  • A problem was fixed that, in certain configurations, caused the removal of a host Ethernet adapter (HEA) port using a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operation to fail.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances, caused the hypervisor to crash when it was booting with and SRC B6000103 being logged.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain circumstances, prevented the operating system from recovering a PIE adapter on which a temporary enhanced error handling (EEH) error occurred. 
  • A problem was fixed that prevented service processor and hypervisor error log entries from being reported to the operating system after a successful partition migration.  This problem only affected the partition that was migrated.
  • The firmware was enhanced so that a call home will be made if the hypervisor issues a "terminate immediate" interrupt.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems:
  •  In systems with clustered processors, various problems were fixed in the InfiniBand interconnection networks.
  • On systems with a host Ethernet adapter (HEA) or host channel adapter (HCA) assigned to a Linux partition, a problem was fixed that prevented the partition from booting if 512 GB, 1 TB, or 1.5 TB of memory was assigned to the partition.  When this problem occurred, SRC B700F105 was logged. 
EM310_071_048

07/30/2008

Impact:  Serviceability                 Severity:  HIPER 

System firmware changes that affect all systems:

  • DEFERRED and HIPER: The processor initialization settings were changed to reduce the likelihood of a processor going into an error state and causing a checkstop or system crash.
  • HIPER: A problem was fixed that caused large numbers of enhanced error handling (EEH) errors to be logged against the 4-port gigabit Ethernet adapter, F/C 5740, under certain circumstances.
  • DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that  caused informational SRCs B181B964 and B150D134 to be logged multiple times, and fill the service processor error log, during normal operation of the system.
  • DEFERRED:  The firmware was enhanced so that if an L3 cache controller gets deconfigured at runtime, the associated processor cores will also be deconfigured.  This prevents the system from going into an error state and causing a checkstop or system crash.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the /tmp directory on the service processor  to fill up, which results in an out-of-memory condition.  When this problem occurred, the service processor usually performed a reset/reload.  This is one possible cause of SRC B1817201 being logged.
  • Enhancements were made to improve  the field replaceable unit (FRU) isolation for phase-locked loop (PLL) clock failures on multi-CEC drawer system.  SRCs B114F6D2, B114F6C1, B113F6C1, B157F12E, B18187EF, and B158E500 were typically seen with this type of failure.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1813014 to be erroneously generated when a new level of system firmware was installed on the managed system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7006971 to be erroneously generated during dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operations on memory.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an "HTML viewer error", followed by the message "Cannot complete service action for reference code 'xxxxyyyy' "  to occur in Service Focal Point on the HMC when trying to perform the service actions for certain SRCs.
  • A problem was fixed in partition firmware that could cause a partition running AIX to crash under certain circumstances.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems:
  • On a partition running Linux, a problem was fixed that might cause the hypervisor to erroneously deconfigure a processor core.
  • On partitions with a large number of hard disks attached to fibre channel adapters, a problem was fixed that might cause SRC BA210003 to be erroneously generated when the partition is booting.  The partition might or might not boot when this error occurs.
  • On systems with 7314-G30 drawers attached, a problem was fixed that caused the port labels to be missing on the hardware topology screens with certain cable configurations.
  • On systems with 7314-G30 drawers attached, a problem was fixed that caused the partition to become unresponsive when an InfiniBand cable in a redundantly-cabled loop was disconnected.
  • On systems with 7314-G30 drawers attached, a problem was fixed that might have caused some I/O slots in the drawers not to be configured when the system was booted.
Note:  The last two defects in this section corrected the issues detailed in the section titled Signal Cable in an InfiniBand loop, and InfiniBand I/0 drawer power on/off in earlier levels of the firmware description file.
EM310_069_048

02/11/2008

Impact: Availability                 Severity:  HIPER

Fixes that affect all model MMA systems:

  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused some functions that perform hardware operations during runtime to generate temporary extended error handling (EEH) errors.
  • DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused a system crash (with SRC B131E504) by changing the initialization settings of the I/O control hardware.  Note: This fix is not in the EM320_031_031 level listed above;  it is included in the EM320_040_031 level.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented a system from recovering after SRC B1xxB9xx was logged.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a firmware installation to fail with SRC B1813028.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1818A10 to be erroneously logged during a disruptive firmware installation.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain circumstances, caused the buttons on the control (operator) panel to be inoperative.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the system planning tool from deploying a sysplan with certain HEA MCS values.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1813108 to be erroneously logged during system boot. 
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain circumstances, caused the InfiniBand adapter to stop responding to InfiniBand requests.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the error "MSGVIOSE0300E002-0154 There is insufficient memory available for firmware" to be logged on the HMC.
System firmware changes that affect certain model MMA systems
  •  On model MMA systems with multiple drawers, a problem was fixed that prevented the pin-hole reset switch on the control (operator) panel from resetting the system.
  • On model MMA system with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) attached, a problem was fixed the prevented the UPS from notifying the operating system that a utility failure or low battery condition had occurred. 
  • On systems with at least 3 or more licensed processors and 2 or more unlicensed processors, a problem was fixed that caused the system boot to be slower than normal, or to hang with SRC C700406E.
  • On model MMA system with 7314-G30 I/O expansion drawers attached, problems were fixed that caused the wrong FRUs to be called out with SRC B70069ED, and caused the hypervisor to loop if certain invalid cabling configurations are encountered.
  • On model MMA systems with a large number of I/O towers attached, a problem was fixed that caused the HMC to go to the incomplete state when an additional tower was added to a loop.
EM310_063_048

11/19/07

Impact:  Availability                 Severity:  HIPER
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused a time-out in a hardware device driver.  This time-out must include both SRCs B181B920 and B181D147.  Other SRCs may be present including, but not limited to, B1xxB9xx, B1xxE504, and B150D141.  Occasionally the system crashes.  If B181B920 and B181D147 SRCs are logged, check for any resources that were deconfigured at the time of these errors and reconfigure them using the ASMI menus.  No hardware should be replaced.  To recover from this error condition, the service processor must be reset by removing,  then reapplying, the managed system's power.
  • DEFERRED:  On multi-drawer model MMA systems, a problem found in testing was fixed which when the L3 cache was disabled,  under very unique (and rare) circumstances may result in data being overwritten in the cache and the system to crash.  Although the exposure to this issue is very low, and there have been no reported problems from the field, the system impact if this occurred would be high.  Product Engineering recommends that you schedule time to install this deferred fix at you earliest convenience.
EM310_057_048

9/14/07

Impact:  Availability                 Severity:  HIPER 

Additional features and functions:

  • Added support for 9406-MMA.
System firmware changes that affect all 9117-MMA systems:
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B170E450.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that, in rare circumstances, could cause the system to hang due to the improper handling of certain exceptions.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that prevented the operating system from being notified of certain EPOW conditions that could lead to the system or partition being shut down, with the possible loss of data.  These EPOW conditions included the ambient temperature being too high, the loss of utility power (with or without UPS backup), and a user-initiated power off using the white power button or the HMC.
  • A problem was fixed that could cause a firmware installation from the HMC to fail with SRC E302F85C on the HMC, and SRC B1813088, B1818A0F, or B1813011 logged in the service processor error log.
  • A change was made so that if a failure occurs during a memory-preserving reboot, the system continues to reboot rather than remaining in the termination (powered off) state.
  • A problem was fixed that caused EEH (enhanced error handling) errors to be erroneously logged against certain I/O adapters.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented "linked" resources that had been guarded out from being reconfigured during the next reboot after a service action on one of the guarded parts.
  • A problem was fixed that, after the backplane was replaced in a 7314-G30 I/O drawer, prevented the partition that owned the drawer from seeing those resources. 
  • A problem was fixed that caused the serial connection to a partition to be lost.  When this occurred, SRCs B181D307, B200E0AA, and/or B200813A were generated by the service processor and the hypervisor.
  • A problem was fixed in partition firmware that, in some circumstances, prevented a CD-ROM or tape device from being in the default service mode boot list, even if one was present in the system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the HMC to go to the incomplete state, and SRC B182953C to be logged in the service processor error log every five minutes or so, when the managed system was booted.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to intermittently fail to configure devices attached to the integrated USB port when booting.
  • A problem was fixed that might have caused erroneous callouts if a problem was found with certain levels of memory controller chips.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to call home and reboot instead of allowing the failing part (a memory controller or DIMM) to be deconfigured by PRD (processor runtime diagnostics). 
Additional information concerning this service pack:

In addition to the fixes described above, this service pack also contains a fix for a low probability problem and content intended for newly-manufactured systems, or enhancements to system internal interfaces, which is not required for systems already in production use.   This content will not be activated on systems that install this service pack concurrently.  Even though this content is not required for systems which are already installed and in use, a disruptive installation of this service pack or a re-IPL after installing it will cause this content to become active.  It is not necessary to plan a window for re-IPL the system the activate this content.

EM310_048_048

6/22/07

Impact:  New        Severity:  New
  • Original (GA)  level.


4.0 How to Determine Currently Installed Firmware Level

You can view the server's current firmware level on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) Welcome pane.  It appears in the top right corner.   Example:  EM320_101.

5.0 Downloading the Firmware Package

Follow the instructions on the web page. You must read and agree to the license agreement to obtain the firmware packages.

Note: If your HMC is not internet-connected you will need to download the new firmware level to a CD-ROM or ftp server.


6.0 Installing the Firmware

The method used to install new firmware will depend on the release level of firmware which is currently installed on your server. The release level can be determined by the prefix of the new firmware's filename.

Example: EMXXX_YYY_ZZZ

Where XXX =  release level


Instructions for installing firmware updates and upgrades can be found at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/topic/ipha1/updateschapter.htm


7.0 Change History

Date
Description
Feb 17, 2010
Updating system firmware from  EM320_031 or EM320_040 is DISRUPTIVE.