Power6 Entry Systems Firmware
Applies to: 8204-E8A, 8203-E4A, 8261-E4S, 9407-M15,
9408-M25
and 9409-M50
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 550 (8204-E8A), System p
520
(8203-E4A), 8261-E4S, System i 550 (8204-E8A), System i 520
(8203-E4A), System i 515 (9407-M15), System i 525 (9408-M25),
System i 550 (9409-M50), Power 520 and Power 550 servers
only.
Do
not use on any other systems.
The firmware level in this package is:
This level of firmware is required on systems not managed by an HMC.
2.0 Cautions
and Important
Information
2.1 Cautions
This level of firmware is required on systems not managed by an HMC
For model 8203-E4A, 8261-E4S, 9407-M15, 9408-M25 systems, and 8204-E8A,
9409-M50 systems, that are not managed by an HMC, this is the required
level of EL350 firmware. This level contains a fix for the system
ports (integrated serial ports) that are not functional in
EL350_038.
ASCII terminals, modems, and the call home function are functional in
this
level.
Upgrading from EL320_031 to EL350_xxx
For 8204-E8A systems only: If your current level of firmware is
EL320_031 you must install any higher level of EL320 before upgrading
your
firmware to this level.
Service Processor flash memory errors (8204-E8A and 9409-M50
systems running EL320_093 and
earlier, or EL340_101 and earlier only)
IBM strongly recommends updating to System Firmware level EL350_039 or
later as this firmware provides improved reliability to the 8204-E8A
and
9409-M50 servers. One enhancement prevents accumulation of single bit
errors
in the memory used to store System Firmware by periodically correcting
single bit errors automatically. If a significant number of such errors
were to accumulate, the server may not boot successfully after main
power
is lost or removed. We strongly recommend customers update both the
Temporary
and Permanent copies of System Firmware when performing this upgrade.
Updating
both the Temporary and Permanent copies allows both memory areas to be
corrected. It is critical the System Firmware update uses one of the
two
methods listed below. Updating System Firmware from the operating
system
may not correct all existing single bit errors.
Note: Do not remove main power from the server before updating the
System
Firmware.
For servers that are not managed by an HMC
Update the System Firmware using a USB flash drive. This method will
update both the Temporary and Permanent copies of the System Firmware.
For instructions on this method of install, please use the following
link:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/index.jsp?topic=/ipha5/fix_firm_usb.htm
For servers that are HMC-managed
Note: A normal accept
operation to copy the Temporary side
contents to the Permanent side cannot be used in place of these
instructions. The update must be done using the following method
(or its command line equivalent).
IMPORTANT: Note that even if the update you are installing is
categorized as being concurrent, use of the Advanced Features option
will power off the system during this procedure.
If you are installing an update to a level within the same release (ex.
340_xxx to 340_yyy)
1) Power off the managed system.
2) Using the HMC GUI interface, click on "Updates" in the navigation
(left-hand) pane. Click in the
checkbox beside the Managed System.
a) Click on "Change Licensed Internal Code for the current release".
b) Select "Start Change Licensed Internal Code wizard" and click "OK"
c) After clicking "OK" on the readiness check panel, select the
repository where the firmware files
can be found and click "OK".
d) Click on "Next" to step through the wizard panels. Accept the
license agreement when it is
displayed, and then click "Finish" to start the update.
f) When the update completes, click on "Change Licensed Internal Code
for the current release"
g) Select "Advanced Features" and click "OK".
h) Select "Install and Activate" and click "OK".
i) After clicking "OK" on the readiness check panel, select the
repository where the firmware files
can be found and click "OK".
j) Select "Specific Levels" and click "OK".
k) Select the managed system, then select "Change Levels".
l) Select the same level chosen in step c and click "OK" and then
click "OK" again on the next panel.
m) On the "Select Installation Type" panel, ensure that the "Disruptive
install and activate" radio button is selected and click "OK".
n) Accept the license agreement when it is displayed, and then click
"OK " in the confirmation panels to start the update.
o) When the process completes, the Managed System may be powered on.
If you are installing an upgrade to a new release (ex 320_xxx to 340 or
350_xxx)
1) Power off the Managed System
2) Using the HMC GUI interface, click on "Updates" in the navigation
(left-hand) pane. Click in the
checkbox beside the Managed System.
a) Click on "Change Licensed Internal Code to a new release".
b) After clicking "OK" on the readiness check panel, select the
repository where the firmware files
can be found and click "OK". Select the new firmware level from
the selection panel displayed and click "OK".
c) Accept the license agreement and click on "OK" in the confirmation
panels to start the upgrade.
f) When the upgrade completes, both the Activate and Accepted levels
will reflect the level just installed. To effect a complete overwrite
of both sides of the Service Processor, you must continue with this
procedure.
g) Click on " Change Licensed Internal Code for the current release".
h) Select "Advanced Features" and click "OK".
i) Select "Install and Activate" and click "OK".
j) After clicking "OK" on the readiness check panel, select the
repository where the firmware files
can be found and click "OK".
k) Select "Specific Levels" and click "OK".
l) Select the managed system, then select "Change Levels".
m) Select the same level chosen in step b and click "OK" and then
click "OK" again.
n) On the "Select Installation Type" panel, ensure that the "Disruptive
install and activate" radio button is selected and click "OK".
o) Accept the license agreement when it is displayed, and then click
"OK " twice to confirm the action.
p) When the process completes, the Managed System may be powered on.
2.2 Important Information
HMC-Managed Systems
This firmware level requires HMC V7 R3.5.0 with PTFs MH01212 and
MH01217 (or higher).
For information concerning HMC releases and the latest PTFs,
go
to the following URL to access the HMC code packages:
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.
Concurrent Firmware Updates
Concurrent system firmware update is only supported on HMC - Managed
Systems
only.
Memory Considerations for Firmware Upgrades
The increase in memory used by the firmware is due to the additional
functionality
in later firmware releases.
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:
01ELXXX_YYY_ZZZ
- XXX is the release level
- YYY is the service pack level
- ZZZ is the last disruptive service pack level
NOTE: Values of service pack and last disruptive service pack
level
(YYY and ZZZ) are only unique within a release level (XXX). For
example,
01EL320_067_045 and 01EL340_067_053 are different service
packs.
An installation is disruptive if:
- The release levels (XXX) are different.
Example: Currently installed release is EL320, new release is EL340
- The service pack level (YYY) and the last disruptive
service
pack level (ZZZ) are the same.
Example: EL320_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of EL320 is
currently
installed on the system
- The service pack level (YYY) currently installed on the
system
is
lower than the last disruptive service pack level (ZZZ) of the service
pack to be installed.
Example: Currently installed service pack is EL320_120_120 and
new service pack is EL320_152_130
An installation is concurrent if:
The release level (XXX) is the same, and
The service pack level (YYY) currently installed on the 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 EL320_126_120,
new service pack is EL320_143_120.
Firmware Information and Update Description
For information about previous firmware release levels, see Section
7.0 Firmware History.
Filename |
Size |
Checksum |
01EL350_049_038.rpm |
24450040 |
32095 |
EL350 |
EL350_049_038
03/15/10
|
Impact: Serviceability
Severity: HIPER
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- HIPER: A problem was fixed that caused the system
to crash with SRCs B700F103 and B181F0E7, if the server was running AIX
and had a F/C 5802 or 5877
drawer (in a 19" rack), or F/C 5803 or 5873 drawer (in a 24" rack),
attached.
- DEFERRED: This fix
corrects the handling of a specific processor instruction sequence that
has the potential to result in undetected data errors. This
specific instruction sequence has only been observed in a small number
of highly tuned Floating Point intensive applications. However,
it is strongly recommended that this fix be applied to all POWER6
systems. This fix has the potential to decrease system
performance on applications that make extensive use of floating point
divide, square root, or estimate instructions.
- A problem was fixed that prevented an SRC from being
recorded in the service processor dump produced by a host-initiated
reset.
- A problem was fixed that caused SRC 10009135, followed by
10009139, to be erroneously logged. These SRCs indicate a system
power control network (SPCN) loop is being broken, then re-established.
- The firmware was enhanced by improving the hardware
callouts for SRC B1xxB942.
- A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances,
caused a partition to hang when being shut down.
- A problem was fixed that caused the system to hang with
SRCs B182953C, B182954C and B17BE434 being logged.
- The firmware was enhanced to detect and handle 12X
InfiniBand I/O drawer cabling errors better.
- A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances,
caused the system to become unresponsive and appear to hang when
page migration occurred on a PCIe slot.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- A problem was fixed that caused a virtual SCSI or virtual
fibre channel adapter to be seen by the operating system as not
bootable when it was added to a partition using a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR)
operation.
- On systems running IBM i, a problem was fixed that caused
booting the operating system from a fibre channel device to fail with
SRC 576B8301.
- On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 drawer attached, a
problem was fixed that could impact the performance of a 4-port
Ethernet adapter F/C 5272, 5275, 5279, 5280, 5525, 5526, or 5527
installed in that drawer.
- On systems managed by IVM (the integrated virtualization
manager) that have an InfiniBand I/O drawer attached, a problem was
fixed that caused a configuration error to be erroneously reported on
the InfiniBand adapter.
- In partitions running AIX or Linux, a problem was fixed
that caused the addition of an I/O slot to a partition using a dynamic
LPAR (DLPAR) add operation to fail.
- On systems with shared processors, a problem was fixed that
caused the partitions to hang and become unresponsive for very short
periods of time.
- A problem was fixed that prevented the IPv6 DHCP address
from being displayed on the advanced system management interface (ASMI)
network configuration screens when IPv6 and DHCP were enabled.
This only occurred on systems with virtual LAN (VLAN) addresses (such
as eth0.30, eth0.31), and when IPv6 addresses were assigned to the
eth0.xx interface.
- On systems running redundant VIOS partitions, a problem was
fixed that prevented Ethernet traffic from being properly bridged
between the two partitions. This problem also prevented shared
Ethernet adapter failover from working correctly.
|
EL350_039_038
11/23/09
|
Impact:
Usability
Severity: HIPER
- HIPER for systems not managed by an HMC: On
8203-E4A, 8261-E4S,
9407-M15, 9408-M25 systems, and 8204-E8A, 9409-M50 systems that are not
managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that prevented the system ports
(integrated serial ports) from functioning.
|
EL350_038_038 10/30/09 |
Impact:
Function
Severity: Special Attention
New Features and Functions:
- Support for new model 8261-E4S.
- Support for F/C 5877, the diskless version of 19" I/O
drawer F/C 5802.
- Support for a USB-attached half-high 5.25" backup device
using a
removable
hard disk drive (HDD).
- Support for a platform dump that is not disruptive.
- Support for i5/OS multipath storage I/O through VIOS
partitions.
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- A problem was fixed that might cause a concurrent firmware
maintenance
(CFM) operation to fail repeatedly when a large number of I/O loop
errors
were being logged during the CFM operation.
- The firmware was enhanced to handle system dumps (SYSDUMPs)
larger than
4GB in size.
- On systems running system firmware release EL340, a problem
was fixed
that
caused a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operation on memory to fail until the
platform
was rebooted.
- The firmware was enhanced to improve the performance of the
F/C 5732,
5735,
and 5769 PCI-E adapters.
- A problem was fixed that caused a repair and verify
(R&V) operation
on the HMC to fail with the message "Exception encountered while
rendering
panel as HTML".
- The firmware was enhanced such that SRCs B181F126,
B181F127, and
B181F129 are correctly logged, and no longer calls home unnecessarily
for
these SRCs.
- The firmware was enhanced to more accurately describe the
reason memory
was deconfigured on the advanced system management interface (ASMI)
memory
deconfiguration screen.
|
4.0
How to Determine Currently Installed Firmware Level
For HMC mangaged systems:
From the HMC, select Updates in the navigation (left-hand) pane, then
view the current levels of the desired server(s).
For System i systems without an HMC:
From a command line, issue DSPFMWSTS.
For System p systems without an HMC:
From a command line, issue lsmcode.
Alternately, use the Advanced System
Management Interface (ASMI) Welcome pane. The current server
firmware appears in the top right
corner.
Example: EL350_049.
5.0
Downloading the Firmware Package
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: ELXXX_YYY_ZZZ
Where XXX = release level
- If the release level will stay the same (Example: Level
EL320_075_075
is
currently installed and you are attempting to install level
EL320_081_075)
this is considered an update.
- If the release level will change (Example: Level EL320_081_075 is
currently
installed and you are attempting to install level EL340_096_096) this
is
considered an upgrade.
HMC Managed Systems
Instructions for installing firmware updates and upgrades on systems
managed by an HMC can be found at
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/topic/ipha1/updupdates.htm
Systems not Managed by an HMC
p Systems
Instructions for installing firmware on systems that are not managed
by an HMC can be found at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/ipha5/fix_firm_no_hmc_aix.htm
i Systems
See "Server Firmware: Update Policy Set to Operating System", http://www-912.ibm.com/s_dir/slkbase.nsf/ibmscdirect/31B3272F48FDEAF38625746C0062665C
7.0 Firmware History
EL340 |
EL340_116_039
02/02/10
|
Impact:
Useability
Severity: Special Attention
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- A problem was fixed that prevented an automatic reboot
after some types
of memory-related crashes.
- A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7005603 to be
erroneously logged
during
any type of concurrent maintenance operation on an enclosure.
- The firmware was enhanced such that SRCs B181F126,
B181F127, and
B181F129
are correctly handled, and no longer cause unnecessary calls home to be
made.
- A problem was fixed that caused the system to hang with
SRCs B182953C,
B182954C, and B17BE434 being logged.
- A problem was fixed that caused SRC 10009135, followed by
10009139, to
be erroneously logged. These SRCs indicate an system power
control
network (SPCN) loop is being broken, then re-established.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On 1-way model E4A, M15, and M25 systems, a problem was
fixed that caused processor runtime diagnostic (PRD) SRCs
such as B181D10B and B114E550 to be erroneously logged during a
concurrent
system firmware update.
|
EL340_101_039
09/23/09
|
Impact:
Serviceability
Severity: Attention
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- DEFERRED: The firmware was enhanced to
reduce
the number of
correctable errors (CEs) being erroneously logged against the memory
bus
with SRC B124E504.
- The firmware was enhanced such that SRC B181F126 is
correctly managed,
and no longer calls home unnecessarily for this problem.
|
EL340_095_039
08/20/09
|
Impact: Function Severity: Special
Attention
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- 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.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On systems running system firmware EL340_075 and Active
Memory Sharing,
a problem was fixed that might have caused a partition to lose I/O
entitlement
after the partition was moved from one system to another using PowerVM
Mobility.
- On systems running system firmware EL340_075 and
Active Memory
Sharing,
a problem was fixed that might have caused a partition to fail to boot
with SRC B700F103 if the partition had more than 24 virtual processors
assigned to it.
- On systems with F/C 5802 or 5877 drawers attached, a
problem was fixed
that prevented an I/O slot's power LED from accurately reflecting the
state
of the I/O slot in a 5802 or 5877 drawer, under certain circumstances.
- On systems with external I/O towers attached, the
firmware was
enhanced
so that the system will not crash when SRC B7006981 is logged for
certain
types of I/O hardware failures.
|
EL340_075_039
05/26/09
|
Impact: Function Severity: HIPER
New features and functions:
- Support for the 4.7 GHz processor module on models E4A, M25
and M15.
- Support for the 5.0 GHz processor module of the models E8A,
M50, and
Power 550 servers.
- DEFERRED: Support for F/C 5802 (19" I/O drawer) and
5803 (24"
I/O drawer).
Attention: After this level of firmware is installed,
the platform
must be powered off, then powered on, before the 5802 or 5803 I/O
drawer
is added to the system.
- DEFERRED: Support for POWER VM Active Memory
Sharing.
Attention: After this level of firmware is installed,
the platform
must be powered off, then powered on to activate the POWER VM Active
Memory
Sharing function.
Attention: If EL340_075 has been installed, and the
new POWER
VM Active Memory Sharing function has been activated, and you want to
back-level
the system firmware, the active memory sharing pool must be deactivated
and deleted prior to back-leveling the system firmware. IBM does not
recommend
back-leveling the system firmware.
System firmware changes that affect all systems:
- 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 the detailed data at the
end of an
"early
power off warning type 5" AIX error log entry to be filled with invalid
data instead of zeros.
- The firmware was enhanced so that a call home will be made
if the
hypervisor
issues a "terminate immediate" interrupt.
- The firmware was enhanced so that the service processor
only logs SRC
B1A38B24
when a valid network set up error is found. The callouts for this SRC
were
also improved.
- The firmware was enhanced so that SRCs B181720D, B1818A13,
and
B1818A0F,
and occasionally a service processor dump, will not be generated when
the
service processor's two Ethernet interfaces are on the same subnet.
(This
is an invalid configuration.)
- A problem was fixed that caused a system with I/O
drawers
attached
to crash, and a SYSDUMP to be taken, with SRCs B7000103 and SRC
B181D138
being logged. Another symptom of this failure is informational
SRC
B7006970 entries constantly posting in the iqyylog.log.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems:
- A problem was fixed that caused the migration of a
partition with more
that 900 virtual slots defined, from a system running firmware EL320 to
a system running firmware EL340, to fail.
- On systems with external drawers or towers attached to 12X
I/O
adapters,
a problem was fixed that prevented the drawers or towers from powering
up and being seen by the firmware.
- On systems running firmware release EL340, a problem was
fixed that
caused
data in the platform dump to be invalid.
- On systems using on/off (temporary) memory capacity on
demand (COD),
the
firmware was enhanced to improve memory COD's interaction with other
tools
(such as Inventory Scout in AIX), and to make the billing process
easier.
|
EL340_067_039
03/09
|
This is a valid System Firmware level that was released by
the card
manufactuing in March 2009. It may be seen after a system board
has
been replaced. It can be updated or upgraded through normal
procedures. |
EL340_061_039
04/20/09
|
Impact: Function Severity: HIPER
System firmware changes that affect all systems:
- HIPER: 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.
- 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 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 might have caused the system to
crash when a
processor
was dynamically removed when the system was running.
- The firmware was enhanced such that VPD data corruption in
the Anchor
(VPD)
will be corrected by the firmware, rather than having to have the
Anchor
card replaced.
- A problem was fixed that caused a partition being migrated
to crash on
the target system.
- On systems running the EL340 release of system firmware, a
problem was
fixed that caused an abort code to be logged in the virtual
input/output
system (VIOS) error log on the source system after a successful
partition
migration.
- A problem was fixed that caused a partition being migrated
to become
unresponsive
on the target system when firmware-assisted dump was enabled.
- The firmware was enhanced so that SRC BA210012 will not
generate a call
home when logged.
- A problem was fixed that caused hardware to be deconfigured
when the
system
encountered network errors, even though the SRCs were being logged as
informational.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On systems with external I/O drawers, a problem was fixed
that could
cause
the system to hang on checkpoint C700406E during a "warm" reboot (a
reboot
in which the processor drawer is power-cycled but the I/O drawers are
not).
- On systems running system firmware release EL340 and IBM i
partitions,
a problem was fixed that caused message CPF9E7F, CPF9E2D or CPF9E5E
(which
indicates a licensing key problem) to be received by the IBM i
partitions
when the number of physical processors was greater than the number of
IBM
i licenses.
- On systems with virtual fiber channel disks, a problem was
fixed that
prevented
the system management services (SMS) from displaying the virtual fiber
channel disks if the virtual fiber channel server reported that any of
them were reserved.
|
EL340_039_039
11/21/08
|
Impact: Function Severity: Attention
New Features and Functions:
- Support was added for the converged System i/System p model
520,
8203-E4A
and the converged System i/System p model 550.y
- Support for Feature 4532, 2048MB, RDIMMs, 667 MHz, 1Gb
DRAM, CCIN 31AC.
- Support for the 8 GB fiber channel adapter, F/C 5735.
- Support for a virtual tape device.
- Support for USB flash memory storage devices.
- Support in the service processor firmware for IPv6.
- Support in the hypervisor for three types of hardware
performance
monitors.
- Support for installing AIX and Linux using the integrated
virtualization
manager (IVM).
- Support for the dual-port 12x Infiniband adapter, F/C 5608.
- Support for an enhanced power and thermal management
capability -
lowering
the fan speed to conserve power when the power usage of the system is
low.
- Support for enhanced power management, including dynamic
voltage and
frequency
slewing.
- On systems running AIX, support was added for an enhanced
power and
thermal
management capability. When static power save mode is selected, AIX
will
"fold" processors to free processors which can then be put in the "nap"
state.
- On model E8A systems, support was added for CIM (common
information
model)
power instrumentation to the service processor.
- On systems that have temperature and power management
device (TPMD)
hardware,
support was added for a "soft" power cap.
System firmware changes that affect all systems:
- A problem was fixed that caused the system to crash and a
SYSDUMP to be
taken, with SRCs B170E540, B181D138,or B700F105, with a bad PCI-E
adapter installed and in use, or while
running a heavy network load.
- A problem was fixed that prevented the default partition
environment in
the advanced system management interface (ASMI) power on/off menu from
being set to "i5/OS" when it was blank.
- On all model M50, M25, M15, E8A, and E4A systems, a problem
was fixed
the
prevented RB keyword0 from being set in the advanced system management
interface (ASMI) system keywords menu.
- The firmware was enhanced so that SRC B1xx3409, which
indicates an
invalid
state change (such as pushing the power on button twice quickly) will
be
logged as informational instead of predictive, and will not call home.
- A problem was fixed that caused a service processor dump to
be taken
and
SRC B181EF88 to be logged, even though the operation of the system was
not affected.
- A problem was fixed that prevented some of the service
processor error
log entries from being seen when the advanced system management
interface
(ASMI) menus were accessed on a TTY terminal.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems:
- On systems that are managed by a hardware management
console (HMC), a
problem
was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances, caused SRC B181E411
to
be logged, a call home to be made, and a service processor dump to be
taken.
- On systems that are not managed by a hardware management
console (HMC),
a problem was fixed that caused the service processor to lose its
connection
to a serial-attached TTY terminal. A dump was taken, and SFC B170100A
was
logged, when this problem occurred.
- In networks using a time server, a problem was fixed that
caused the
date
on a client system to be reset to 1969 if the client system lost power.
|
EL320 |
EL320_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 that are not managed by an HMC, a problem was
fixed that
caused
the serial port on the service processor to stop responding when a
large
number of characters were sent to it from an ASCII terminal in a short
time.
- On systems using on/off (temporary) memory capacity on
demand (COD),
the
firmware was enhanced to improve the billing process for this
feature.
|
EL320_093_045
05/04/09
|
Impact: Availability Severity:
HIPER
System firmware changes that affect all systems:
- HIPER for models E8A, M50, and Power 550 servers:
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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 the integrated xSeries adapter (IXA), a
problem was
fixed
that prevented the creation of a system plan on the HMC.
- 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.
|
EL320_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.
- 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 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.
- A problem was fixed that caused a system to crash, and a
SYSDUMP to be
taken, with SRCs B7000200, then SRC B700F103, being logged, when
configuring
an HEA adapter. In order for this problem to occur, all of the
following
must be true:
- A partition running Linux is using an host Ethernet
adapter (HEA).
- The max partition memory must equal the cur partition
memory.
- The current value of the partition memory must be between
4GB and 10GB,
and not an integer.
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.
|
EL320_076_045
06/06/08
|
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 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.
- 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".
System firmware changes that affect systems managed by an HMC
- HIPER: A problem was fixed in the hypervisor that
might cause a
partition migration to fail.
|
EL320_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.
|
EL320_059_031
Mfg Only
05/06/08
|
Impact: Function Severity:
Special Attention
New features and functions:
- Support for IPv6 was added.
- Support for logical volumes bigger than 2 TB was added.
- On system managed by an HMC, virtual switch support for
virtual Ethernet
devices was added. This requires HMC V7 R3.3.0.0 with efix MH01102 to
be
running on the HMC.
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.
- 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
on the 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.
- 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 U789D.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 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 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 E4A and E8A
systems:
- HIPER: On systems managed by an HMC, 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.
- 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 using the EnergyScale(TM) technology, a problem
was fixed
that
caused the calculations of power usage to be incorrect.
- On systems managed by an HMC, 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.
- On systems managed by an HMC, 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.
- On systems with 7134-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 7134-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 7134-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.
|
EL320_046_031
06/09/08
|
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.
|
EL320_040_031
02/29/08
|
8204-E8A Impact:
Serviceability
Severity: Special Attention
8203-E4A Impact:
New
Severity: New
New Features and Functions:
- Support for the 8203-E4A system was added.
Fixes that affect all model E8A 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, 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.
System firmware changes that affect certain model E8A systems:
- 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.
- On systems running system firmware level EL320_031, a
problem was fixed
that caused attempts to call home to fail.
- On systems running the Active Energy Managertm,
a problem
was
fixed that caused the Exhaust Heat Index (EHI) to read up to 21 degrees
lower than the actual exhaust air temperature.
|
EL320_031_031
02/08/08
|
8204-E8A Impact:
New
Severity: New
8203-E4A Not supported at this level
Features and Functions:
- 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 "hyperboot" boot speed option in the power
on/off menu
on the Advanced System Management interface (ASMI).
- 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.
- Support for EnergyScaletm and Active Energy
Managertm.
For more information on the energy management features now available,
please
see the EnergyScaletm
white
paper
Note 1: The lowest power cap that Active Energy Managertm
will allow the user to set is below the power value that can be
guaranteed.
To avoid error conditions, set the power cap above the power used by
the
system at maximum load. See the EnergyScaletm white paper at
the link above for more information on how to set the power cap.
Note 2: The Exhaust Heat Index (EHI), as shown on Active
Energy Managertm,
may read up to 21 degrees lower than the actual exhaust air temperature.
|
8.0 Change History
Date
|
Description
|
Mar 14, 2010
|
Updated 'Service Processor flash
memory errors...' statement in section 2.1 (Cautions).
|