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

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:

Example: Currently installed release is EL320, new release is EL340 Example: EL320_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of EL320 is currently
installed on the system 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

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).