Power7 Entry Systems Firmware

Applies to: 8233-E8B and 8236-E8C

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 Power 750 (8233-E8B)  and Power 755 (8236-E8C)  servers only.

The firmware level in this package is:

1.1 Minimum HMC Code Level

This section is intended to describe the "Minimum HMC Code Level" required by the System Firmware to complete the firmware installation process. When installing the System Firmware, the HMC level must be equal to or higher than the "Minimum HMC Code Level" before starting the system firmware update.  If the HMC managing the server targeted for the System Firmware update is lower than the "Minimum HMC Code Level" the firmware update will not proceed.

The Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is:  HMC V7 R7.1.0 (PTF MH01205 or MH01206) with eFix MH01214.

Although the Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is V7 R7.1.0, HMC level V7 R7.1.0 with PTF MH01237 (Service Pack 3), or higher is suggested for this firmware level.

For information concerning HMC releases and the latest PTFs,  go to the following URL to access Fix Central.
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

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

2.0 Cautions and Important Information

2.1 Cautions

Downgrading firmware from any given release level to an earlier release level is not recommended.
If you feel that it is necessary to downgrade the firmware on your system to an earlier release level, please contact your next level of support.

2.2 Important Information

IPv6 Support and Limitations

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

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

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

Concurrent Firmware Updates

Concurrent system firmware update is only supported on HMC Managed Systems only.

Memory Considerations for Firmware Upgrades

Firmware Release Level upgrades and Service Pack updates may consume additional system memory.
Server firmware requires memory to support the logical partitions on the server. The amount of memory required by the server firmware varies according to several factors.
Factors influencing server firmware memory requirements include the following:
Generally, you can estimate the amount of memory required by server firmware to be approximately 8% of the system installed memory. The actual amount required will generally be less than 8%. However, there are some server models that require an absolute minimum amount of memory for server firmware, regardless of the previously mentioned considerations.

Additional information can be found at:
  http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/iphat_p5/iphatlparmemory.htm


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:

01ALXXX_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, 01AL720_067_045 and 01AL740_067_053 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

Example: Currently installed release is AL710, new release is AL720 Example: AL720_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of AL720 is currently
installed on the system Example: Currently installed service pack is AL720_120_120 and new service pack is AL720_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 AL720_126_120,  new service pack is AL720_143_120.

Firmware Information and Update Description

 
Filename Size Checksum
01AL710_097_043.rpm 24717036
 12378

Note: The Checksum can be found by running the AIX sum command against the rpm file (only the first 5 digits are listed).
ie: sum 01AL710_097_043.rpm

AL710
For Impact, Severity and other Firmware definitions, Please refer to the below 'Glossary of firmware terms' url:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/power5cm/home.html#termdefs
AL710_097_043

10/04/10		 Impact:  Availability        Severity:  HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • HIPER: This fix corrects an issue that has the potential to corrupt information stored in the POWER7 core's translation cache and may cause undetected data errors.  This issue was discovered during internal IBM testing, and while it has not been reported on any customer system, IBM strongly recommends that this fix be applied to all POWER7 systems.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused the HMC to show the server's status as incomplete, and SRC B7000602 to be logged against SFLPHMCCMDTASK in serviceable events. This problem can also cause the system to crash when it occurs.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused repeated reset/reloads of the service processor to occur after a hypervisor-initiated reset/reload of the service processor was completed.  That led to loss of communication between the service processor and the hypervisor (indicated by SRC B182951C).
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused an AIX or Linux partition to fail to boot with SRC B2008151, which prevented further access to that partition, and potentially preventing prior LPAR configuration changes from being completed.  A reboot of the server is required to recover from this problem.
  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused informational SRC B70069DA from a host Ethernet adapter (HEA) to be logged erroneously.  These messages are sent from the hypervisor to the service processor and cause unnecessary loading of the hypervisor-service processor communication link.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the reactivation of wake on LAN to be delayed after an ac power loss.  Before this change, the server had to be powered up, then powered down, for wake on LAN to be reactivated.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the enclosure fault LED to remain on even though the repair action was successfully completed.
  • The firmware was enhanced so that the function that turns off LED indicators in the advanced system management interface (ASMI) works correctly.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the user from turning off an indicator LED using the ASMI menus when the previous state of the LED was fault/identify.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an IPL to fail to recover properly from previously logged predictive errors, which resulted in an IPL failure.  This problem occurred on systems with a small amount of CEC hardware and a relatively large number of guarded components.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B181261D to be erroneously logged.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1812A60 to be erroneously logged.
  • A problem was fixed that caused informational SRC B70069DA to be logged erroneously as often as three times per minute.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an AIX or Linux partition to crash with SRC B2008151 logged.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an error log indicating a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) error when no DLPAR operations were done, and unrecoverable SRCs BA180010 and BA250010 to be erroneously logged, when a recoverable enhanced error handling (EEH) error was logged on an I/O adapter.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the identify LED, instead of the fault LED, to be turned on, when a hardware error was detected during system boot.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • The firmware was enhanced to support the network installation of the IBM i operating system from the hardware management console (HMC) command line interface (CLI).

Product and Development Engineering recommends the installation of AL710_097 (MTM  8233-E8B & 8236-E8C) to eliminate any exposure to the above issues.
Updating to this level of firmware can be performed concurrently.
AL710_086_043

07/21/10		 Impact:  Function        Severity:  HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused a system crash with SRC B170E504 with word 8 of the SRC data = 0x01EE0005.  Although this problem can occur under other circumstances, it is most likely to occur when running shared partitions or in SMT2 (symmetric multi-threading 2) mode.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the system information LED from coming on when a power-supply related SRC (110015x0) was logged.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • HIPER:  On systems in dynamic power save mode using the Active Energy Manager plug-in with Systems Director, a problem was fixed that caused SRC B1812616, then a hardware checkstop (SRC B113E504), to be logged. 
AL710_083_043

06/07/10		 Impact:  Serviceability        Severity:  ATT

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • The firmware was enhanced to dynamically update the IPL speed on the control (operator) panel when the IPL speed is changed by another method.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B113E504 SRCs with a description of "Undefined Error Code" to be erroneously logged. 
  • The control panel option was removed from  the concurrent maintenance menu on the ASMI (advanced system management interface).  Concurrent replacement of the control panel is not supported on this system.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the enclosure fault roll-up LED from being lit when a fan was pulled from the system.  This problem also resulted in missing location codes in the ASMI (advanced system management interface) menus.
  • Two problems were fixed that caused SRCs B181B8F8 and SCR B181B86A to be erroneously logged during a mainstore dump.  In both cases, the SRC being logged prevented the mainstore dump data from being collected and erroneously called out hardware for replacement.
  • A problem was fixed the prevented the reset/reload bit from being set correctly in a service processor error log entry.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a call home to be erroneously made with SRC B181E911, and a service processor dump to be taken unnecessarily.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • PARTITION-DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused SRC BA210000 to be erroneously logged on the target system when a partition was moved (using Live Partition Mobility) from a Power7 system to a Power6 system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC BA280000 to be erroneously logged on the target system when a partition was moved (using Live Partition Mobility) from a Power7 system to a Power6 system.
  • On systems managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the service processor to crash with SRC B181720D due to an out-of-memory condition.
  • On systems managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the HMC to show a status of "Incomplete" for the managed system, and numerous service processor dumps to be generated.
  • On systems with the Active Energy Manager in IBM Director activated, a problem was fixed that caused a small error in the processor usage calculations.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a system or partition running Linux to crash when the "serv_config -l" command was run.
  • On systems in an i5/OS clustering configuration and managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that prevented a partition in an I/O pool from being deleted.
AL710_065_043

03/16/10		 Impact:  Usability          Severity:  HIPER

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • A problem was fixed that caused disks that were not bootable to be displayed in the system management services boot menus.  This problem also prevented the operating system level from being displayed for bootable hard disks in the system management services boot menus.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the location code to be displayed incorrectly for the embedded SAS controller.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented a concurrent system dump from being taken if a system dump was invalidated (off loaded) before the hypervisor was fully loaded during the boot process.
  • A problem was fixed that, under certain rare circumstances, caused the system to become unresponsive and appear to hang.
  • Various enhancements were made to the firmware to error handling, and error logging, when a failure occurs in system memory.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • On systems running Active Energy Management, a problem was fixed that caused Active Energy Management to inaccurately calculate the parameters used for power throttling.
  • 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.
  • On systems managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the HMC to report that the connection to the managed system was dropped due to problems with locks.
  • On systems using IPv6 addresses, a problem was fixed that prevented static IPv6 addresses from being removed without completely disabling IPv6.
  • On systems with two power supplies, the firmware was enhanced such that if ac input power is removed from one power supply, the speed of the fans in the remaining power supply will increase to provide additional cooling.
AL710_043_043
02/19/10
 Impact:  New            Severity:  New
GA Level

4.0 How to Determine Currently Installed Firmware Level

For HMC managed systems:  From the HMC, select Updates in the navigation (left-hand) pane, then view the current levels of the desired server(s).

For standalone system running IBM i without an HMC: From a command line, issue DSPFMWSTS.

For standalone system running IBM AIX 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: AL710_yyy.

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: ALXXX_YYY_ZZZ

Where XXX = release level


For details on installing the firmware, perform the following steps:

1. Go to the IBM Power System Hardware Information Center at:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp

2. Select the platform and model you are working with.

3. Select from the following options: 

IBM i Systems

See "Server Firmware and HMC Wizard",
http://www-912.ibm.com/s_dir/slkbase.nsf/recommendedfixes

7.0 Change History


Date Description
October 18, 2010 - Updated HIPER descriptions for firmware level AL710_097.
- Added defect descriptions for firmware level AL710_097.