Power6 Entry Systems Firmware

12/01/10

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• 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.
• The firmware was enhanced to log SRC B181D30B as informational instead of predictive.

• On systems managed by an hardware management console (HMC), the firmware was enhanced to list the attached devices when viewing the adapter information for a partition profile on the HMC GUI.
• On systems managed by an hardware management console (HMC), a problem was fixed that caused the HMC2 port on the advanced system management interface (ASMI) to erroneously default to static IP addressing instead of dynamic.
  
• A problem was fixed that prevented the timed-power-on function from turning the system back on if the service processor's clock was adjusted to an earlier time.  This problem could occur during the fall when clocks are set back when daylight savings time ends, for example.
• A problem was fixed that caused a partition to fail to reboot, or fail to boot if it had been shut down once since the platform was booted, with SRC B2001230 and word 3 = 000000BF.  This failure can be seen on a partition that owns a PCI, PCI-E, or PCI-X slot.
  

05/19/10

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• DEFERRED, HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused SRC B113E504 (with word 8 = 074B001F or 0197001F) on 8203-E4A systems with processor feature codes (F/Cs) 5577, 5578, 9495, and 9498, 8204-E8A systems with processor F/C 4967, and 8261-E4S systems with processor F/C 9495.
  
• 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 the system to become unresponsive and appear to hang  when page migration occurred on a PCIe slot.
• 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 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.
• 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 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.
• A problem was fixed caused software licensing issues after a live partition mobility operation in which a partition was moved to an 8203-E4A or 8204-E8A system.
• A problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B7000103 when a concurrent maintenance operation was performed on an I/O slot directly from a partition (using AIX SMIT or IBM i HST).
• A problem was fixed that caused a system or partition running Linux to crash when the "serv_config -l" command was run.
• On systems running active memory sharing (AMS), the firmware was enhanced so that error messages indicating "out of compliance" issues with the memory (HMC SRC HSCL031F) will not be generated if the user allocates more memory than is installed in the system.  (Allocating more memory than is installed in the system is supported in active memory sharing.)
• A problem was fixed that caused the wake on LAN function to fail until the next reboot and power down of the system if standby power was removed.
  

02/02/10

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. 

• 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.

09/23/09
 

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• DEFERRED:  The firmware was enhanced to eliminate correctable errors (CEs) being erroneously logged  against the memory bus with SRC B124E504.  This change affects only 9117-MMA systems equipped with 

 4.2GHz quad core processor cards (FC 7540) and all 8234-EMA systems.  This change is not critical.
• The firmware was enhanced such that SRC B181F126 is correctly managed, and no longer calls home  unnecessarily for this problem.

08/20/09

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.

• 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. 

05/26/09

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.

• 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. 

03/09

04/20/09

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.

• 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. 

11/21/08

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.
• 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.

• 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.
• 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.

• 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.