Power7 Entry Systems Firmware

New Features and Functions

• Support for the network installation of the IBM i operating system from the hardware management console (HMC) command line interface (CLI).
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1812616 or B181261D to be erroneously logged, both of which called out the TPMD (thermal/power management device) card, when a VRM (voltage regulator module) failed with SRC 11002630.
• A problem was fixed that prevented the lamp test from running if it was initiated from the operator (control) panel or the ASMI (advanced system management interface).
• 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 multiple DR_DMA_MIGRATE_FAIL entries in the AIX error log.

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• HIPER: IBM testing has uncovered a potential undetected data corruption issue when a mobility operation is performed on an AMS (Active Memory Sharing) partition.  The data corruption can occur in rare instances due to a problem in IBM firmware.  This issue was discovered during internal IBM testing, and has not been reported on any customer system.
  
• 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 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.
• On systems managed by IVM (integrated virtualization manager), a problem was fixed that caused the minimum memory for the IVM partition to drop below 512 MB.  This caused the IVM to erroneously indicate that the partition memory was not synchronized, even after the partition was rebooted.  This problem might also cause the minimum memory for other partitions to be lowered unexpectedly.
• A problem was fixed that prevented processor resources from being moved to another partition by a DLPAR (dynamic LPAR) operation.
• On stand-alone systems running AIX or Linux, and on systems managed by IVM (Integrated Virtualization Manager), a problem was fixed that prevented platform dumps from being off-loaded, or resulted in corrupted or incomplete platform dumps.
• On systems that are not managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the service processor to hang intermittently, with progress code C1122000 displayed, if the service processor was reset, then the system was powered on using the TTY (serial port) version of the ASMI menus.
  
• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that caused a partition to crash during a page migration operation.
  
• On systems managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused a component report (component interval activity) on the HMC to show 100% uncapped CPU available; it remained at 100% and did not move up or down as the other systems used and released processor resources.
  
• On systems managed by an 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 HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the managed system to go to the incomplete state on the HMC.
• On systems managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the HMC attention indicator to stay on after the system was booted even though the enclosure node indicator had been cleared.
  
• A problem was fixed that caused AIX licensing issues when migrating a partition from a P6 to a P7 system. When this problem was present on the target system after the partition migration (but before the partition was rebooted), the AIX command "uname -m" might not have produced the expected result.
  
• A problem was fixed that caused a partition to crash with SRC BA330002 after several concurrent installations of system firmware, or partition migrations, without a reboot.
• On systems with a F/C 5803 or 5877 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that caused a power-on unit operation from the HMC to time out, and informational SRC 10009107 to be logged, if the following conditions were met:

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused the platform to become unresponsive; this was indicated by an "incomplete" state on the HMC.  When this problem occurred, the partitions on the managed system became unresponsive.

• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer attached, the firmware was enhanced to allow the drawer to power on with only one working offline converter assembly (OCA).
• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer attached, and a PCI-E adapter in the CEC, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash during a page migration operation with SRC B700F103.
  

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.

• 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).

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.

• 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. 

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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.