Power7 Mid-Range Systems Firmware

Applies to: 9117-MMB and 9179-MHB

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 770 (9117-MMB)  and Power 780 (9179-MHB)  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 R7.2.0 (PTF MH01233 or MH01234) and PTF MH01246 (Service Pack 1).

Although the Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is listed above,  HMC level V7 R7.2.0 with PTF MH01276 (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/

For specific fix level information on key components of IBM Power Systems running the AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems, we suggest using the Fix Level Recommendation Tool (FLRT):
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/flrt/home

NOTES:
                -You must be logged in as hscroot in order for the firmware installation to complete correctly.
                - Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) does not support this System Firmware level.

2.0 Important Information

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.

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/topic/p7hat/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:

01AMXXX_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, 01AM720_067_045 and 01AM740_067_053 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

Example: Currently installed release is AL710, new release is AM720 Example: AM720_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of AM720 is currently
installed on the system Example: Currently installed service pack is AM720_120_120 and new service pack is AM720_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 AM720_126_120,  new service pack is AM720_143_120.

Firmware Information and Update Description

 
Filename Size Checksum
01AM720_108_064.rpm 34500414 15469

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 01AM720_108_064.rpm

AM720
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
AM720_108_064

01/23/12		 Impact: Availability           Severity:  HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • HIPER/Not pervasive:  A problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B18187DA.
  • The firmware was enhanced to log SRC B1768B76 as informational instead of unrecoverable.
  • The firmware was enhanced to increase the threshold for recoverable SRC B113E504 so that the processor core reporting the SRC is not guarded out.  This prevents performance loss and the unnecessary replacement of processor modules.
  • A problem was fixed prevented a platform system dump from being deleted when the file system space on the service processor was full.
  • The firmware was enhanced to log SRC B1812A11 as informational, instead of "service action required", when the thermal/power management device (TPMD) is successfully reset.
  • The field replaceable unit (FRU) callouts were enhanced for SRC B181E550.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the message "500 - Internal Server Error." to be displayed when a setting was changed on the Advanced System Management Interface's (ASMI's) power on/off menu, when the change was attempted when the system was powering down.
  • A problem was fixed that erroneously caused SRC B1818601 to be logged and an FSP dump to be generated.
  • The firmware was enhanced to log an error, instead of causing a kernel panic, if a guard record was corrupted or truncated.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the wrong error code to be logged when the memory test took longer than normal during system boot.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a system's partition dates to revert back to 1969 after the service processor or its battery was replaced.  This occurred regardless of whether or not the service processor's time-of-day (TOD) clock was correctly set during the service action. 
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to appear to hang, and a service processor reset/reload to occur, when multiple hardware errors occurred.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7005442 to be erroneously logged, and functional processor cores to be guarded out, when an error occurred in the operation system or an application.
  • A problem was fixed that erroneously caused SRC B1818601 to be logged and an FSP dump to be generated. 
  • A problem was fixed that caused multiple service processor dumps to be unnecessarily taken during a concurrent firmware update.  SRC B181EF9A, which indicates that the dump space on the service processor is full, was logged as a result.
  • The firmware was enhanced by the addition of a new option in the system management services (SMS) "Multi-boot" menu that facilitates zoning of physical and virtual fibre channel adapters.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a partition migration operation to abort when the partition has more than 4096 virtual slots.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC B18138B7 to be erroneously logged, and the service processor to terminate, when errors were continuously logged due to failing hardware.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a firmware installation from the HMC with the "do not auto accept" option selected to fail.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to fail to boot with SRC B1xxB507.
  • A problem was fixed the caused system fans to be erroneously called out as failing.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • HIPER/Pervasive on systems with a Virtual Input/Output (VIO) client running AIX, and with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer attached:  A problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B700F103.
  • On systems running more than 100 logical partitions, a problem was fixed that caused a concurrent firmware installation to fail.
  • On systems running the Advanced Energy Manager (AEM), that terminates when in dynamic power save mode, a problem was fixed that caused SRCs B150B943, B113C660, and B113C661 to be erroneously logged when the system rebooted.
  • On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS), the firmware was enhanced to reduce the time required to migrate an AMS partition.
  • On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS), a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash during the creation of a logical partition (LPAR).
  • On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS), a problem was fixed that prevented an AMS partition from being activated with SRC B2006009.
  • On systems running VIOS, a problem was fixed that caused the location code in the output of the VIOS command "lsmap -npiv -all" to be incorrect.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a shared processor partition that is configured with two virtual processors and an entitled capacity of 1.0 processors to hang when only one processor is in the physical shared pool.
  • On systems running iSCSI, a problem was fixed that caused the system to hang when booting from an iSCSI device in the system management services (SMS) menus.
  • On the System Management Services (SMS) remote IPL (RIPL) menus, a problem was fixed that caused the SMS menu to continue to show that an Ethernet device is configured for iSCSI, even though the user has changed it to BOOTP.
  • On systems running the Advanced Energy Manager (AEM), a problem was fixed that caused the work rate calculation for a processor to be incorrect if the system dropped into safe mode.
  • On systems from which a node has been removed, a problem was fixed that caused the node to continue to be listed when the Processing Unit Deconfiguration option was selected on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) menus.
  • On systems in which a service processor had been guarded out manually, a problem was fixed that caused the Deconfiguration Records option, which is under the System Service Aids in the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI), to display null data for that service processor.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the operating system from being notified that a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer had recovered from an input power fault (SRC 10001512 or 10001522).
  • On a multi-drawer system, a problem was fixed that prevented the system attention LED from correctly reflecting the status of the DASD fault LEDs in drawers 2, 3, and 4.
  • On systems using Capacity on Demand (CoD), a problem was fixed that caused informational SRC B7005300 to be logged so often that the error logs wrapped, and other information in the error logs was lost.
  • On systems are upgraded from Ax710 system firmware to Ax720 system firmware, a problem was fixed that caused the utility processor capacity-on-demand (CoD) parameters to erroneously change when the Ax720 system firmware was installed.
Concurrent hot add/repair maintenance firmware fixes
  • On a system with mirrored memory, a problem was fixed that caused a hot node repair operation to fail.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the host Ethernet adapters (HEA) to be in a non-functional state after a hot node add.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the hypervisor's memory usage to grow during a CHARM node evacuation operation.  When this problem occurred, the amount of reserved memory (the memory the hypervisor is using) increases, and the amount of available memory decreases, as viewed on the Hardware Management Console (HMC).

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).

Alternately, use the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) Welcome pane. The current server firmware  appears in the top right corner. Example: AM710_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: AMXXX_YYY_ZZZ

Where XXX = release level

Instructions for installing firmware updates and upgrades can be found at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/p7ha1/updupdates.htm

IBM i Systems

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

7.0 Firmware History

The Firmware History can be reviewed at the following url:

http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/server/firmware/AM-Firmware-Hist.html