Power6 Mid-Range Firmware

Applies to: 9117-MMA , 9406-MMA, and 8234-EMA

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 570 (9117-MMA), System i570 (9406-MMA), Power 570 (9117-MMA), and Power 560 (8234-EMA) 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 running a code level lower than the "Minimum HMC Code Level" the firmware update will not proceed.

The Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is:  HMC V7 R3.5.0 Service Pack 1 ( PTF MH01212) and MH01217.

Although the Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is listed above,  HMC level V7 R3.5.0 with PTF MH01277 (Service Pack 4), or higher is suggested for this firmware level.

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

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.

1.2 Minimum SDMC Code Level

This section is intended to describe the "Minimum Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) Code Level" required by the System Firmware to complete the firmware installation process. When installing the System Firmware, the SDMC level must be equal to or higher than the "Minimum SDMC Code Level" before starting the system firmware update.  If the SDMC managing the server targeted for the System Firmware update is running a code level lower than the "Minimum SDMC Code Level" the firmware update will not proceed.

The Minimum SDMC Code level for this firmware is:  SDMC V6 R7.3.0 with Mandatory PTF MF53082.

Although the Minimum SDMC Code level for this firmware is listed above, SDMC level V6 R7.3.0 with PTF MF54510 (SDMC_Update_6.730.2/Service Pack 2), or higher is suggested for this firmware level.

For information concerning SDMC 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


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.

Upgrading from EM320_031 to EM350_xxx

If your current level of firmware is EM320_031 you must install any higher level of EM320 before upgrading your firmware to this level.

Upgrading from EM310_xxx to EM350_yyy

If your current level of firmware is EM310_xxx,  you must install EM320_040 or higher before upgrading your firmware to this level.

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.

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 or SDMC, 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 and/or Partition-Deferred. Deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until the next IPL. Partition-Deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until a partition reactivate is performed.  Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred fixes, if any, will be identified in the "Firmware Update Descriptions" table of this document. For these types of fixes (Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred) 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:

01EMXXX_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, 01EM310_067_045 and 01EM320_067_053 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

Example: Currently installed release is EM310, new release is EM320 Example: EM310_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of EM310 is currently
installed on the system Example: Currently installed service pack is EM310_120_120 and
new service pack is EM310_152_130

An installation is concurrent if:

Example: Currently installed service pack is EM310_126_120,
new service pack is EM310_143_120.

Firmware Information and Update Description

For information about previous firmware release levels, see  Section 7.0 Firmware History.

 
Filename Size Checksum
01EM350_126_038.rpm 24244674
 12942

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 01EM350_126_038.rpm

EM350
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

The complete Firmware Fix History for this Release Level can be reviewed at the following url:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/server/firmware/EM-Firmware-Hist.html
EM350_126_038

05/02/12

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

System firmware changes that affect all systems
  • The firmware was enhanced to log SRCs BA180030 and BA180031 as informational instead of predictive.
  • The firmware was enhanced to increase the threshold of soft NVRAM errors on the service processor to 32 before SRC B15xF109 is logged.  (Replacement of the service processor is recommended if more than one B15xF109 is logged per week.)
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • The firmware resolves undetected N-mode stability problems and improves error reporting on the feature code (F/C) 5802 and 5877 I/O drawer power subsystem.
  • HIPER/Pervasive: On systems with PCI adapters in a feature code (F/C) F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer assigned to a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), and on systems with the I/O adapters in a CEC drawer assigned to a VIOS, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B700F103.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the hypervisor to hang during a concurrent operation on a F/C 5802, 5803, 5873 or 5877 I/O drawer.  Recovering from the hypervisor hang required a platform reboot.
  • On system performing Live Partition Mobility (LPM), a problem was fixed that caused a partition to crash if the following sequence of operations is performed:

    1.  The partition is configured with, and is using, more than 1 dedicated processor.
    2.  The partition is migrated using LPM from a POWER6 to a POWER7 platform.
    3.  At any time following the migration from POWER6 to POWER7, one or more of the dedicated processors is removed from the partition using a Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) operation.

     Once these 3 steps operations have been done, a partition crash is likely if either:
      - The partition is subsequently migrated to any other platform (POWER6 or POWER7) using LPM,  or
      - The partition is resumed from hibernation.

  • A problem was fixed that caused the output of the AIX command "uname -m" to be incorrect on the POWER7 system after a successful Live Partition Migration (LPM) operation from a POWER6 to a POWER7 system.
  • 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).
  • The firmware was enhanced to improve soft error recovery and error reporting on feature code (F/C) 5802 and 5877 I/O drawers.
  • A problem was fixed that caused booting from a virtual fibre channel tape device to fail with SRC B2008105.
Concurrent hot add/repair maintenance firmware fixes
  • A problem was fixed that caused the hypervisor's memory usage to grow during a concurrent maintenance 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) or System Director Management Console (SDMC).
EM350_118_038

10/27/11

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

System firmware changes that affect all systems
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to terminate when rebooting after the power was removed, then reapplied.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the message "IPL: 500 - Internal Server Error" to be displayed when the Hardware Management Console option was selected (which is under the System Information option) on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
  • On systems running more than 100 logical partitions, a problem was fixed that caused a concurrent firmware installation to fail.
  • 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 a partition migration operation to abort when the partition has more than 4096 virtual slots.
  • 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 caused booting or installing a partition or system from a USB device to fail with error code BA210012.  This usually occurs when an operating system (OS) other than the OS that is already on the partition or system is being booted or installed.
  • 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.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a firmware installation from the HMC with the "do not auto accept" option selected to fail.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • On systems running IBM i partitions, a problem was fixed that caused changing the processor weight on an IBM i partition to 255 to have no effect.
  • On system using the utility capacity on demand (COD) feature, a problem was fixed that prevented the hypervisor from correctly crediting the time used when the sequence number of the activation code reached certain values.
  • HIPER/Non-Pervasive:  On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) with a feature code (F/C) 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B170E540 after a warm boot or platform dump IPL.
  • On systems with an iSCSI network, a problem was fixed that caused the system to hang when booting from an iSCSI device in the system management services (SMS) menus.
  • On systems with an iSCSI network, when booting a logical partition using that iSCSI network, a problem was fixed that caused the iSCSI gateway parameter displayed on the screen to be incorrect.  It did not impact iSCSI boot functionality.
  • On systems using fibre channel adapters, the firmware was enhanced by the addition of a new option in the system management services (SMS) Mutliboot menu that facilitates zoning of physical and virtual fibre channel adapters.
  • On systems with external I/O drawers, the firmware was enhanced such that SRCs 10001B02 and 1000911C place a call home.
  • On systems with external InfiniBand or PCI-E drawers or towers, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B7000103 if the I/O hub adapter crashed at the same time an external drawer or tower was being initialized.
Concurrent hot add/repair maintenance firmware fixes
  • On partitions running Red Hat Linux 6.1, a problem was fixed that caused a node evacuation operation to fail.
  • HIPER/Non-Pervasive: On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B170E540 after a warm boot or platform dump IPL.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the host Ethernet adapters (HEA) to be in a non-functional state after a hot node add.

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 SDMC managed systems:  From the SDMC Welcome page, select the desired server(s), then select Release Management, then select Power System Firmware Management. Click Gather Target Information, then view the current levels of the desired server(s). 
NOTE:  If Inventory has not previously been collected, a message will be displayed indicating to "View and Collect Inventory" to proceed.

Alternately, you can view the server's current firmware level on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) Welcome pane. It appears in the top right corner. Example: EM350_038.

5.0 Downloading the Firmware Package

Follow the instructions on Fix Central. You must read and agree to the license agreement to obtain the firmware packages.

Note: If your HMC or SDMC 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: EMXXX_YYY_ZZZ

Where XXX = release level


Instructions for installing firmware updates and upgrades can be found at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/topic/ipha1/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 complete Firmware Fix History for this Release level can be reviewed at the following url:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/server/firmware/EM-Firmware-Hist.html

8.0 Change History

Date
 Description
June 12, 2012 Added Fix Description for hypervisor hang to level EM350_126.
May 15, 2012 Added Fix Description for SRC B15xF109 to level EM350_126.