IBM Power8 Systems S822LC Server Firmware

Applies to:   S822LC (8335-GCA) and S822LC (8335-GTA)

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

1.1 Minimum ipmitool Code Level

1.2 Minimum Browser levels for BMC ASM (Advanced System Management) Console

1.3 Fix level Information on IBM Open Power Components and Operating systems

1.4 Steps needed to keep Redundant Power Supply Policy Enabled on 8335-GCA systems

1.5 PowerKVM 3.1 with Ubuntu guests supported on 8335-GCA systems

1.6 "Deactivate" Power Limit fails at system runtime so use circumvention

2.0 Important Information

3.0 Firmware Information

3.1 Firmware Information and Description 

4.0 Operating System Information

4.1 Linux Operating System

4.2 How to Determine the Level of a Linux Operating System

4.3 How to Determine if the opal-prd (Processor Recovery Diagnostics) package is installed

5.0 How to Determine The Currently Installed Firmware Level

6.0 Downloading the Firmware Package

6.1 Download includes the tool file to support a backplane replace

7.0 Installing the Firmware

7.1 IBM Power Systems Firmware maintenance

7.2 Updating the System Firmware with ipmitool

7.2.1 Return codes from the ipmitool "hpm upgrade" command

7.3 Installing ipmitool on Ubuntu

7.4 Updating the System Firmware using the BMC Advanced System Management (ASM)

8.0 System Management and Virtualization

8.1 BMC Service Processor IPMI and ASM Access

8.2 Open Power Abstraction Layer (OPAL) Hypervisor

8.3 Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

8.4 Petitboot bootloader

8.5 IBM PowerKVM

8.5.1 Download IBM PowerKVM

8.5.2 Update PowerKVM

8.5.3 Upgrade PowerKVM

8.6 Kimchi management tool

8.7 IBM PowerVC

8.7.1 PowerVC Benefits

9.0 Quick Start Guide for Installing Linux on LC servers

10.0 Change History

 

1.0 Systems Affected

This package provides firmware for Power Systems LC S822LC (8335-GCA)  and S822LC(8335-GTA)  servers only.

The firmware level in this package is:

 

1.1 Minimum ipmitool Code Level

This section specifies the "Minimum ipmitool Code Level" required by the System Firmware to perform firmware installations and managing the system.  Open Power requires ipmitool level v1.8.15 to execute correctly on the OP810 firmware, especially the ipmitool code update function.

If ipmitool is being run from Ubuntu, the minimum level is 1.8.13-1ubuntu0.5 and should be obtained directly from the Ubuntu packages and not Source Forge (if you want to do in-band firmware updates from Ubuntu) as shown in the second example below.  The Source Forge version v1.8.15 loaded on Ubuntu would not be able to do the firmware update.  However,  there are other problems in 1.8.13-1ubuntu0.5 that affect functions that control the system.  If these other functions are the priority, use the Source Forge version of ipmitool for Ubuntu.

 

 

 

 Verify your ipmitool level on your linux workstation using the following commands:

 

bash-4.1$ ipmitool -V

ipmitool version 1.8.15

 

If you are need to update or add impitool to your Linux workstation , you can compile ipmitools (current level 1.8.15) for Linux as follows from the Sourceforge:

 

1.1.1  Download impitool tar from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/  to  your linux system

1.1.2  Extract tarball on linux system

1.1.3  cd to top-level directory

1.1.4 ./configure

1.1.5  make

1.1.6  ipmitool will be under src/ipmitool        

 

You may also get the ipmitool package directly from your workstation linux packages such as Ubuntu 14.04.3:

 

sudo apt-get install ipmitool

 

1.2 Minimum Browser levels for BMC ASM (Advanced System Management) Console

The BMC ASM is a  web-based application that works within a browser.   Supported browsers levels are shown below with Chrome being the preferred browser:

  1.  

1.3 Fix level Information on IBM Open Power Components and Operating systems

For specific fix level information on key components of IBM Power Systems LC and Linux operating systems,  please refer to the documentation in the IBM Knowledge Center for
the S822LC (8335-GCA) and the S822LC (8335-GTA):

 http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/P8DEA/p8hdx/8335_gca_landing.htm

 http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/P8DEA/p8hdx/8335_gta_landing.htm

 

1.4 Steps needed to keep Redundant Power Supply Policy Enabled on 8335-GCA systems

For OP810.10,  8335-GCA systems with redundant power supplies are shipped with redundant power supply policy as "Enabled".  However,  because of an error, this setting is lost on a reset of the BMC service processor or an AC power-cycle and the system reverts to "Disabled" and will IPL without power supply redundancy.  To circumvent this problem, re-apply redundancy after every reset of the BMC or AC power-cycle using the following ipmitool command (assuming "admin" is the ADMIN password on the BMC):

 

ipmitool -H <BMC IP address> -U ADMIN -P admin raw 0x3A 0x18 0x01 0x02

 

After running the above command, the user can IPL the system.  (If the system is already running, the command will not take effect until the next IPL of the system).

 

This policy is enabled by default for the 8335-GCA system and disabled for the 8335-GTA, which needs higher power for High Performance Computing.  When disabled, it will allow a higher power cap to be set with the trade-off not having a power supply in the backup role for redundancy.

 

To read the Redundant Power Supply Policy policy, use the following command: ipmitool -H <BMC IP address> -U ADMIN -P admin raw 0x3A 0x18 0x00

policy response: RC followed by the current policy followed by the policy on the next IPL (1 = disabled, 2 = enabled)

 

1.5 PowerKVM 3.1 with Ubuntu guests supported on 8335-GCA systems

 

For the 8335-GCA, PowerKVM 3.1 can be installed with Ubuntu guests or Ubuntu may be run on OPAL Bare Metal (EC16).

For 8335-GTA,  only the OPAL Bare Metal (EC16) is available.  PowerKVM  3.1 is not supported on 8335-GTA.

 

1.6 "Deactivate" Power Limit fails at system runtime so use circumvention

 

"Deactivate" Power Limit at system runtime does not work.

 

-bash-4.1$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP -U ADMIN -a power status

Chassis Power is on

 

-bash-4.1$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP -U ADMIN -P admin dcmi power deactivate

 

    DCMI request failed because: Parameter out of range (c9)

 

 

Although the power limit cannot be deactivated while the system is up,  it can be changed to its maximum value which has the same effect on the system.

 

The reason to have a power limit is to manage the power consumption of all the systems in the server farm.  But a power limit can have the trade-off of lowering system performance if the workloads need more power.  So if the power limit needs to be adjusted at system runtime and the need is to remove the power limit, use the ipmitool command to set the power limit to the maximum Watts.  If the power supply redundancy policy is disabled, the maximum Watts that can be set on the power limit  is 2555 Watts.  If the power supply redundancy is enabled, the maximum watts that can be set on the power limit is 1833 Watts.

 

 ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP -U ADMIN -P admin dcmi power set_limit limit <limit value in Watts>

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.

Concurrent Firmware Updates not available for LC servers.

Concurrent system firmware update is not supported on LC servers.

 

3.0 Firmware Information

Use the following examples as a reference to determine whether your installation will be concurrent or disruptive.

For the LC server systems, the installation of system firmware is always disruptive.

 

3.1 Firmware Information and Description 

The update.hpm file updates the primary side of the PNOR and the primary side of the BMC only, leaving the golden sides unchanged.

Filename

Size

Checksum

8335_810.1549.20151116d_update.hpm

67109473

1812fb24907acb7184440884623391ee  

 

 

 

 

Note: The Checksum can be found by running the Linux/Unix/AIX md5sum command against the Hardware Platform Management (hpm) file (all 32 characters of the checksum are listed), ie: md5sum <filename>

 

After an successful update to this firmware level, the PNOR components and BMC should be at the following levels.  The ipmitool "fru" command can be used to display FRU ID 47:  "ipmitool -H bmc_ip_ipaddress -I lanplus -U ipmi_user -P ipmi_password fru print 47".

 

And the BMC command line command "cat" can be used to display the BMC level file:  "cat /proc/ractrends/Helper/FwInf".

 

Note:  FRU information for the PNOR level does not show the updated levels via the fru command until the system has been booted once at the updated level.

 

 

 display pnor FW level using this ipmitool cmd       ipmitool -H bmc_ip_ipaddress -I lan -U ipmi_user -P ipmi_password fru print 47

 

 FRU Device Description : System Firmware (ID 47)

Product Name          : OpenPOWER Firmware

Product Version       : IBM-firestone-ibm-OP8_v1.7_1.17

Product Extra          : hostboot-bc98d0b-5463ef4

Product Extra          : occ-0362706-9e016d2

Product Extra          : skiboot-5.1.9-ada75ff

Product Extra          : hostboot-binaries-43d5a59

Product Extra          : firestone-xml-e7b4fa2-d8b2636

Product Extra          : capp-ucode-105cb8f

 

                 

BMC firmware level :                     driver content

 

display BMC FW level via ssh session on the BMC , using this cmd            #  cat /proc/ractrends/Helper/FwInfo  

 

FW_VERSION=2.13.85627.65366

FW_DATE=Dec 7 2015

FW_BUILDTIME=12:41:23 CDT

FW_DESC=8335 SRC BUILD RR9 12072015

FW_PRODUCTID=1

FW_RELEASEID=RR9

FW_CODEBASEVERSION=2.X

 

 

OP810.00
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

8335_810.1549 / OP810.21

12/14/15

Impact:  Security      Severity:  PE

System Firmware changes that affect all systems

  • • A problem was fixed for a BMC service processor system warm reset with chassis power off that intermittently caused a SEL for a "Hard reset" as "| Watchdog 2 Watchdog | Hard reset | Asserted".

  • • A problem was fixed for the "CPU TEMP" processor temperature sensor reporting as "na" instead of providing the processor temperature as needed. For the failure, the report is shown this way: "CPU1 Temp | na | degrees C | na | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 255.000 | 255.000 | 255.000".

  • • A problem was fixed for the BMC becoming unresponsive and inaccessible from the network after system is running for 7 to 10 days. This was caused by a large memory leak on the BMC. When this failure occurs, the system administrator can allow the system to run until a power cycle (by unplugging the power cords after shutting down the system from the host OS) can be scheduled to clear the BMC of the error.

  • • A problem was fixed in OPAL for NX unit checkstops not being reported in the system error log. These are rare NX faults that were forced by error injection methods in the IBM lab to detect the improper handling of the error condition by OPAL.

  • • A problem was fixed in Hostboot that prevented the IPL of system when a DIMM error was not detected and memory was not guarded as needed to allow the IPL to continue. This error has SEL reference codes BC8A0D03 and BC8A1701 reported at the Hostboot istep 13.6 that does the memory initialization. Without the fix, the failing memory DIMM has to be manually replaced before the system will IPL. The location of the failed memory can be determined by diagnosing the SEL events.

  • • A problem was fixed for a firmware update failure where the Hardware Package Manager (HPM) fails at the end of the image upload with "compcode=0x81: Unknown (0x81)". This error was caused by logging conflicts in the BMC. If the fix for this problem cannot be applied because the firmware update is failing with "0x81", the BMC needs to be switched to the golden side prior to the firmware update. For this service, contact IBM Support at "http://www.ibm.com/support" to have them change the BMC to the golden side and do the firmware update.

  • •A problem was fixed to close a security exposure for the BMC.

8335_810.1543 / OP810.10

11/30/15

Impact:  Serviceability      Severity:  PE

System Firmware changes that affect all systems

  • •

  • A problem was fixed for the BMC service processor system error log (SEL) showing a non-relevant "Temperature CPU Diode Sensor" errror log. A change was made to filter the error logs since it is not a serviceable event.

  • •A problem was fixed for the BMC service processor system error log (SEL) showing an extra SEL ("OCC 1 Active" or "OCC 2 Active sensor disabled") during a power off of the system. A change was made to filter the error logs since they do not pertain to a real problem.

  • •A problem was fixed for a Nessus network security scan detecting that SSLv2 and SSLv3 protocols were active on the BMC. The BMC has been changed to disable SSLv3 and only use TLS to improve the security of the communications. This may affect BMC connectivity for users that have browsers still using the legacy protocols and those users may need to upgrade their clients to use TLS to fix the connection issues.

  • •A problem was fixed for the BMC not being able to recover from an intermittent power supply fault. With the fix, the BMC retries the power on so that the power on is able to succeed and also provides a SEL for the initial power on fault.

  • •A problem was fixed for the ipmitool retrieval of Power Sequencer extended System Error Logs (eSELs) from the BMC. Without the fix, these eSELs cannot be retrieved but they are needed for problem diagnostics.

  • •A problem was fixed for CPU numbers assigned out of order to the Ubuntu 14.04 NUMA nodes. An example of the error on a system with with two ten-core processor modules (for a total of 160 core threads), the lscpu output in Ubuntu showed the CPU numbering as "NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-7,88-159" and "NUMA node8 CPU(s): 8-87". This was corrected so that the first NUMA node now has "0-79" and the second NUMA node now has "80-159" CPU numbers assigned.

  • •A problem was fixed for a ssh service running unexpectedly in the petiboot environment. The ssh service is no longer run as it was not actively being used.

    System firmware changes that affect certain systems

    • •On a system with a Ubuntu guest running on a PowerKVM 3.1 host, a problem was fixed for PCI link reset errors on a IBM Power Raid (IPR) adapter. The PCI links may fail to train on a reset. The fix hardens the PCI fundamental reset by retrying as needed to complete the reset.

8335_810.1539 / OP810.00

10/30/15

Impact:  New      Severity:  New

New features and functions for MTM 8335-GCA and 8335-GTA:

GA Level

NOTE: 

  • •This firmware release supports only the OPAL Hypervisor and the Ubuntu  14.04.03 operating system. 

  • •GA restrictions on use of the BMC Advanced System Managment (ASM) web gui for doing firmware updates:

    1. •Use the Google Chrome browser at level 46.0.2490.71 m. Other browsers are failing for firmware updates.

    2. •ASM firmware update of single components do not work. Select all components for update (which is the default).

    3. •Back to back in-band update do not work and required reboot between two consecutive in-band updates.

    4. •Preserve configuration menu is not provided as an option during the ASM HPM update flow. The user has to go to the ASM Maintenance menu and set appropriate preserve flags before using ASM to firmware updates.

    •  

    4.0 Operating System Information

    IBM Power  LC servers supports Linux which provides a UNIX like implementation across many computer architectures.  Linux supports almost all of the Power System I/O and the configurator verifies support on order.  For more information about the software that is available on IBM Power Systems, see the Linux on IBM Power Systems website:

     http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/linux/index.html

     

    4.1 Linux Operating System

    The Linux operating system is an open source, cross-platform OS. It is supported on every Power Systems server IBM sells.  Linux on Power Systems is the only Linux infrastructure that offers both scale-out and scale-up choices.  The supported version of Linux on the IBM Power LC server is Ubuntu Server 14.04.03 TLS for IBM POWER8.  For more information about Ubuntu Server for Ubuntu for POWER8 see the following website:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/power8

    IBM intends to continue working with Red Hat to support the Power LC servers with an upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 release. For additional questions about the availability of this release and supported Power servers, consult the Red Hat Hardware Catalog:

    https://hardware.redhat.com

     

    For information about the PowerLinux Community, see the following website:

    https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/group/tpl

     

    For information about the features and external devices that are supported by Linux, see this website:

    http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/linux/index.html

     

    4.2 How to Determine the Level of a Linux Operating System

     

    Use one of the following commands at the Linux command prompt to determine the current Linux level:

     

     

    The output string from the command will provide the Linux version level.

     

    4.3 How to Determine if the opal-prd (Processor Recovery Diagnostics) package is installed

     

    The opal-prd package on the Linux system collects the OPAL Processor Recovery Diagnostics messages to log file /var/log/syslog.  It is recommended that this package be installed if it is not already present as it will help with maintaining the system processors by alerting the users to processor maintenance when needed.

     

    On Ubuntu, do a dpkg -l "opal-prd".  The output shows whether the package is installed on your system by marking it with ii (installed) and un (not installed).

     

    This package provides a daemon to load and run the OpenPower firmware's Processor Recovery Diagnostics binary. This is responsible for runtime

    maintenance of Power hardware.  

     

    If the package is not installed on your system, the following command can be run on Ubuntu to install it:

    sudo apt-get install opal-prd

     

    5.0 How to Determine The Currently Installed Firmware Level

     

    Use the ipmtool "fru" command or the BMC Advanced System Management (ASM) FRU option to look at product details of FRU 47.

     

    ipmitool -I lanplus -H <bmc host IP address> -P admin -U ADMIN fru

     

    6.0 Downloading the Firmware Package

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

    In addition to the hpm firmware update file, the down load includes the Ubuntu tool for setting the MTM in case of a backplane replace.

    6.1  Download includes the tool file to support a backplane replace

    On a backplane replace, the user will need to update their  MTM (machine, type and model) and serial number.  The tool to do this is included with files that are downloaded from Fix Central for a firmware update.  This "deb" file is forward compatible will all Ubuntu releases 14.04.03 or later.   It is a user space program and has no hooks into the kernel and is installed as root on the Ubuntu host:

     ophtk-lht-static_20151026-2.ub14.04_ppc64el.deb

    It can be installed using the following step:

     

    7.0 Installing the Firmware

     

    7.1  IBM Power Systems Firmware maintenance

    The updating and upgrading of system firmware depends on several factors, such as the current firmware that is installed, and what operating systems is running on the system.

    These scenarios and the associated installation instructions are comprehensively outlined in the firmware section of Fix Central, found at the following website:

    http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

     

    Any hardware failures should be resolved before proceeding with the firmware updates to help insure the system will not be running degraded after the updates.

     

    Run this command "hpm check" before starting an update to understand what is going to be updated:

     

     ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P admin hpm check <xxxxx.hpm>  where xxxx.hpm is the firmware update file name.

     

     

    7.2 Updating the System Firmware with ipmitool

    Firmware update steps for the LC servers can be managed via the command line with ipmitool command.

      1) Power off the machine - install code from Standby Power state:

    – ipmitool -H <hostname> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin chassis power off

      2) Issue bmc reset (establish stable the starting point)

    – ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin mc reset cold

      3) Run the following commands to flash the BMC and firmware (command protects BMC memory content, avoid losing network settings) :

    – ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin raw 0x32 0xba 0x18 0x00

    – ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P admin -z 30000 hpm upgrade <xxxxx.hpm>  force

      4) If the BMC network settings get lost it is possible to restore them with the following command line steps:

         a) Get serial connect to the BMC

         b) Login and execute the following commands to setup the network:

    – /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 ipsrc static

     – /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus  -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 ipaddr x.x.x.x

     – /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 netmask 255.255.x.x

     – /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 defgw ipaddr x.x.x.x

     

      5) Attention: if you experience a segmentation fault error during the code update - try the command again and change the block size 30000 to 25000.

      6) Power on and IPL the machine:

     – ipmitool -H <hostname> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin chassis power on

    7.2.1 Return codes from the ipmitool "hpm upgrade" command

     

    The "hpm upgrade"  returns a "0" return code on success and a "-1" return code for any type of failure.  To get more error information, the user must go to the /var/log/notice.log on the system where the ipmitool was run and there will be an error message that corresponds to the "-1" returned in the ipmitool.  Below are possible error messages that can be generated for a failure in the command:

     

    HpmfwupgValidateImageIntegrity:  Validate Image failure = "Invalid MD5 signature" or "Invalid image signature" or  "Unrecognized image version" or " Invalid header checksum".

     

    HpmfwupgPreparationStage:  Performing Preparation Stage =  "Invalid image file for manufacturer",  Invalid image file for product ,  Invalid device ID

                 Version not compatible for upgrade ="Version: Major x1,  Minor: y1  Not compatible with  Version: Major: x2 Minor:  y2"

     

    HpmfwupgPreUpgradeCheck:  Pre-upgrade check

     

    HpmfwupgUpgradeStage:  Upgrade Stage - Activation = "Self test failed:  Result1 = xx, Result2 = yy"

     

     

    7.3  Installing ipmitool on Ubuntu

    Open Power requires Source Forge ipmitool level v1.8.15 to execute correctly on the OP810 firmware.  This works fine unless there is a need to in-band firmware update from the Ubuntu host.  For this, the level of ipmitool from the Ubuntu packages must be installed.  The next step shows how to install ipmitool 1.8.13-1ubuntu0.5  from Ubuntu 14.04.3 to enable in-band code update support for the LC servers:

     

     sudo apt-get install ipmitool

    7.4  Updating the System Firmware using the BMC Advanced System Management (ASM)

    One method to update the System Firmware on the LC server is to use the Advanced System Management browser GUI.  The Chrome browser must be used for this method as there are problems in this release with using Firefox or IE where the firmware update will fail.

    1. 1.First you have to connect to the BMC Service Processor Interface. Use your browser and access the BMC service processor with it's configured IP address. 

    2. 2.After the successful login, the "Advanced System Management Dashboard" will be displayed. This is the common screen for multiple activities that can be performed such as configuration, FRU information and firmware updates. General information regarding the current power consumption, sensor monitoring, event logs is displayed. 

    3. 3.The next step is to select the Firmware Update Menu. 

    4. 4.Then select the correct firmware update image type. Please select the HPM type for firmware updates. This is the only type that will be provided by the IBM Fix Central site which would have been downloaded to your workstation earlier.  

    5. 5.Now select the firmware update file from where it was stored when down loaded to the web browser. 

    6. 6.When the correct firmware image is selected,  the GUI will show a list of components that will be updated. By default all the components will be selected. When the Proceed button is pressed, the firmware update will finally be performed  

    7. 7.After the firmware is completed, the System will perform a reboot.  

     

     

    8.0 System Management and Virtualization

    The service processor, or baseboard management controller (BMC), provides a hypervisor and operating system-independent layer that uses the robust error detection and self-healing functions that are built into the POWER8 processor and memory buffer modules. Open power application layer (OPAL) is the system firmware in the stack of POWER8 processor-based Linux-only servers. IBM PowerKVM technology offers key capabilities that can help consolidate and simplify the IT environment.  PowerKVM servers can be managed by open source Linux tools that use the libvirt API such as the Kimchi point-to-point administration tool and PowerVC.  QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer that hosts the virtual machines on a KVM hypervisor. It is the software that manages and monitors the virtual machines.

    IBM PowerVC delivers easy-to-use advanced virtualization management capabilities that are virtualized by IBM PowerKVM.   PowerVC manages PowerKVM Virtual Machines (VMs) within a resource pool and enables the capture, deployment, and inventory of VM images.

     

    8.1  BMC Service Processor IPMI and ASM Access

    The service processor, or baseboard management controller (BMC), is the primary control for autonomous sensor monitoring and event logging features on the LC server.

    The BMC supports the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) for system monitoring and management.  The BMC monitors the operation of the firmware during the boot process and also monitors the OPAL hypervisor for termination.  The firmware code update is supported through the BMC and Intelligent Platform Monitoring Interface (IPMI) and the Advanced System Management (ASM) console.  The ASM console is accessed using a web browser with a "http:" connection to port.  See section 1.2 for the supported browsers that can be used with ASM.  For more information on using the BMC ASM, see the IBM Redbook PDF file for the  IBM Power System S822LC Technical Overview and Introduction - section 3.4 Serviceability" ,  http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/redp5283.pdf.

     

    8.2 Open Power Abstraction Layer (OPAL) Hypervisor

    The Open Power Abstraction Layer (OPAL) provides hardware abstraction and run time services to the running host Operating System. OPAL firmware allows PowerKVM to use the VirtIO API. The VirtIO API specifies an independent interface between virtual machines and the service processor. The VirtIO API is a high performance API that para-virtualized devices use to gain speed and efficiency. VirtIO para-virtualized devices are needed for the guest operating systems that run I/O heavy tasks and applications.

     

    For the 8335-GCA,  PowerKVM 3.1 can be installed with Ubuntu guests or Ubuntu may be run on OPAL Bare Metal (EC16).

    For 8335-GTA,  only the OPAL Bare Metal (EC16) is available.  PowerKVM  3.1 is not supported on 8335-GTA.

     

    Find out more about OPAL skiboot here:

    https://github.com/open-power/skiboot

     

    8.3 Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

    The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is an open standard for monitoring, logging, recovery, inventory, and control of hardware that is implemented independent of the main CPU, BIOS, and OS. It is the default console to use when you configure PowerKVM.  The LC server provides one 10M/100M baseT IPMI port.

    The ipmitool is a utility for managing and configuring devices that support IPMI. It provides a simple command-line interface to the service processor.  You can install the ipmitool from the Linux distribution packages in your workstation, sourceforge.net, or another server (preferably on the same network as the installed server). For example, in Ubuntu, use this command:

    $ sudo apt-get install ipmitool

    For installing ipmitool from sourceforge, please see section 1.1 "Minimum ipmitool Code Level".

     

    For more information about ipmitool, there are several good references for ipmitool commands:

     

    1. 1.The man page  

    2. 2.The built-in command line help provides a list of IPMItool commands:
      # ipmitool help 

    3. 3.You can also get help for many specific IPMItool commands by adding the word help after the command:  
      # ipmitool channel help 

    4. 4.For  a list of common ipmitool commands and help on each, you may use the following link:  
      www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpcommonipmi.htm 

     

     

    To connect to your host system with IPMI, you need to know the IP address of the server and have

    a valid password. To power on the server with the ipmitool, follow these steps:

    1. Open a terminal program.

    2. Power on your server with the ipmitool:

    ipmitool -I lanplus -H fsp_ip_address -P ipmi_password power on

    3. Activate your IPMI console:

    ipmitool -I lanplus -H fsp_ip_address -P ipmi_password sol activate

    For more help with configuring IBM PowerKVM on a Linux on Power Systems server see the

    following:

    https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpusingipmi.htm

    Also, see the Quick Start Guide for Configuring IBM PowerKVM on Power Systems here:

    https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/api/content/nl/en-us/linuxonibm/liabq/kvmquickstart_guide.pdf

     

    8.4 Petitboot bootloader

    Petitboot is a kexec based bootloader used by IBM POWER8 systems configured with PowerKVM.

    After the POWER8 system powers on, the petitboot bootloader scans local boot devices and network interfaces to find boot options that are available to the system. Petitboot returns a list of boot options that are available to the system. If you are using a static IP or if you did not provide boot arguments in your network boot

    server, you must provide the details to petitboot. You can configure petitboot to find your boot with the following instructions:

    https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabppetitbootadvanced.htm

     

    You can edit petitboot configuration options, change the amount of time before Petitboot

    automatically boots, etc. with these instructions:

    https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabppetitbootconfig.htm

     

    After you select to boot the PowerKVM installer, the installer wizard walks you through the steps to set up disk options, your root password, time zones, and so on.

    You can read more about the petitboot bootloader program here:

    https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/petitboot/petitboot.html

     

    8.5 IBM PowerKVM

    Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a cross-platform, open source hypervisor that provides enterprise-class performance, scalability and security to run Linux and other

    workloads on a range of processor architectures. For the Linux-only scale-out systems with POWER8 technology this mechanism is ported to Power Systems and called IBM PowerKVM (5765-KVM). The publication "IBM PowerKVM Configuration and Use SG24-8231" can be found here:

    http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/abstracts/sg248231.html

     

    IBM PowerKVM supports Big Endian (BE) and Little Endian (LE) mode for Ubuntu 14.04.03 LTS.

    Note: Power LC servers and PowerKVM do not support AIX or IBM i guest VMs and cannot be managed by an HMC

     

    IBM is working with Red Hat to support the Power LC servers with an upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 release. For additional questions about the availability

    of this release and supported Power servers, consult the Red Hat Hardware Catalog at https://hardware.redhat.com.

     

    For a complete list of supported virtualization options for IBM Power Systems Linux-onlyservers see this link:

    http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liaam/liaamvirtoptions.htm

     

    8.5.1 Download IBM PowerKVM

    If your system is not preconfigured with PowerKVM, you need to download the installer file.

    PowerKVM installation files are available from the Entitled System Support site at:

    http://www-304.ibm.com/servers/eserver/ess/index.wss

     

    8.5.2 Update PowerKVM

    If you want to update your system with the latest PowerKVM package, you can find the updates through Fix Central or the IBM yum repository for PowerKVM.  If your system has

    Internet access, you can use Kimchi or yum. If you do not have Internet access, use the ibm-update-system utility.

    https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpupdatesystem.htm

     

    8.5.3 Upgrade PowerKVM

    If you want to upgrade PowerKVM to a new release, see the publication Upgrade PowerKVM:

    https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpupgrade.htm

     

    8.6 Kimchi management tool

    Kimchi is an Apache-licensed project hosted on GitHub. It is an HTML5-based management tool that can get you started with IBM PowerKVM. It runs as a daemon on the hypervisor host and interfaces with underlying libvirt, QEMU, and KVM components. You use Kimchi to create and manage guests, monitor your host system, create networking interfaces, add storage, and update packages. To use Kimchi, open a browser and point it to "https://ip_address:8001" where ip_address is the IP address of your KVM system. Log in using the admin user name and password.

    Note: When you connect to Kimchi, make sure that you enable SSL connections in your browser. For Firefox browsers, you might also be required to connect to

    "https://ip_address:64667" where ip_address is the IP address of your host KVM system and accept the self-signed certificate. Connect using the HTTP secure (HTTPS).

    Kimchi represents a simple, open source, multi-platform virtualization tool to manage PowerKVM. You can learn more about the Kimchi project here:

    https://github.com/kimchi-project/kimchi

     

    8.7 IBM PowerVC

    The IBM Power Virtualization Center (5765-VCS) is an advanced enterprise virtualization management offering for Power Systems based on the OpenStack technology. OpenStack is an open source software that controls large pools of server, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center. IBM PowerVC Version 1.3.0 was announced in October, 2015 and is built on OpenStack (liberty). This comprehensive virtualization management offering enables virtual machine setup and management.

     

    8.7.1 PowerVC Benefits

    PowerVC includes the following features and benefits:

     

    For full details about hardware and operating system support for PowerVC hosts., refer to Hardware and Software Requirements here:

    http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSXK2N_1.2.3/com.ibm.powervc.kvm.help.doc/powervc_hwandsw_reqs_kvm.html

     

    9.0 Quick Start Guide for Installing Linux on LC servers

    This guide helps you install Ubuntu on a Linux on Power Systems server.

    Overview

    Use the information found in http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabw/liabwkickoff.htm to install Linux, in this case Ubuntu, on a non-virtualized or bare metal IBM Power LC server. The Ubuntu installer is available for download for specific Linux on Power Systems. For information about which systems support Ubuntu, see Supported Linux distributions for POWER8 Linux on Power systems at https://ibm.biz/BdEH5t.

     

     

    10.0 Change History

    Date

    Description

    12/14/2015

    OP810.21 release

    11/24/2015

    OP810.10 release

    10/30/2015

    New for LC server OP810.00 release