Power8 System Firmware

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• On systems using the OPAL firmware, a problem was fixed for an IPMI console hang to OPAL that caused the Linux host to be hung for SSH sessions and for ipmitool commands to fail with "Error in open session response message : insufficient resources for session" error messages on the service processor.   An error log with SRC  B1818601 is reported for the service processor IPMI failure and multiple SRC BB822210  error logs are reported for OPAL message time outs to the service processor.  In most cases, this error can be recovered from by doing a soft reset of the service processor using the following steps from the IBM Knowledge Center:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER8/p8hby/p8hby_softreset.htm.
  

New features and functions

• Support for the Redfish API for provisioning of Power Management tunable (EnergyScale) parameters.  The Redfish Scalable Platforms Management API ("Redfish") is a DMTF specification that uses RESTful  interface semantics to perform out-of-band systems management. (http://www.dmtf.org/standards/redfish). 
  Redfish service enables platform management tasks to be controlled by client scripts developed using secure and modern programming paradigms.
  For systems with redundant service processors, the Redfish service is accessible only on the primary service processor.   Usage information for the Redfish service is available at the following IBM  Knowledge Center link:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER8/p8hdx/p8_workingwithconsoles.htm.
  The IBM Power server supports DMTF Redfish API (DSP0266, version 1.0.3 published 2016-06-17) for systems management.
  A copy of the the Redfish schema files in JSON format published by the DMTF (http://redfish.dmtf.org/schemas/v1/) are packaged in the firmware image.
  The schema files are distributed on chip to enable proper functioning in deployments with no WAN connectivity.
  IBM extensions to the Redfish schema are published at http://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/power/redfish/schemas/v1. Copyright notices for the DMTF Redfish API and schemas are at: (a) http://www.dmtf.org/about/policies/copyright, and (b) http://redfish.dmtf.org/schemas/README8010.html.
  
• Support for the IBM Power System S812 (8284-21A) with a single partition system running  either AIX (FC #EPXQ 4-core 3.026GHz 130W module, CCIN 54E9) or IBM i (FC #EPXP, 1-core 3.026GHz 130W module,  CCIN 54E9) for the operating system.
• Support added to reduce memory usage for shared SR-IOV adapters.
• Support for the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) was changed to allow the special characters of "I", "O", and "Q" to be entered for the serial number of the I/O Enclosure under the Configure I/O Enclosure option.  These characters have only been found in an IBM serial number rarely, so typing in these characters will normally be an incorrect action.  However, the special character entry is not blocked by ASMI anymore so it is able to support the exception case.  Without the enhancement, the typing of one of the special characters causes message "Invalid serial number" to be displayed.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, support was added to allow the IBM i OS on the Power System S822 (8284-22A) without the need for a VET code.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for the setting the disable of a periodic notification for a call home error log SRC B150F138 for Memory Buffer resources (membuf) from the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
• A problem was fixed for the call home data for the B1xx2A01 SRC to include the min/max/average readings for more values.  The values for processor utilization, memory utilization, and node power usage were added.
• A problem was fixed for incorrect callouts of the Power Management Controller (PMC) hardware with SRC  B1112AC4 and SRC B1112AB2 logged.  These extra callouts occur when the On-Chip Controller (OCC) has placed the system in the safe state for a prior failure that is the real problem that needs to be resolved.
• A problem was fixed for System Vital Product Data (SVPD) FRUs  being guarded but not having a corresponding error log entry.  This is a failure to commit the error log entry that has occurred only rarely.
• A problem was fixed for the failover to the backup PNOR on a Hostboot Self Boot Engine (SBE) failure.  Without the fix, the failed SBE causes loss of processors and memory with B15050AD logged.  With the fix, the SBE is able to access the backup PNOR and IPL successfully by deconfiguring the failing PNOR and calling it out as a failed FRU.
• A problem was fixed for the OS not being able to detect the USB connected Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that has feature code #ECCF.  An informational SRC B1814616 is logged from the service processor and the IBM i OS logs a CPI0961 (Uninterruptible power supply no longer attached).  The error occurs infrequently because it depends on system timing and system configuration.  If a system is having the error, it might have it on every IPL.  The circumvention is to reseat the USB cable connector for the USB connected UPS.
• A problem was fixed for the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) "System Service Aids => Error/Event Logs" panel not showing the "Clear" and "Show" log options and also having a truncated error log when there are a large number of error logs on the system.
• A problem was fixed for IPMI process core dumps for DCMI commands used to gather power and thermal data.  These dumps occur intermittently if the DCMI commands are used in a repetitive loop.
• A problem was fixed to allow changing the IPMI channel authentication capabilities from the OS.  The following command was causing an IPMI core dump "ipmitool channel authcap 1 4" every time it was run.
• A problem was fixed a system going into safe mode with SRC B1502616 logged as informational without a call home notification.  Notification is needed because the system is running with reduced performance.  If there are unrecoverable error logs and any are marked with reduced performance and the system has not been rebooted, then the system is probably running in safe mode with reduced performance.  With the fix, the SRC B1502616 is a Unrecoverable Error (UE).
• A problem was fixed for valid IPv4 static IP addresses not being allowed to communicate on the network and not being allowed to be configured.
   The Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) static IPv4 address configuration was not allowing "255" in the IP address subfields.  The corrected range checking is as follows:
  Allowed values:  x.255.x.x, x.x.255.x, x.255.255.x
  Disallowed values:  x.x.x.255
  The failure for the communication on the network is seen if the problematic IP addresses are in use prior to a firmware update to 860.00, 860.10, 860.11, or 860.12.  After the firmware update, the service processor is unable to communicate on the network.  The problem can be circumvented by changing the service processor to use DHCP addressing, or by moving the IP address to a different static IP range, prior to doing the firmware update.
• A problem was fixed for DCMI commands intermittent failures when used from the HMC to continuously gather power and thermal data.  The maximum number of IPMI sessions was being exceeded by the HMC.  The number of IPMI sessions has been increased to allow two HMCs to collect data simultaneously.
• A problem was fixed for an unneeded service action request for a informational VRM redundant phase fail error logged with SRC 11002701.  If  reminders for service action with SRC B150F138 are occurring for this problem, then firmware containing the fix needs to be installed and ASMI error logs need to be cleared in order to stop the periodic reminder.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• On systems using PowerVM firmware with PowerVM NovaLink, a problem was fixed for returning to HMC-only management from  co-management  when a Novalink partition is deleted holding the master mode.  A circumvention is to release master mode before deleting the NovaLink partition and then reconnect the disconnected management console.  Please refer to IBM Knowledge Center link "http://ibm.biz/novalink-kc" for more information on the PowerVM NovaLink feature and changing the master authority when doing co-management.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware,  a problem was fixed for a blank SRC in the LPA dump for user-initiated non-disruptive adjunct dumps.  The  A2D03004 SRC is needed for problem determination and dump analysis.
• A problem was fixed for the system VPD showing 4 extra PCIe slots that are not actually available to the system.  When running an IBM i partition, the IBM i Hardware Service Manager shows twelve PCIe adapter slots instead of the actual eight that can be used (P1-C2, P1-C3, P1-C4, and P1-C5 are the extra slots displayed).  This problem only pertains to the IBM Power System S814 (8286-41A).
• On a system using PowerVM firmware with an IBM i partition and VIOS,  a problem was fixed for a Live Partition Mobility migration for a IBM i partition that fails if there is a VIOS failover during the migration suspended window.
• On a system using PowerVM firmware and VIOS,  a problem was fixed for a HMC "Incomplete State" after a Live Partition Mobility migration followed by a VIOS failover.  The error is triggered by a delete operation on a migration adapter on the VIOS that did the failover.  The HMC "Incomplete State" can be recovered from by doing a re-IPL of the system.  This error can also prevent a VIOS from activating.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed with SR-IOV adapter error recovery where the adapter is left in a failed state in nested error cases for some adapter errors.  The probability of this occurring is very low since the problem trigger is multiple low-level adapter failures.  With the fix, the adapter is recovered and returned to an operational state.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware  with PCIe adapters in Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) shared mode, a problem was fixed for the hypervisor SR-IOV adjunct partition failing during the IPL with SRCs B200F011 and B2009014 logged. The SR-IOV adjunct partition successfully recovers after it reboots and the system is operational.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware with PCIe adapters in Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) shared-mode in a PCIe slot with Enlarged IO Capacity and 2TB or more of system memory, a problem was fixed for the hypervisor SR-IOV adjunct partition failing during  the IPL with SRCs B200F011 and B2009014 logged.   In this configuration, it is possible the SR-IOV adapter will not become functional following a system reboot or when an adapter is first configured into shared-mode.  Larger system memory configurations of 2TB or more than 1TB are more likely to encounter the problem.  The problem can be avoided by reducing the number of PCIe slots with Enlarged IO Capacity enabled so it does not include adapters in SR-IOV shared-mode.  Another circumvention option is to move the adapter to an SR-IOV capable PCIe slot where Enlarged IO Capacity is not enabled.
  
• On a system using PowerVM firmware and VIOS,  a problem was fixed for a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration for an Active Memory Sharing (AMS) partition that hangs if there is a VIOS failover during the migration.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for the PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapter for the PCIe3 Expansion Drawer failing with SRC B7006A84 error logged during the IPL.  The failed cable adapter can be recovered by using a concurrent repair operation to power it off and on.  Or  the system can be re-IPLed to recover the cable adapter.  The affected optical cable adapters have feature codes #EJ05, #EJ06, and #EJ08 with CCINs 2B1C, 6B52, and 2CE2, respectively.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, the hypervisor "vsp" macro was enhanced to show the type of the adjunct partition.  The "vsp -longname" macro option was also updated to list the location codes for the SR-IOV adjunct partitions.  The hypervisor macros are used by IBM support  to help debug Power system problems.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for PCIe Host Bridge (PHB) outages and PCIe adapter failures in the PCIe I/O expansion drawer caused by error thresholds being exceeded for the LEM bit [21] errors in the FIR accumulator.  These are typically minor and expected errors in the PHB that occur during adapter updates and do not warrant  a reset of the PHB and the PCIe adapter failures.  Therefore, the threshold LEM[21] error limit has been increased and the LEM fatal error has been changed to a Predictive Error to avoid the outages for this condition.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for PCIe3 I/O expansion drawer (#EMX0) link improved stability.  The settings for the continuous time linear equalizers (CTLE) was updated for all the PCIe adapters for the PCIe links to the expansion drawer.  The expansion drawer must be power cycled or the CEC can be re-IPLed for the fix to activate.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware with IBM i partitions, a problem was fixed for frequent logging of informational B7005120 errors due to communications path closed conditions during messaging from HMCs to IBMi partitions.  In the majority of cases these errors are due to normal operating conditions and not due to errors that require service or attention.  The logging of informational errors due to this specific communications path closed condition that are the result of normal operating conditions has been removed.
• On a system using PowerVM firmware with an IBM i partition,  a problem was fixed for a D-mode boot failure for IBM i from an USB RDX cartridge.  There is a hang at the  LPAR progress code C2004130 for a period of time and then a failure with SRC B2004158 logged.  There is a USB External Dock (FC #EU04) and Removable Disk Cartridge (RDX) 63B8-005 attached.  The error is intermittent so the RDX can be powered off and back on to retry the D-mode boot to recover.
• On systems using the OPAL firmware, Petitboot was updated to v1.2.7.  It is is now less verbose during boot - only error-level messages are printed during Petitboot bootloader initialization.  This means that there will be fewer messages printed as the system boots. Additionally, the Petitboot user interface is started earlier in the boot process. This means that the user will be presented with the user interface sooner, but it may still take time, potentially up to 30 seconds, for the user interface to be populated with boot options as storage and network hardware is being initialized.  During this time, Petitboot will show the status message "Info: Waiting for device discovery".  When Petitboot device discovery is completed, the following status message will be shown "Info: Connected to pb-discover!".
• On systems using PowerVM firmware,  the following problems were fixed for SR-IOV adapters:
  1) Insufficient resources reported for SR-IOV logical port configured with promiscuous mode enable and a Port VLAN ID (PVID) when creating new interface on the SR-IOV adapters.
  2) Spontaneous dumps and reboot of the adjunct partition for SR-IOV adapters.
  3) Adapter enters firmware loop when single bit ECC error is detected.  System firmware detects this condition as a adapter command time out.  System firmware will reset and restart the adapter to recover the adapter functionality.  This condition will be reported as a temporary adapter hardware failure.
  4) vNIC interfaces not being deleted correctly causing SRC  B400FF01 to be logged and Data Storage Interrupt (DSI) errors with failiure on boot of the LPAR.
  This set of fixes updates adapter firmware to 10.2.252.1926, for the following Feature Codes: EN15, EN16, EN17, EN18, EN0H, EN0J, EN0M, EN0N, EN0K, EN0L, EL38 , EL3C, EL56, and EL57.
  The SR-IOV adapter firmware level update for the shared-mode adapters happens under user control to prevent unexpected temporary outages on the adapters.  A system reboot will update all SR-IOV shared-mode adapters with the new firmware level.  In addition, when an adapter is first set to SR-IOV shared mode, the adapter firmware is updated to the latest level available with the system firmware (and it is also updated automatically during maintenance operations, such as when the adapter is stopped or replaced).  And lastly, selective manual updates of the SR-IOV adapters can be performed using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).  To selectively update the adapter firmware, follow the steps given at the IBM Knowledge Center for using HMC to make the updates:   https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/HW4M4/p8efd/p8efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
  Note: Adapters that are capable of running in SR-IOV mode, but are currently running in dedicated mode and assigned to a partition, can be updated concurrently either by the OS that owns the adapter or the managing HMC (if OS is AIX or VIOS and RMC is running).
• On systems using PowerVM firmware with an IBM i partition, a problem was fixed for incorrect maximum performance reports based on the wrong number of "maximum" processors for the system.   Certain performance reports that can be generated on IBMi systems contain not only the existing machine information, but also "what-if" information, such as "how would this system perform if it had all the processors possible installed in this system".  This "what-if" report was in error because the maximum number of processors possible was too high for the system.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for degraded PCIe3 links for the PCIe3 expansion drawer with SRC B7006A8F not being visible on the HMC.  This occurred because the SRC was informational.  The problem occurs when the link attaching a drawer to the system trains to x8 instead of x16.  With the fix, the SRC has been changed to a B70006A8B permanent error for the degraded link.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for a concurrent exchange of a CAPI adapter that left the new adapter in a deactivated state.   The system can be powered off and IPLed again to recover the new adapter.  The CAPI adapters have the following feature codes:  #EC3E, #EC3F, #EC3L, #EC3M, #EC3T, #EC3U, #EJ16, #EJ17, #EJ18, #EJ1A, and #EJ1B.
• On a system using PowerVM firmware with SR-IOV adapters,  a problem was fixed for a DLPAR remove on a Virtual Function (VF) of a ConnectX-4 (CX4) adapter that failed with AIX error "0931-013 Unable to isolate the resource".  The HMC reported error is "HSCL12B5 The operation to remove SR-IOV logical port xx  failed because of the following error: HSCL131D The SR-IOV logical port is still in use by the partition".  The failing PCIe3 adapters are sourced from Mellanox Corporation based on ConnectX-4 technology and have the following feature codes and CCINs:  #EC3E, #EC3F with CCIN 2CEA; #EC3L and #EC3M with CCIN 2CEC; and #EC3T and #ECTU with CCIN 2CEB.  The issue occurs each time a DLPAR remove operation is attempted on the VF.  Restarting the partition after a failed DLPAR remove recovers from the error.
• A problem was fixed for the serial port being disabled on the service processor for the  IBM Power System E850 (8408-44E).  There is no response when plugging the serial port.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for NVRAM corruption that can occur when deleting a partition that owns a CAPI adapter, if that CAPI adapter is not assigned to another partition before the system is powered off.  On a subsequent IPL, the system will come up in recovery mode if there is NVRAM corruption.  To recover, the partitions must be restored from the HMC.  The frequency of this error is expected to be rare.  The CAPI adapters have the following feature codes:  #EC3E, #EC3F, #EC3L, #EC3M, #EC3T, #EC3U, #EJ16, #EJ17, #EJ18, #EJ1A, and #EJ1B.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for NVRAM corruption and a HMC recovery state when using Simplified Remote Restart partitions.  The failing systems will have at least one Remote Restart partition and on the failed IPL there will be a B70005301 SRC with word 7 being 0X00000002.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for a group of shared processor partitions being able to exceed the designated capacity placed on a shared processor pool.  This error can be triggered by using the DLPAR move function for the shared processor partitions, if the pool has already reached its maximum specified capacity.  To prevent this problem from occurring when making DLPAR changes when the pool is at the maximum capacity, do not use the DLPAR move operation but instead break it into two steps:  DLPAR remove followed by DLPAR add.  This gives enough time for the DLPAR remove to be fully completed prior to starting the DLPAR add request.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for boot failures with BA210000, BA210003, and BA210005 errors reported for IBMi partitions running in any processor mode or AIX/Linux partitions running  in P7 (or older) processor compatibility modes.  Additionally, AIX/Linux partitions running in P7 (or older) processor compatibility modes may fail DLPAR Add operations of I/O devices and report one or more of the same above error codes.  The problem is most likely to occur when the system is configured in the Manufacturing Default Configuration (MDC) mode.  The trigger for the problem is a race-condition between the hypervisor and the physical operations panel with a very rare frequency of occurrence.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• On a system using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for the System Management Services (SMS) SAS utility showing very large (incorrect) disk capacity values depending on the size of the disk or Volume Set/Array.  The problem occurs when the number of blocks on a disk is 2 G or more.
• On a system using PowerVM firmware running a Linux OS,  a problem was fixed for support for Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI) adapters.  The CAPI related RTAS h-calls for the CAPI devices could not be made by the Linux OS, impacting the CAPI adapter functionality and usability.  This problem involves the following adapters:  the PCIe3 LP CAPI Accelerator Adapter with F/C #EJ16 that is used on the S812L(8247-21L) and S822L (8247-22L) models;  the PCIe3 CAPI FlashSystem Acclerator Adapter with F/C #EJ17  that is used on the S814(8286-41A) and S824(8286-42A) models;  and the PCIe3 CAPI FlashSystem Accelerator Adapter with F/C #EJ18 that is used on the S822(8284-22A), E870(9119-MME), and E880(9119-MHE) models.  This problem does not pertain to PowerVM AIX partitions using CAPI adapters.
• On a system using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migrations to FW860.10 or FW860.11 from any other level of firmware (i.e. not FW 860.10 or FW860.11) that caused errors in the output of the AIX "lsattr -El mem0" command and Dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operations.  The "lsattr" command will report the partition only has one logical memory block (LMB) of memory assigned to it, even though there is more memory assigned to the partition.  Also, as a result of this problem, DLPAR operations will fail with an error indicating the request could not be completed.  This issue affects AIX 5.3, AIX 6.1, AIX 7.1, AIX 7.2 TL 0, and may result in AIX DLPAR error message "0931-032 Firmware failure.   Data may be out of sync and the system may require a reboot."  This issue also affect all levels of Linux.  Not affected  by this issue are AIX 7.2 TL 1, VIOS and IBM i partitions.
  In addition, after performing LPM from FW860 to earlier versions of firmware,  the DLPAR of Virtual Adapters will fail with HMC error message HSCL294C, which contains text similar to the following:  "0931-007 You have specified an invalid drc_name."
  Without the fix, a reboot of the migrated partition will correct the problem.
  
• On a system using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for I/O DLPARs that result in partition hangs.  To trigger the problem, the DLPAR operation must be performed on a partition which has been migrated via a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operation from a P6 or P7 system to a P8 system.  Additionally, DLPAR of I/O will fail when performed on a partition which has been migrated via an LPM operation from a P8 system to a P6 or P7 system.  The failure will produce HMC error message HSCL2928, which contains text similar to the following: "0931-011  Unable to allocate the resource to the partition." DLPAR operations for memory or CPU are not affected.  This issue affects all Linux and AIX partitions.  IBMi partitions are not affected.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• DEFERRED: A problem was fixed for a Field Core Override (FCO) error that causes a processor chip without functional cores to be guarded with a SRC B111BA24 error logged and by guard association causes all the memory and I/O resources behind the processor chip to be lost for the current IPL.  This problem is triggered by a system being  manufactured with one or more feature codes of #2319 (Factory Deconfiguration of 1-core) to assist with optimization of software licensing.  For more information on Field Core Override, refer to IBM Knowledge Center: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER8/p8hby/fieldcore.htm.  The error only occurs in systems where the total number of active cores is less than the number of processor chips.  When the fix is applied on a system that has lost memory or I/O resources due to the errant processor guard, the system must be re-IPLed with the guard removed from the processor to recover the resources.
  Without the fix, the problem may be circumvented by the following four steps:
  1) Power off the system.
  2) Use the Field Core Override function to increase the number of active processor cores in the system.  The Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) "System Configuration -> Hardware Deconfiguration -> Field Core Override" panel shows the number of cores that are active in the system and it can be used to increase the number of active processor cores in the system.
  3) Unguard the failed processor.  Use the ASMI "System Configuration -> Hardware Deconfiguration -> Clear All Deconfiguration Errors" panel to restore the guarded processor. 
  4) IPL with the increased number of active processor cores and the unguarded processor.
  This problem does not pertain to the IBM Power System E850 (8408-44E) model.
  

New features and functions

• Support enabled for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operations.
• Support enabled for partition Suspend and Resume from the HMC.
• Support enabled for partition Remote Restart.
• Support enabled for PowerVM vNIC. PowerVM vNIC combined many of the best features of SR-IOV and PowerVM SEA to provide a network solution with options for advanced functions such as Live Partition Mobility along with better performance and I/O efficiency when compared to PowerVM SEA.  In addition PowerVM vNIC provided users with bandwidth control (QoS) capability by leveraging SR-IOV logical ports as the physical interface to the network.
• Support for dynamic setting of the Simplified Remote Restart VM property, which enables this property to be turned on or off dynamically with the partition running.
• Support for PowerVM and HMC  to get and set the boot list of a partition.
• Support for PowerVM partition restart in a Disaster Recovery (DR) environment.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, support for PCIe3 3D graphics (F/C #EC51) adapter for Linux boot.  Supported Linux OS distributions are Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 and SLES 12 SP2.  This feature only applies to S822 (8284-22A), S812L (8247-21L), and S822L (8247-22L) systems.
• Support for concurrent add of a PCIe3 Optical cable card (#EJ08 and CCIN 2CE2) used to attach the PCIe expansion drawer.  This feature pertains to E850(8408-E8E) and E850 (8408-44E) systems only.
• Support for concurrent add of a PCIe expansion drawer (#EMX0) to an existing cable card.  This feature pertains to E850(8408-E8E) and E850 (8408-44E) systems only.
• Support on PowerVM for a partition with 32 TB memory.  AIX, IBM i and Linux are supported but IBM i must be IBM i 7.3. TR1  IBM i 7.2 has a limit of 16 TB per partition and IBM i 7.1 has a limit of 8 TB per partition.  AIX level must be 7.1S or later.  Linux distributions supported are RHEL 7.2 P8,  SLES 12 SP1,  Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, RHEL 7.3 P8,  SLES 12 SP2, Ubuntu 16.04.1,  and SLES 11 SP4 for SAP HANA.
• Support for four processors for each IBM i partition with VIOS (up from limit of two processors) on the IBM Power System S822 (8284-22A).
• Support for PowerVM and PowerNV (non-virtualized or OPAL bare-metal) booting from a PCIe Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) flash adapter.  The adapters include feature codes #EC54 and #EC55 - 1.6 TB,  and #EC56 and #EC57 - 3.2 TB  NVMe flash adapters with CCIN 58CB and 58CC respectively.
• Support for PowerVM NovaLink V1.0.0.4 which includes the following features:
  - IBM i network boot
  - Live Partition Mobility (LPM) support for inactive source VIOS
  - Support for SR-IOV configurations, vNIC, and vNIC failover
  - Partition support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Support for a decrease in the amount of PowerVM memory needed to support Huge Dynamic DMA Window (HDDW) for a PCI slot by using 64K pages instead of 4K pages.  The hypervisor only allocates enough storage for the Enlarged IO Capacity (Huge Dynamic DMA Window) capable slots to map every page in main storage with 64K pages rather than 4K pages as was done previously.  This affects only the Linux OS as AIX and IBM i do not use HDDW.
• Support was enhanced for the Power Linux models to increase the default number of slots for I/O Adapter Enlarged Capacity PCI slots from 4 to 13.  In 860.10, the new default of 13 Enlarged I/O slots will use approximately 1.5 GB of storage (which is a factor of 10 less than what would have been previously required for this many slots, benefiting by the PowerVM change to 64K pages from 4K pages for HDDW). Huge DMA is a PCIe slot capability on IBM Power Systems servers that enables a DMA window to be wider, possibly allowing all the partition memory to be mapped for DMA. This feature avoids increased system usage when DMA mappings are requested by the adapter driver, because all the system memory assigned to the partition is already mapped. Consequently, this feature enables the data transfer between the I/O card that is placed in this slot and the system memory to be more efficient and with lower latency. The performance benefit will vary based on the operating system and adapter being used. Linux performance information can be found in the 64-bit DMA performance benefit topic in the performance section of the IBM Knowledge Center:http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabm/liabmconcepts.htm.  This feature enhancement only pertains to the IBM Power System S812L (8247-21L), S822L (8247-22L) and S824L (8247-42L) models.
• Support added to reduce the number of  error logs and call homes for the non-critical FRUs for the power and thermal faults of the system.
• Support for redundancy in the the transfer of partition state for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration operations.  Redundant VIOS Mover Service Partitons (MSPs) can be defined along with redundant network paths at the VIOS/MSP level.  When redundant MSP pairs are used, the migrating memory pages of the logical partition are transferred from the source system to the target system by using two MSP pairs simultaneously. If one of the MSP pair fails, the migration operation continues by using the other MSP pair. In some scenarios, where a common shared Ethernet adapter is not used, use redundant MSP pairs to improve performance and reliability.
  Note:  For a LPM migration for a partition using Advanced Memory Sharing (AMS) in a dual (redundant) MSP configuration the LPM operation may hang if the MSP connection fails during the LPM migration. To avoid this issue that applies only to AMS partitions,  the AMS migrations should only be done from the HMC command line using the migrlpar command and specifying --redundentmsp 0 to disable the redundant MSPs.
  Note: To use redundant MSP pairs, all VIOS MSPs must be at version 2.2.5.00 or later, the HMC at version 8.6.0 or later, and the firmware level FW860 or later.
  For more information on LPM and VIOS supported levels and restrictions, refer to the following links on the IBM Knowledge Center:
  http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/PurePower/p8hc3/p8hc3_firmwaresupportmatrix.htm
  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/HW4L4/p8eeo/p8eeo_ipeeo_main.htm
• Support for failover capability for vNIC client adapters in the PowerVM hypervisor, rather than requiring the failover configuration to be done in the client OS.  To create a redundant connection, the HMC adds another vNIC server with the same remote lpar ID and remote DRC as the first, giving each server its own priority.
  
• Support for SAP HANA with Solution edition with feature code #EPVR on 3.65 GHZ processors and 12-core activations and 512 GB memory activations on SUSE Linux..  SAP HANA is an in-memory platform for processing high volumes of data in real-time. HANA allows data analysts to query large volumes of data in real-time. HANA's in-memory database infrastructure frees analysts from having to load or write-back data.
• Support for the Hardware Management Console (HMC)  to access the service processor IPMI credentials and to retrieve Performance and Capacity Monitor (PCM) data for viewing in a tabular format or for exporting as CSV values. The enhanced HMC interface can now start and stop VIOS Shared Storage Pool (SSP) monitoring from the HMC and start and stop SSP historical data aggregation.
• Support for the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) was changed to not create VPD deconfiguration records and call home alerts for hardware FRUs that have one VPD chip of a redundant pair broken or inaccessible.  The backup VPD chip for the FRU allows continued use of the hardware resource.  The notification of the need for service for the FRU VPD is not provided until both of the redundant VPD chips have failed for a FRU.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for a failed IPL with SRC UE BC8A090F that does not have a hardware callout or a guard of the failing hardware.  The system may be recovered by guarding out the processor associated with the error and re-IPLing the system.  With the fix, the bad processor core is guarded and the system is able to IPL.
• A problem was fixed for an Operations Panel Function 04 (Lamp test) during an IPL causing the IPL to fail.  With the fix, the lamp test request is rejected during the IPL until the hypervisor is available.  The lamp test can be requested without problems anytime after the system is powered on to hypervisor ready or an OS is running in a partition.
• A problem was fixed for On-Chip Controller (OCC) errors that had excessive callouts for processor FRUs.  Many of the OCC errors are recoverable and do not required that the processor be called out and guarded.  With the fix, the processors will only be called out for OCC errors if there are three or more OCC failures during a time period of a week.
• A problem was fixed for the On-Chip Controller (OCC) incorrectly calling out processors with SRC B1112A16 for L4 Cache DIMM failures with SRC B124E504.  This false error logging can occur if the DIMM slot that is failing is adjacent to two unoccupied DIMM slots.
• A problem was fixed for device time outs during a IPL logged with a SRC B18138B4.  This error is intermittent and no action is needed for the error log.  The service processor hardware server has allotted more time of the device transactions to allow the transactions to complete without a time-out error.
• Support for 6 core processor with FC #8A2225 and CCIN 54E1  extended for use in the Power System S822L (8247-22L).  Support was already in place for this processor since FW810.20 for the S822 (8284-22A).
• For the IBM Power System E850 (8408-44E) system, a problem was fixed for the incorrect values for the Idle Power Saver (IPS) mode call home data.  The call home "max" is reported much lower numbers than what the On-chip Controllers (OCC) read for the IPS.  This problem only affects 4-socket systems as it is caused by an integer overflow of the summation of the IPS value from all OCCs in the system.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• DISRUPTIVE:  On systems using the PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for an "Incomplete" state caused by initiating a resource dump with selector macros from NovaLink (vio -dump -lp 1 -fr).   The failure causes a communication process stack frame, HVHMCCMDRTRTASK, size to be exceeded with a hypervisor page fault that disrupts the NovalLink and/or HMC communications. The recovery action is to re-IPL the CEC but that will need to be done without the assistance of the management console.  For each partition that has a OS running on the system, shut down each partition from the OS.  Then from the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI),  power off the managed system.  Alternatively, the system power button may also be used to do the power off.  If the management console Incomplete state persists after the power off, the managed system should be rebuilt from the management console.  For more information on management console recovery steps, refer to this IBM Knowledge Center link: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER7/p7eav/aremanagedsystemstate_incomplete.htm.  The fix is disruptive because the size of the PowerVM hypervisor must be increased to accommodate the over-sized stack frame of the failing task.
• DEFERRED:  On systems using the PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for a CAPI function unavailable condition on a system with the maximum number of CAPI adapters and partitions.  Not enough bytes were allocated for CAPI for the maximum configuration case.  The problem may be circumvented by reducing the number of active partitions or CAPI adapters.   The fix is deferred because the size of the hypervisor must be increased to provide the additional CAPI space.
• DEFERRED:   On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for cable card capable PCI slots that fail during the IPL.  Hypervisor I/O Bus Interface UE B7006A84 is reported for each cable card capable PCI  slot that doesn't contain a PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapter for the PCIe Expansion Drawer (feature code #EJ05).  PCI slots containing a cable card will not report an error but will not be functional.  The problem can be resolved by performing an AC cycle of the system.  The trigger for the failure is the I2C devices used to detect the cable cards are not coming out of the power on reset process in the correct state due to a race condition.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for network issues, causing critical situations for customers, when an SR-IOV logical port or vNIC is configured with a non-zero Port VLAN ID (PVID).  This fix updates adapter firmware to 10.2.252.1922, for the following Feature Codes: EN15, EN16, EN17, EN18, EN0H, EN0J, EL38, EN0M, EN0N, EN0K, EN0L, and EL3C.
  The SR-IOV adapter firmware level update for the shared-mode adapters happens under user control to prevent unexpected temporary outages on the adapters.  A system reboot will update all SR-IOV shared-mode adapters with the new firmware level.  In addition, when an adapter is first set to SR-IOV shared mode, the adapter firmware is updated to the latest level available with the system firmware (and it is also updated automatically during maintenance operations, such as when the adapter is stopped or replaced).  And lastly, selective manual updates of the SR-IOV adapters can be performed using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).  To selectively update the adapter firmware, follow the steps given at the IBM Knowledge Center for using HMC to make the updates:   https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/HW4M4/p8efd/p8efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
  Note: Adapters that are capable of running in SR-IOV mode, but are currently running in dedicated mode and assigned to a partition, can be updated concurrently either by the OS that owns the adapter or the managing HMC (if OS is AIX or VIOS and RMC is running).
• On systems using the PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for a Live Partition Mobility migration that resulted in the source managed system going to the management console Incomplete state after the migration to the target system was completed.  This problem is very rare and has only been detected once.. The problem trigger is that the source partition does not halt execution after the migration to the target system.   The management console went to the Incomplete state for the source managed system when it failed to delete the source partition because the partition would not stop running.  When this problem occurred, the customer network was running very slowly and this may have contributed to the failure.  The recovery action is to re-IPL the source system but that will need to be done without the assistance of the management console.  For each partition that has a OS running on the source system, shut down each partition from the OS.  Then from the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI),  power off the managed system.  Alternatively, the system power button may also be used to do the power off.  If the management console Incomplete state persists after the power off, the managed system should be rebuilt from the management console.  For more information on management console recovery steps, refer to this IBM Knowledge Center link: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER7/p7eav/aremanagedsystemstate_incomplete.htm
• On systems using the PowerVM firmware, a fix was made to provide an option to change the ordering of PCIe Host Bridge (PHB) devices on Power 8 systems to match the discovery order on Power 7 systems.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware,  a problem was fixed for a shared processor pool partition showing an incorrect zero "Available Pool Processor" (APP) value after a concurrent firmware update.  The zero APP value means that no idle cycles are present in the shared processor pool but in this case it stays zero even when idle cycles are available.  This value can be displayed using the AIX "lparstat" command.  If this problem is encountered, the partitions in the affected shared processor pool can be dynamically moved to a different shared processor pool.  Before the dynamic move, the  "uncapped" partitions should be changed to "capped" to avoid a system hang. The old affected pool would continue to have the APP error until the system is re-IPLed.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for a latency time of about 2 seconds being added to a target Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration system when there is a latency time check failure.  With the fix, in the case of a latency time check failure, a much smaller default latency is used instead of two seconds.  This error would not be noticed if the customer system is using a NTP time server to maintain the time.
• On systems with OPAL firmware, a problem was fixed for misaligned mapped interrupts to virtual PCI devices that could cause a PB_CENT_CRESP_ADDR_ERROR checkstop.
• On systems with OPAL firmware, a problem was fixed for a PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) boot (also known as network boot) hang that occurred when a network server was down.  With the fix, the boot is able to recover so that alternative methods of booting can be selected using petitboot menu items.
• A problem was fixed for PCI Host Bridge (PHB)  "link down"  Endpoint Recoverable errors that became fatal exceptions when not handled by the CAPI adapters.  With the fix, the recoverable errors are now detected by the CAPI adapters to allow for run-time link recovery.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware,  a rare problem was fixed for a system hang that can occur  when dynamically moving "uncapped" partitions to a different shared processor pool.  To prevent a system hang, the "uncapped" partitions should be changed to "capped" before doing the move.
• On systems using the PowerVM firmware, support was added fora new utility option for the System Management Services (SMS) menus.  This is the SMS SAS I/O Information Utility.  It has been introduced to allow an user to get additional information about the attached SAS devices.  The utility is accessed by selecting option 3 (I/O Device Information) from the main SMS menu, and then selecting the option for "SAS Device Information".
• On systems using the PowerVM hypervisor firmware and Novalink, a problem was fixed for a NovaLink installation error where the hypervisor was unable to get the maximum logical memory buffer (LMB) size from the service processor.  The maximum supported LMB size should be 0xFFFFFFFF but in some cases it was initialized to a value that was less than the amount of configured memory, causing the service processor read failure with error code 0X00000134.
• On systems using the PowerVM hypervisor firmware and CAPI adapters, a problem was fixed for CAPI adapter error recovery.  When the CAPI adapter goes into the error recovery state, the Memory Mapped I/O (MMIO) traffic to the adapter from the OS continues, disrupting the recovery.  With the fix, the MMIO and DMA traffic to the adapter are now frozen until the CAPI adapter is fully recovered.   If the adapter becomes unusable because of this error, it can be recovered using concurrent maintenance steps from the HMC, keeping the adapter in place during the repair.  The error has a low frequency since it only occurs when the adapter has failed for another reason and needs recovery.
  
• On systems using the PowerVM hypervisor firmware, when using affinity groups, if the group includes a VIOS, ensure the group is placed in the same drawer where the VIOS physical I/O is located.  Prior to this change,  if the VIOS was in an affinity group with other partitions, the partitions placement could over-ride the VIOS adapter placement rules and the VIOS could end up in a different drawer from the IO adapters.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware,  a problem was fixed to improve error recovery when attempting to boot an iSCSI target backed by a drive formatted with a block size other than 512 bytes.  Instead of stopping on this error, the boot attempt fails and then continues with the next potential boot device.  Information regarding the reason for the boot failure is available in an error log entry.  The 512 byte block size for backing devices for iSCSI targets is a partition firmware requirement.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware, a problem was fixed for a false thermal alarm in the active optical cables (AOC) for the PCIe3 expansion drawer with SRCs B7006AA6 and B7006AA7 being logged every 24 hours.  The AOC cables have feature codes of #ECC6 through #ECC9, depending on the length of the cable.  The SRCs should be ignored as they call for the replacement of the cable, cable card, or the expansion drawer module.  With the fix, the false AOC thermal alarms are no longer reported.
• On systems using PowerVM firmware that have an attached HMC,  a problem was fixed for a Live Partition Mobility migration that resulted in a system hang when an EEH error occurred simultaneously with a request for a page migration operation.  On the HMC, it shows an incomplete state for the managed system with reference code A181D000.  The recovery action is to re-IPL the source system but that will need to be done without the assistance of the HMC.  From the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI),  power off the managed system.  Alternatively, the system power button may also be used to do the power off.  If the HMC Incomplete state persists after the power off, the managed system should be rebuilt from the HMC.  For more information on HMC recovery steps, refer to this IBM Knowledge Center link: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER7/p7eav/aremanagedsystemstate_incomplete.htm
• On systems using the OPAL firmware, a problem was fixed for fundamental PCI resets at boot time causing the PCI adapters to not be usable in the Linux OS.  No errors occur in the skiboot but the adapters are not configurable once the OS is reached.
• On systems using the OPAL firmware, a problem was fixed for time-out errors during the power off of PCI slots with  " Timeout powering off slot ... FIRENZE-PCI: Wrong state 00000000 on slot" error message during a power off of the system.

• GA Level
  Four FW840 features that have been disabled for the 860.00 GA are listed below.  These will be re-enabled for the 860.10 service pack:
  1. Support disabled for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operations.
  2. Support disabled for partition Suspend and Resume from the HMC.
  3. Support disabled for partition Remote Restart.
  4. Support disabled for PowerVM vNIC. PowerVM vNIC combined many of the best features of SR-IOV and PowerVM SEA to provide a network solution with options for advanced functions such as Live Partition Mobility along with better performance and I/O efficiency when compared to PowerVM SEA.  In addition PowerVM vNIC provided users with bandwidth control (QoS) capability by leveraging SR-IOV logical ports as the physical interface to the network.
• New features that have been disabled: vNIC failover; new redundant path LPM  function;  and  PCIe cable recovery on a link to the PCIe3 expansion drawer.
• Do not use the following functions.  They are not disabled but should not be used as the implementations and testing has not been completed for 860.00: 
  1. SMS SAS I/O Information utility.  If a non-SCDD (Self Configuring Device Data) drive is attached to a controller and the utility is used to look at devices attached to the controller, a Default Catch condition will occur due to a partition firmware data stack underflow.  This utility is accessed by selecting option 3 (I/O Device Information) from the main SMS menu, and then selecting option 2 (SAS Device Information).
  2. 32TB Max Memory Enablement for partitions. 
  3. PowerVM NovaLink enhancements.  For more information, refer to IBM Knowledge Center:  http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER8/p8eig/p8eig_kickoff.htm
  4. PowerVM  change to support HDDW using 64K pages
  5. IBM Power System E850(8408-44E) concurrent add of the PCIe expansion drawer (#EMX0). 
  6. IBM Power System E850(8408-84E) concurrent add of PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapter for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer (F/C  #EJ08)
  7. Enforcement of limits to IBM i support on IBM Power System S822 (8284-22A)
  8. Dynamic TCE memory allocation for SR-IOV adapters
  9. Dynamic Toggle of SRR
  10. Power Boot List Management Platform Support
  11. SAP HANA (#EPVR) enhancements - Solution edition for SAP HANA 3.65 GHz + 12 Activations
  12. HMC new gui enhancements
  13. LPAR DR Restart
  14. HMC override for Port vs LUN level validation
  15. SNMP traps for system state
  16. HMC Option to boot without IPv6 Support
  17. PCIe3 3D Graphics Adapter x16 (#EC51) boot support (for Linux only)
  18. Non-volatile Memory Express (NVMe) boot
  19. Service processor security updates
  20. vHMC support for DHCP server configuration
  
• Support for the IBM Power System E850 (8408-44E).  Similar in many respects to the 8408-E8E but upgraded with faster processors (4.223GHz, 10C 3.957GHz, 12C 3.658GHz ) with a maximum of 48 cores and an upgrade in memory to DDR4 with expanded capacity to 4 TB with 128 GB Dimms available.  As with 8408-E8E, there is no IBM i  or OPAL support.  Operating System offerings for PowerVM partitions are AIX and Linux (RHEL, SLES, and Ubuntu).