New Features and Functions

• Support was added for an Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) System Configuration panel option to disable or enable the system Lateral Cast-Out function (LCO).  LCO is enabled by default and a change to disable it must be done at service processor standby.  POWER processor chips since POWER7 have a feature called “Lateral Cast-Out” (LCO), enabled by default, where the contents of data cast out of one core’s L3 can be written into another core’s L3.  Then if a core has a cache miss on its own L3, it can often find the needed data block in another local core’s L3. This has the useful effect of slightly increasing the length of time that a storage block gets to stay in a chip’s cache, providing a performance boost for most applications.  However, for some applications such as SAP HANA, the performance can be better if LCO is disabled.  More information on how LCO is being configured by SAP HANA can be found in the SAP HANA on Power Advanced Operation Guide manual that can be accessed using the following link: 
  http://ibm.biz/sap-linux-power-library
  Follow the "SAP HANA Operation" link on this page to the "SAP HANA Operation Guides" folder.  In this folder, locate the updated "SAP_HANA_on_Power_Advanced_Operation_Guide" manual that has a new topic added of "Manage IBM Power Lateral Cast Out settings" which provides the additional information.
  The default behavior of the system (LCO enabled) will not change in any way by this new feature.  The customer will need to power off and disable LCO in ASMI to get the new behavior.
• Support was added for Secure Boot for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) partitions.  The SUSE Linux level must be SLES 15 SP4 or later.  Without this feature, partitions with SLES 15 SP4 or later and which have the OS Secure Boot partition property set to "Enabled and Enforced" will fail to boot.  A workaround to this is to change the partition's Secure Boot setting in the HMC partition configuration to "Disabled" or "Enabled and Log only".
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for a possible unexpected SRC B1812641 logged if the system is powered off immediately after an IPL. The frequency of this problem is expected to be very rare because systems are not normally powered off immediately after powering on.  If this SRC occurs in this scenario, it can be ignored.
• A problem was fixed for a logical partition failing to boot with an SRC B700F104 logged after a memory DDIMM power fault.  This is a rare problem needing a double failure on the Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) that handles memory DDIMM power regulation for the OpenCAPI Memory Buffer (OCMB).  A re-IPL of the system is needed to recover from this problem.
• A problem was fixed for a firmware update error with "HSCF0180E Operation failed" displayed on the HMC with error code E302F854. This fix is only available for firmware updates from FW1010.20 to a later service pack.  For firmware updates from earlier levels to FW1010.20, a failure is expected unless the following circumvention is performed:  On the firmware update from the HMC, select the "Advanced options" to automatically accept the new code level.  This is the default setting for an HMC at PTF levels MF69286 or MF69287 for HMC V10 R1 M1011.2   For earlier levels of the HMC, the automatically accept option must be manually changed to on when performing the code update as it defaults to off.  To do this, use the following steps:
  1.  When running the HMC code update wizard, click on "Advanced options".
  2.  From "Advanced options", select "Install and Activate (Implied retrieve)".
  3.  On the "Install and Activate panel", you will see the guidance text of "Select a LIC level type and accept option; then click OK."  The two accept options displayed are as follows:
  o Automatically accept
  o Do Not automatically accept
  To prevent the problem from occurring, the "Automatically accept" option must be selected.
• A problem was fixed for errors that can occur if doing a Live Partition Mobility (LPM)  migration and a Dynamic Platform Optimizer (DPO) operation at the same time.  The migration may abort or the system or partition may crash.  This problem requires running multiple migrations and DPO at the same time.  As a circumvention, do not use DPO while doing LPM migrations.
• A problem was fixed for a system hypervisor hang and an Incomplete state on the HMC after a logical partition (LPAR) is deleted that has an active virtual session from another LPAR.  This problem happens every time an LPAR is deleted with an active virtual session.  This is a rare problem because virtual sessions from an HMC (a more typical case) prevent an LPAR deletion until the virtual session is closed, but virtual sessions originating from another LPAR do not have the same check.
  
• A problem was fixed for vTPM 2.0 updates not being applied concurrently on a firmware update.  The updates are applied after a reboot of the system.
• A problem was fixed for vague and misleading errors caused by using an invalid logical partition (LP) id for a resource dump request.  With the fix, the invalid LP id is rejected immediately as a user input error instead of being processed by the main storage dump to create what appear to be severe errors.
• A problem was fixed for a partition with an SR-IOV logical port (VF) having a delay in the start of the partition. If the partition boot device is an SR-IOV logical port network device, this issue may result in the partition failing it boot with SRCs BA180010 and BA155102 logged and then stuck on progress code SRC 2E49 for an AIX partition.  This problem is infrequent because it requires multiple error conditions at the same time on the SR-IOV adapter.  To trigger this problem, multiple SR-IOV logical ports for the same adapter must encounter EEH conditions at roughly the same time such that a new logical port EEH condition is occurring while a previous EEH condition's handling is almost complete but not notified to the hypervisor yet.  To recover from this problem, reboot the partition.
• A problem was fixed for a secondary fault after a partition creation error that could result in a Terminate Immediate (TI) of the system with an SRC B700F103 logged.  The failed creation of partitions can be explicit or implicit that might trigger the secondary fault.  One example of an implicit partition create is the ghost partition created for a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration.  This type of partition can fail to create when there is insufficient memory available for the hardware page table (HPT) for the new partition.
• A problem was fixed for an I/O adapter slot error when powering on the slot with SRC B4000202 and B400F104 logged.  One example where this problem has been seen is when moving an SR-IOV adapter to shared mode.  This problem is infrequent and can be recovered by retrying the operation that failed, such as DLPAR, starting the partition, or moving the SR-IOV adapter.
• A problem was fixed for a System Management Services (SMS) iSCSI information panel being incorrect and an SMS abort when navigating away from the panel.   The iSCSI target and initiator names are not shown. The configured IP addresses to be used for an iSCSI boot are all zeroes even after they are set. Navigating away from the iSCSI information panel causes an SMS abort.  This problem is triggered by setting an iSCSI disk alias in SMS menus then attempting to show information with the following selection:  "Select Boot Options -> Configure Boot Device Order -> Select 1st Boot Device ->Network -> ISCSI -> iscsi-disk1 -> Information".  The probability is low that this issue will be encountered because it requires iSCSI disk aliases to be used for a boot.  Normally for an iSCSI boot disk,  most users use a fully qualified iSCSI OF device path which does not trigger the problem.  If an SMS abort does occur when navigating away from the iSCSI information menu, the logical partition (LPAR) can be restarted to SMS menus.
• A problem was fixed for a Hostboot hang during an IPL with SRC BC141E2B logged.  This is a very rare failure for a timing problem involving multiple process threads.  To recover from the problem, do a re-IPL of the system.
• A problem was fixed for detecting a bad SBE SEEPROM with a SEEPROM and processor callout with SRC BC102224 logged when an SBE update is attempted and failed.  The fix allows the boot to continue on the old level of the SEEPROM level.  This is a rare problem that only occurs with an SBE SEEPROM that cannot be written.  Without the fix, the IPL will loop and hang with issues with the SBE update being continually logged.
• A problem was fixed for a clock error during the IPL that should have been recoverable but instead failed the IPL with extra error logs that included BC8A285E and B111B901.  The trigger for this problem requires a recoverable Hostboot IPL failure of some kind to occur (such as a clock error) and specifically a situation that does not result in a deconfiguration of Hostboot targets.
• A problem was fixed for a system hang caused by an Open Memory Interface (OMI) memory loop.  This is a very rare error that can only occur if the OMI  host memory controller data link has gone into degraded bandwidth mode (x8->x4) because of another error and it also requires a specific memory data pattern to be transmitted when in this degraded mode for the problem to occur. 
  
• A problem was fixed for an IPL failure involving a processor that does not have any functional cores.  For this rare problem to occur, a processor with only one functional core must have that core fail with a checkstop.  Then on the ensuing post-dump IPL, the error occurs during the deconfiguration of the failed processor.  This fix updates the Self Boot Engine (SBE).
• A problem was fixed for ASMI TTY menus allowing an unsupported change in hypervisor mode to OPAL.  This causes an IPL failure with BB821410 logged if OPAL is selected.  The hypervisor mode is not user-selectable in POWER9 and POWER10.  Instead,  the hypervisor mode is determined by the MTM of the system. With this fix, the "Firmware Configuration" option in ASMI TTY menus is removed so that it matches the options given by the ASMI GUI menus.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• For a system with a AIX or Linux partition, a problem was fixed a partition start failure for AIX or Linux with SRC BA54504D logged.  This problem occurs if the partition is a MDC default partition with virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) enabled.  As a circumvention, power off the system and disable vTPM using the HMC GUI to change the default partition property for Virtualized Trusted Platform Module (VTPM) to off.
• For a system with an IBM i partition in MDC mode, a problem was fixed for a possible system hang if an HMC virtual IBM i console fails to connect.  A rare timing problem with a shared lock can occur during the console connect attempt,  This problem can be recovered by a re-IPL of the system.
• For systems with Linux partitions, a problem was fixed for Linux energy scale features not being enabled in Linux partitions for POWER10.  With the problem, Linux is prevented from knowing that energy scale operations are available for use by the partition.