Power7 High-End System Firmware

Applies to: 9119-FHB

This document provides information about the installation of Licensed Machine or Licensed Internal Code, which is sometimes referred to generically as microcode or firmware.

Contents

1.0 Systems Affected

This package provides firmware for Power 795 (9119-FHB) Servers only. Do not use on any other systems.

The firmware level in this package is:

1.1 Minimum HMC Code Level

This section is intended to describe the "Minimum HMC Code Level" required by the System Firmware to complete the firmware installation process. When installing the System Firmware, the HMC level must be equal to or higher than the "Minimum HMC Code Level" before starting the system firmware update.  If the HMC managing the server targeted for the System Firmware update is lower than the "Minimum HMC Code Level" the firmware update will not proceed.

The Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is:  HMC V7 R7.2.0 (PTF MH01233 or MH01234) and PTF MH01246 (Service Pack 1) or higher.

For information concerning HMC releases and the latest PTFs,  go to the following URL to access Fix Central.
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

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

NOTE: You must be logged in as hscroot in order for the firmware installation to complete correctly.

2.0 Important Information

IPv6 Support and Limitations

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is supported in the System Management Services (SMS) in this level of system firmware. There are several limitations that should be considered.

When configuring a network interface card (NIC) for remote IPL, only the most recently configured protocol (IPv4 or IPv6) is retained. For example, if the network interface card was previously configured with IPv4 information and is now being configured with IPv6 information, the IPv4 configuration information is discarded.

A single network interface card may only be chosen once for the boot device list. In other words, the interface cannot be configured for the IPv6 protocol and for the IPv4 protocol at the same time.

Memory Considerations for Firmware Upgrades

Firmware Release Level upgrades and Service Pack updates may consume additional system memory.
Server firmware requires memory to support the logical partitions on the server. The amount of memory required by the server firmware varies according to several factors.
Factors influencing server firmware memory requirements include the following:
Generally, you can estimate the amount of memory required by server firmware to be approximately 8% of the system installed memory. The actual amount required will generally be less than 8%. However, there are some server models that require an absolute minimum amount of memory for server firmware, regardless of the previously mentioned considerations.

Additional information can be found at:
  http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/iphat_p5/iphatlparmemory.htm

3.0 Firmware Information and Description

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

Note: The concurrent levels of system firmware may, on occasion, contain fixes that are known as deferred. These deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until the next IPL. Deferred fixes, if any, will be identified in the "Firmware Update Descriptions" table of this document. For deferred fixes within a service pack, only the fixes in the service pack which cannot be concurrently activated are deferred.

Note: The file names and service pack levels used in the following examples are for clarification only, and are not necessarily levels that have been, or will be released.

System firmware file naming convention:

01AHXXX_YYY_ZZZ

NOTE: Values of service pack and last disruptive service pack level (YYY and ZZZ) are only unique within a release level (XXX). For example, 01AH330_067_045 and 01AH340_067_053 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

Example: Currently installed release is EH330, new release is EH340 Example: AH330_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of AH330 is currently
installed on the system Example: Currently installed service pack is AH330_120_120 and
new service pack is AH330_152_130

An installation is concurrent if:

Example: Currently installed service pack is AH330_126_120,
new service pack is AH330_143_120.
 
Filename Size Checksum
01AH720_090_064.rpm 49966109 15313
   
Note: The Checksum can be found by running the AIX sum command against the rpm file (only the first 5 digits are listed).
ie: sum 01AH720_090_064.rpm
AH720
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
AH720_090_064

03/07/11		 Impact: Data           Severity:  HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • HIPER: IBM testing has uncovered a potential undetected data corruption issue when a mobility operation is performed on an AMS (Active Memory Sharing) partition.  The data corruption can occur in rare instances due to a problem in IBM firmware.  This issue was discovered during internal IBM testing, and has not been reported on any customer system.
  • On systems  with a F/C 5803 or 5873 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that caused a partition to crash during a page migration operation.
AH720_082_064

12/13/10		 Impact:  Function         Severity:  HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

New Features and Functions

  • Support for partition suspend/resume.  AIX 61 TL6 SP3 or later, or AIX 71 TL0 SP2 or later, is required for partition suspend/resume.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • HIPER:  A problem was fixed that caused repeated reset/reloads of the service processor, and fail-overs, to occur after a hypervisor-initiated reset/reload of the service processor was completed.  That led to loss of communication between the service processor and the hypervisor (indicated by SRC B182951C).
  • A problem was fixed that caused disks that were not bootable to be displayed in the system management services boot menus.  This problem also prevented the operating system level from being displayed for bootable hard disks in the system management services boot menus.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an error log indicating a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) error when no DLPAR operations were done, and unrecoverable SRCs BA180010 and BA250010 to be erroneously logged, when a recoverable enhanced error handling (EEH) error was logged on an I/O adapter.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a service processor reset/reload, a service processor dump to be taken, and B181EF88 to be logged.
  • The firmware was enhanced to log a predictive SRC if the Ethernet cables are misplugged (swapped) on a node controller.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the managed system to go to the incomplete state on the HMC.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to hang at C700406E during boot.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the platform to become unresponsive; this was indicated by an "incomplete" state on the HMC.  When this problem occurred, the partitions on the managed system became unresponsive.

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

  • On systems running AEM (advanced energy manager), a problem was fixed that caused the AEM to display erroneous power trending data if only one line cord was connected, or if there was any type of command failure getting power trending data from a BPC (bulk power controller). 
  • A problem was fixed that caused a virtual SCSI or virtual fibre channel adapter to be seen by the operating system as not bootable when it was added to a partition using a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operation.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system ID to change, which caused software licensing problems, when a live partition mobility operation was done where the target system was an 8203-E4A or an 8204-E8A.
  • PARTITION-DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused SRC BA210000 to be erroneously logged on the target system when a partition was moved (using Live Partition Mobility) from a Power7 system to a Power6 system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRC BA280000 to be erroneously logged on the target system when a partition was moved (using Live Partition Mobility) from a Power7 system to a Power6 system.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a partition to hang following a partition migration operation (using Live Partition Mobility) from a system running Ax720 system firmware to a system running Ex340, or older, system firmware.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a system or partition running Linux to crash when the "serv_config -l" command was run.
  • On systems using the HEA broadcast/multicast application to send and receive millions of packets, such as video streaming, the packet storm mitigation algorithm was enhanced so that a packet will only be dropped when a packet storm is detected.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a partition to fail to reboot with SRC B2001230 and word 3 = 000000BF.  This failure can be seen on a partition that owns a PCI, PCI-E, or PCI-X slot.
AH720_064_064

09/17/10

 Impact:  New            Severity:  New
GA Level

4.0 How to Determine Currently Installed Firmware Level

You can view the server's current firmware level on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) Welcome pane. It appears in the top right corner. Example: AH350_038.

5.0 Downloading the Firmware Package

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

Note: If your HMC is not internet-connected you will need to download the new firmware level to a CD-ROM or ftp server.

6.0 Installing the Firmware

The method used to install new firmware will depend on the release level of firmware which is currently installed on your server. The release level can be determined by the prefix of the new firmware's filename.

Example: EHXXX_YYY_ZZZ

Where XXX = release level

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