Power7 System Firmware

Applies to:   8231-E1C, 8231-E2C, 8202-E4C, 8205-E6C, 8492-DW3, 8493-SV3, 8246-L2C, 8246-L2S, 8246-L1C and 8246-L1S.

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 710 (8231-E1C), Power 730 (8231-E2C), Power 720 (8202-E4C), Power 740 (8205-E6C, 8492-DW3 and 8493-SV3), PowerLinux 7R2 (8246-L2C, 8246-L2S) and PowerLinux 7R1 (8246-L1C, 8246-L1S) servers only.

The firmware level in this package is:

1.1 Minimum HMC Code Level

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

The Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is:  HMC V7 R7.4.0 (PTF MH01273 or MH01274) with PTF MH01275 (Mandatory efix).

Although the Minimum HMC Code level for this firmware is listed above,  HMC level V7 R7.4.0 with PTF MH01324 (Service Pack 3), or higher is suggested for this firmware level.

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

NOTES:
                -You must be logged in as hscroot in order for the firmware installation to complete correctly.
                - Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) does not support this System Firmware level.

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.

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.

Concurrent Firmware Updates

Concurrent system firmware update is only supported on HMC Managed Systems only.

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/topic/p7hat/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.

For systems that are not managed by an HMC, the installation of system firmware is always disruptive.

Note: The concurrent levels of system firmware may, on occasion, contain fixes that are known as Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred. Deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until the next IPL. Partition-Deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until a partition reactivate is performed. Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred fixes, if any, will be identified in the "Firmware Update Descriptions" table of this document. For these types of fixes (Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred) within a service pack, only the fixes in the service pack which cannot be concurrently activated are deferred.

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

System firmware file naming convention:

01ALXXX_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, 01AL720_067_045 and 01AL740_067_053 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

Example: Currently installed release is AL710, new release is AL720 Example: AL720_120_120 is disruptive, no matter what level of AL720 is currently installed on the system Example: Currently installed service pack is AL720_120_120 and new service pack is AL720_152_130

An installation is concurrent if:

The release level (XXX) is the same, and
The service pack level (YYY) currently installed on the system is the same or higher than the last disruptive service pack level (ZZZ) of the service pack to be installed.

Example: Currently installed service pack is AL720_126_120,  new service pack is AL720_143_120.

Firmware Information and Update Description

 
Filename Size Checksum
01AL740_100_042.rpm 39794670 46757

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 01AL740_100_042.rpm

AL740
For Impact, Severity and other Firmware definitions, Please refer to the below 'Glossary of firmware terms' url:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/power5cm/home.html#termdefs

The complete Firmware Fix History for this Release Level can be reviewed at the following url:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/server/firmware/AL-IOC-Firmware-Hist.html
AL740_100_042

12/05/12		 Impact: Serviceability    Severity: ATT

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • A problem was fixed that can cause fans in the server to run at maximum speed and generate a serviceable event during system boot (B130B8AF, a predictive error with hardware callout) as a result of an incorrect calibration of a particular thermal sensor.
AL740_098_042

11/28/12		 Impact: Availability    Severity: SPE

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • HIPER/Non-Pervasive: DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused a system crash with SRC B170E540.
  • HIPER/Non-Pervasive:  A related problem was also fixed that could cause a live lock on the power bus resulting in a system crash.
  • To address poor placement of partitions following a reboot of a server with unlicensed cores, the firmware was enhanced to run the affinity manager when the initialize configuration operation is done from the HMC.  A problem was also fixed that caused the hypervisor to be left in an inconsistent state after a partition create operation failed.
AL740_095_042

09/19/12		 Impact: Availability    Severity: SPE

New features and functions

  • Support for booting the IBM i operating system from a USB tape drive.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • The firmware was enhanced to correctly diagnose the failing FRU when SRC B1xxE504 with error signature "MCFIR[14] - Hang timer detector" was logged.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the system to crash after a recoverable error was logged on an I/O hub.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a "code accept" during a concurrent firmware installation from the HMC to fail with SRC E302F85C.
  • The firmware was enhanced to continue booting when SRC B181C803 with description "WIRE_PROC_CST_HW_FAIL" is logged during boot.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the suspension of a partition to fail if a large amount of data has to be stored to resume the partition.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a system crash with unrecoverable SRC B7000103 and "ErFlightRecorder" in the failing stack.
  • A problem was fixed that caused an external interrupt to get stuck for some period of time before being presented to the operating system in certain scenarios in which there is a high rate of interrupts.
  • On 8231-E1C and 8231-E2C systems, the firmware was enhanced to improve the service actions for SRC 11002691.
  • A problem was fixed that caused DIMMs to be deconfigured, and SRC B123E504 to be erroneously logged, when additional DIMMs of larger capacity than the DIMMs already in the system were added.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • On systems that are managed by a Hardware Management Console (HMC), and on which Internet Explorer (IE) is used to access the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) on the HMC, a problem was fixed that caused IE to hang for about 10 minutes after saving changes to network parameters on the ASMI.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a network installation of IBM i to fail when the client was on the same subnet as the server.
  • On systems with a 5796 or 5797 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that could cause a system hang.
  • On systems with I/O drawers feature code (F/C) 5802 or 5877 attached, and running the Active Energy Manager, a problem was fixed that caused SRC B7000602 to be erroneously logged.
AL740_088_042

05/25/12		 Impact: Availability    Severity: SPE

New features and functions

  • Support for IBM i Live Partition Mobility (LPM)
  • Support for the EXP30 Ultra SSD I/O Drawer, feature code (F/C) 5888.
  • Support for the 8246-L2C and 8246-L2S systems.
  • Support for the 8246-L1C systems.
  • Support for the 8246-L1S systems.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • A problem was fixed that prevented the user from changing the boot mode or keylock setting after a remote restart-capable partition is created, even after the partition's paging device is on-line.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a partition with dedicated processors to hang with SRC BA33xxxx when rebooted, after it was migrated using a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operation from a system running Ax730 to a system running Ax740, or vice-versa.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the service processor's eth0 or eth1 IP addresses to change to "IPv6 NA"  when viewed on the control (operator) panel when a laptop was connected to the service processor.
  • A problem was fixed that caused booting from a virtual fibre channel tape device to fail with SRC B2008105.
  • The firmware was enhanced to increase the threshold of soft NVRAM errors on the service processor to 32 before SRC B15xF109 is logged.  (Replacement of the service processor is recommended if more than one B15xF109 is logged per week.)
  • A problem was fixed that caused informational SRC A70047FF, which may indicate that the Anchor (VPD) card should be replaced, to be erroneously logged again after the Anchor card was replaced.
  • On system managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the lsstat command on the HMC to display an erroneously high number of packets transmitted and received on a vlan interface.
  • A problem was fixed that caused a partition that owned a powered-off slot to hang when being shutdown after a DLPAR operation was performed on it.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
  • The firmware resolves undetected N-mode stability problems and improves error reporting on the feature code (F/C) 5802 and 5877 I/O drawer power subsystem.
  • On systems on which the service processor is using IPv6 Ethernet addresses, a problem was fixed that caused a service processor dump to be taken with SRC B181EF88.
  • On systems running the virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM), a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash when the vTPM adjunct was reset.
  • On 8231-E1C, 8231-E2C, 8202-E4C and 8205-E6C systems running IBM i partitions, a problem was fixed that prevented slots on the same PCI bus from being assigned to different partitions.  This can result in SRC B600690B being logged when a partition is booted.
  • The Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) menus were enhanced to more clearly indicate which processor cores were deconfigured by the Field Core Override option (F/C 2319).
  • A problem was fixed that caused various operations to hang, such as running lsvpd from a partition, or a concurrent firmware installation.
AL740_077_042

03/06/12		 Impact: Availability    Severity: HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • The firmware was enhanced to log SRC B7006A72 as informational instead of predictive.  This will prevent unnecessary service actions on PCIe adapters and the associated I/O planars.

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

  • On systems running system firmware level AL740_075 and managed by a Hardware Management Console (HMC), a problem was fixed that prevented HMC authentication to a managed system in  the "Pending Authentication" state, and prevented the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) admin user's password from being changed.
AL740_075_042

02/20/12 		Impact: Availability    Severity: HIPER - High Impact/PERvasive, Should be installed as soon as possible.

New features and functions

  •  Support for concurrent hot add/repair maintenance (CHARM) operations on models MHC and MMC.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

  • A problem was fixed that caused multiple service processor dumps to be unnecessarily taken during a concurrent firmware update.  SRC B181EF9A, which indicates that the dump space on the service processor is full, was logged as a result.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRCs B181843C and B181EF88 to be logged erroneously, and a service processor dump to be generated unnecessarily.
  • The firmware was enhanced to increase the threshold for recoverable SRC B113E504 so that the processor core reporting the SRC is not guarded out.  This prevents unnecessary performance loss and the unnecessary replacement of processor modules.
  • A problem was fixed that caused SRCs B7006790 and B7006A21 to be erroneously logged.

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

  • HIPER/Non pervasive:  On systems with PCI adapters in a feature code (F/C) 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer assigned to a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), and on systems with the I/O adapters in a CEC drawer assigned to a VIOS, a problem was fixed that caused the system to crash with SRC B700F103.
  • HIPER/Non pervasive:  On systems running the Trusted Boot feature of the PowerSC Standard Edition, a problem was fixed that caused the system to hang.
  • A problem was fixed that impacted performance if profiling was enabled in one or more partitions.  Performance profiling is enabled:
    - In an AIX or VIOS partition using the tprof (-a, -b, -B, -E option) command or pmctl (-a, -E option) command.
    - In an IBM i partition when the PEX *TRACE profile (TPROF) collections or PEX *PROFILE collections are active.
    - In a Linux partition using the perf command, which is available in RHEL6 and SLES11; profiling with oprofile does not cause the problem.
  • On systems running the Trusted Boot feature of the PowerSC Standard Edition, a problem was fixed that prevented an inactive partition from being migrated when the partition did not have enough memory to boot.  The migration of an inactive partition should be allowed in this case.
  • On systems running the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), a problem was fixed that caused SRCs HSCL294C and HSCLB308 to be logged on the management console, and the operation to fail, if an attempt was made to add Virtual Station Interface (VSI) configuration information to a virtual Ethernet adapter that was already running.
  • A problem was fixed that prevented the operating system from being notified that a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer had recovered from an input power fault (SRC 10001512 or 10001522).
  • On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS), a problem was fixed the caused an "Error in Pager device driver" message to be erroneously logged during a successful partition migration.
  • The firmware was enhanced to reduce the time between the completion of partition migration and the target system's reporting that the migration is complete.
  • On systems on which the Active Energy Manager (AEM) is running, a problem was fixed that caused the AEM to report the standby power usage of a system was 0 watts.
  • On systems using the Active Energy Manager (AEM) to run in Dynamic Power Save (DPS) mode, and with deconfigured processor cores, a problem was fixed that caused the processor voltages to be set incorrectly, which in turn caused the system to use more power than it should have been using.
  • On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS), the allocation of the memory was enhanced to improve performance.
  • On systems managed by an HMC and using affinity groups, a problem was fixed that prevented one of the partitions from being placed correctly.
  • A problem was fixed that caused the hypervisor to hang during a concurrent operation on a F/C 5802, 5803, 5873 or 5877 I/O drawer.  Recovering from the hypervisor hang required a platform reboot.

4.0 How to Determine Currently Installed Firmware Level

For HMC managed systems:  From the HMC, select Updates in the navigation (left-hand) pane, then view the current levels of the desired server(s).

For standalone system running IBM i without an HMC: From a command line, issue DSPFMWSTS.

For standalone system running IBM AIX without an HMC: From a command line, issue lsmcode.

Alternately, use the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) Welcome pane. The current server firmware  appears in the top right corner. Example: AL710_yyy.

5.0 Downloading the Firmware Package

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

Note: If your HMC 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: ALXXX_YYY_ZZZ

Where XXX = release level

HMC Managed Systems:

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

Systems not Managed by an HMC:

p Systems:
Instructions for installing firmware on systems that are not managed by an HMC can be found at:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/p7ha5/fix_serv_firm_kick.htm

IBM i Systems:
See "IBM Server Firmware and HMC Code Wizard":
http://www-912.ibm.com/s_dir/slkbase.NSF/DocNumber/408316083

NOTE: For all systems running with the IBM i Operating System, the following IBM i PTFs must be applied to all IBM i partitions prior to installing AL740_100:
NOTE: For all systems running with the IBM i Operating System and without an HMC attached, the following IBM i PTFs must be applied to all IBM i partitions in addition to the PTFs listed above, prior to installing AL740_100
These PTFs can be ordered through Fix Central.

7.0 Firmware History

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

8.0 Change History

Date
 Description
December 12, 2012
 Corrected the Fix description classifications for level AL740_098