Power7 System Firmware

New features and functions

• Support was added in Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) to facilitate capture and reporting of debug data for system performance problems.  The  "System Service Aids/Performance Dump" menu was added to ASMI to perform this function.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused an intermittent loss of TTY serial port access to the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) after a power off of the system.
• Help text for the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) "System Configuration/Hardware Deconfiguration/Clear All Deconfiguration Errors" menu option was enhanced to clarify that when selecting "Hardware Resources" value of "All hardware resources", the service processor deconfiguration data is not cleared.   The "Service processor" must be explicitly selected for that to be cleared.
• A problem was fixed that prevented guard error logs from being reported for FRUs that were guarded during the system power on.  This could happen if the same FRU had been previously reported as guarded on a different power on of the system.  The requirement is now met that guarded FRUs are logged on every power on of the system.
• A problem was fixed that caused the slot index to be missing for virtual slot number 0 for the dynamic reconfiguration connector (DRC) name for virtual devices.  This error was visible from the management console when using commands such as "lshwres -r virtualio --rsubtype slot -m machine" to show the hardware resources for virtual devices.
• A problem was fixed that caused unneeded resets of ethernet adapters during logical partition (LPAR) power off or reboots.  The extra resets of the ethernet adapters could cause the network switch to disable the ethernet links if the threshold for maximum number of ethernet adapter resets per minute is exceeded.
  

• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, a problem was fixed that occurred during Offline Converter Assembly (OCA) replacement operations. The fix prevents a false  Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) fault and the logging of SRCs 10001511 or 10001521 from occurring.    This resulted in the OCA LED getting stuck in an on or "fault" state and the OCA not powering on.
• On a system with partitions with redundant Virtual Asynchronous Services Interface (VASI) streams,  a problem was fixed that caused the system to terminate with SRC B170E540.  The affected partitions include Active Memory Sharing (AMS), encapsulated state partitions, and hibernation-capable partitions.  The problem is triggered when the management console attempts to change the active VASI stream in a redundant configuration.  This may occur due to a stream reconfiguration caused by Live Partition Mobility (LPM); reconfiguring from a redundant Paging Service Partition (PSP) to a single-PSP configuration; or conversion of a partition from AMS to dedicated memory.
• On a system with a disk device with multiple boot partitions, a problem was fixed that caused System Management Services (SMS) to list only one boot partition.  Even though only one boot partition was listed in SMS, the AIX bootlist command could still be used to boot from any boot partition.
  

New features and functions

• Support was added in Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) for saving and restoring network settings using a USB flash drive.
• Support was dropped for Secured Socket Layer (SSL) Version 2 and SSL weak and medium cipher suites in the service processor web server (Ligthttpd).  Unsupported web browser connections to the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) secured port 443 (using https://) will now be rejected if those browsers do not support SSL version 3.  Supported web browsers for Power7 ASMI are Netscape (version 9.0.0.4), Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 7.0), Mozilla Firefox (version 2.0.0.11), and Opera (version 9.24).

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused a service processor dump to be generated with SRC B18187DA "NETC_RECV_ER" logged.
• A problem was fixed that caused a L2 cache error to not guard out the faulty processor, allowing the system to checkstop again on an error to the same faulty processor.
• A problem was fixed that caused a HMC code update failure for the FSP on the accept operation with SRC B1811402 or FSP is unable to boot on the updated side.
• A problem was fixed that caused a 1000911E platform event log (PEL) to be marked as not call home.  The PEL is now a call home to allow for correction.  This PEL is logged when the hypervisor has changed the Machine Type Model Serial Number (MTMS) of an external enclosure to UTMP.xxx.xxxx because it cannot read the vital product data (VPD), or the VPD has invalid characters, or if the MTMS is a duplicate to another enclosure.
• A problem was fixed that caused a built-in self test (BIST) for GX slots to create corrupt error log values that core dumped the service processor with a B18187DA.  The corruption was caused by a failure to initialize the BIST array to 0 before starting the tests.
  
• A problem was fixed that caused the system attention LED to be lit without a corresponding SRC and error log for the event.  This problem typically occurs when an operating system on a partition terminates abnormally.
  
• DEFERRED: A problem was fixed that caused a system checkstop during hypervisor time keeping services.  This deferred fix addresses a problem that has a very low probability of occurrence.  As such customers may wait for the next planned service window to activate the deferred fix via a system reboot.
  
• DEFERRED: A problem was fixed that caused a system checkstop with SRC B113E504 for a recoverable hardware fault.  This deferred fix addresses a problem that has a very low probability of occurrence.  As such customers may wait for the next planned service window to activate the deferred fix via a system reboot.
  

• On systems in manufacturing default configuration (MDC), a problem was fixed that caused the system to change from MDC to Hardware Management Console (HMC)-managed mode even though the HMC was unable to authenticate to the service processor.   A system must be successfully discovered by a HMC as a prerequisite to becoming HMC-managed.
  
• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, the firmware was enhanced to guarantee that an SRC will be generated when there is a power supply voltage fault.  If no SRC is generated, a loss of power redundancy may not be detected, which can lead to a drawer crash if the other power supply goes down.  This also fixes a problem that causes an 8 GB Fiber channel adapter in the drawer to fail if the 12V level fails in one Offline Converter Assembly (OCA).
• On systems managed by an HMC with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, a problem was fixed that caused the hardware topology on the management console for the managed system to show "null" instead of "operational" for the affected I/O drawers.
  
• On systems with a ethernet PCI-Express adapter under a PLX switch, an extended error handling (EEH) problem was fixed in run-time abstraction services (RTAS)  that caused fundamental resets of the adapter to fail during error recovery, leaving the adapter in a non-pingable state and off the network.  Besides failure to ping, the other symptom is that an AIX OS command of "enstat -d entX" where X is the adapter number will fail with the following message:  "enstat -0909-004, Unable to get statistics on device entX, errno=11".
• A problem was fixed in the run-time abstraction services (RTAS) extended error handling (EEH) for fundamental reset that caused partitions to crash during adapter updates.  The fundamental reset of adapters now returns a valid return code.  The adapter drivers using fundamental reset affected by this fix are the following:
  o QLogic PCIe Fibre Channel adapters (combo card)
  o IBM PCIe Obsidian
  o Emulex BE3-based ethernet adapters
  o Broadcom-based PCIe2 4-port 1Gb ethernet
  o Broadcom-based FlexSystem EN2024 4-port 1Gb ethernet for compute nodes
  
• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, a problem was fixed that where a Offline Converter Assembly (OCA) fault would appear to persist after a OCA micro-reset or OCA replacement.  The fault bit reported to the OS may not be cleared, indicating a fault still exists in the I/O drawer after it has been repaired.
  
• On systems involved in a series of consecutive Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operations, a memory leak problem was fixed in the run time abstraction service (RTAS) that caused a partition run time AIX crash with SRC 0c20.  Other possible symptoms include error logs with SRC BA330002 (RTAS memory allocation failure).
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused a migrated partition to reboot during transfer to a VIOS 2.2.2.0, and later, target system. A manual reboot would be required if transferred to a target system running an earlier VIOS release. Migration recovery may also be necessary.
• A problem was fixed that can cause  Anchor (VPD) card corruption and  A70047xx SRCs to be logged.  Note: If a serviceable event  with SRC A7004715 is present or was logged previously, damage to the VPD card may have occurred. After the fix is applied, replacement of the Anchor VPD  card is recommended in order to restored full redundancy.

New features and functions

• Support for booting an IBM i partition from a USB flash drive.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that prevented the system attention indicator from being turned off when a service processor reset occurred.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1813221, which indicates a failure of the battery on the service processor, to be erroneously logged after a service processor reset or power cycle.
• A problem was fixed that caused the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) to produce a service processor dump when changing the admin user password.
• A problem was fixed that caused various SRCs to be erroneously logged at boot time including B181E6C7 and B1818A14.
• A problem was fixed that caused a card (and its children) that was removed after the system was booted to continue to be listed in the guard menus in the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
• A problem was fixed that caused the service processor to crash when it boots from the new level during a concurrent firmware installation.
• A problem was fixed that caused the management console to display incorrect data for a virtual Ethernet adapter's transactions statistics.
• A problem was fixed that caused a hibernation resume operation to hang if the connection to the paging space is lost near the end of the resume processing.  This is more likely on a partition that supports remote restart.
• A problem was fixed that caused the system to terminate with a bad address checkstop during mirroring defragmentation.
• A problem was fixed that caused the hibernation validation of a remote restart partition operation to fail with an "NvRam size error".  This also affects the capability to migrate the partition.
• The Power Hypervisor was enhanced to insure better synchronization of vSCSI and NPIV I/O interrupts to partitions.
• On systems managed by a management console, a problem was fixed that was caused by an attempt to modify a virtual adapter from the management console command line when the command specifies it is an Ethernet adapter, but the virtual ID specified is for an adapter type other than Ethernet.  The managed system has to be rebooted to restore communications with the management console when this problem occurs; SRC B7000602 is also logged.
• A problem was fixed that caused an error log generated by the partition firmware to show conflicting firmware levels.  This problem occurs after a firmware update or a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operation on the system.
  

• On systems with I/O towers attached, a problem was fixed that caused SRC 10009135, followed by SRC 10009139, to be logged, indicating that SPCN loop mode was being broken, then reestablished.
  
• On systems with I/O towers attached, a problem was fixed that caused multiple service processor reset/reloads if the tower was continuously sending invalid System Power Control Network (SPCN) status data.
• On 8202-E4C and 8205-E6C systems with the PCIe expansion card feature code (F/C) 5610 or F/C 5685 installed, a problem was fixed that caused the wrong FRU part number (74Y8565 instead of 74Y5221) to be called out when the fan on the expansion card failed.
• On partitions with the virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) enabled, a problem was fixed that caused a memory leak, and failure, when vTPM was disabled, a vTPM-enabled partition was migrated, or a vTPM-enabled partition was deleted.
• On systems running multiple IBM i partitions that are configured to communicate with each other via virtual Opticonnect, and Active Memory Sharing (AMS), AMS operations may time-out.  When this problem occurs, a platform reboot may be required to recover.
• On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) partitions, a problem was fixed that may arise due to the incorrect handling of a return code in an error path during the Live Partition Mobility (LPM) of an AMS partition.
• On systems using IPv6 addresses, the firmware was enhanced to reduce the time it take to install an operating system using the Network Installation Manager (NIM).
• On systems with F/C EU07, the RDX SATA internal docking station for removable disk cartridge, a problem was fixed that caused SRCs BA210000 and BA210003 to be logged, and the System Management Services (SMS) menu firmware to drop into the ok> prompt, when the default boot list was built.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC BA330000 to be logged after the successful migration of a partition running Ax740_xxx firmware to a system running Ax760, or a later release, or firmware.  This problem can also cause SRCs BA330002, BA330003, and BA330004 to be erroneously logged over time when a partition is migrated from a system running Ax760, or a later release, to a system running Ax740_xxx firmware.
• On system running an IBM i partition, the partition boot may succeed after a long delay, or may fail, if a mode D boot attempt is made, there is more than one USB device attached, and the IBM i operating system (OS) image is on the second USB device.
• On system running an IBM i partition, a problem was fixed that caused a number of informational SRC BA09000F to be logged when a mode D partition boot is done.  This SRC is logged if a device that supports removable media is installed and the media is not present.
• On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) partitions, a timing problem was fixed that may occur if the system is undergoing AMS pool size changes.
  
  

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.

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.
  

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.
  

• 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.

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.
  

• 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.

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