IBM Power8 Systems S812LC Server Firmware --- Corsa gzip RPQ
Applies to: S812LC (8348-21C)
This document provides information about the installation of Licensed Machine or Licensed Internal Code, which is sometimes referred to generically as microcode or firmware.
This package provides firmware for Power Systems LC S812LC (8348-21C) server only.
The firmware level in this package is:
·OP8_v1.8_1.1 / OP810.32
This section specifies the "Minimum ipmitool Code Level" required by the System Firmware to perform firmware installations and managing the system. Open Power requires ipmitool level v1.8.15 to execute correctly on the OP810 firmware, especially the ipmitool code update function.
If ipmitool is being run from Ubuntu, the minimum level is 1.8.13-1ubuntu0.5 and should be obtained directly from the Ubuntu packages and not Source Forge (if you want to do in-band firmware updates from Ubuntu) as shown in the second example below. The Source Forge version v1.8.15 loaded on Ubuntu would not be able to do the firmware update. However, there are other problems in 1.8.13-1ubuntu0.5 that affect functions that control the system. If these other functions are the priority, use the Source Forge version of ipmitool for Ubuntu.
Verify your ipmitool level on your linux workstation using the following commands:
bash-4.1$ ipmitool -V
ipmitool version 1.8.15
If you are need to update or add impitool to your Linux workstation , you can compile ipmitools (current level 1.8.15) for Linux as follows from the Sourceforge:
1.1.1 Download impitool tar from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/ to your linux system
1.1.2 Extract tarball on linux system
1.1.3 cd to top-level directory
1.1.4 ./configure
1.1.5 make
1.1.6 ipmitool will be under src/ipmitool
You may also get the ipmitool package directly from your workstation linux packages such as Ubuntu 14.04.3:
sudo apt-get install ipmitool
The BMC ASM is a web-based application that works within a browser. Supported browsers are shown below with Chrome being the preferred browser:
· Google Chrome Version 46.0.2490.71 m
· Mozilla Firefox version 41.0.3
For specific fix level information on key components of IBM Power Systems LC and Linux operating systems, please refer to the documentation in the IBM Knowledge Center for the the S812LC at http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/HW4P4/p8hdx/8348_21c_landing.htm.
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.
Concurrent Firmware Updates not available for LC servers.
Concurrent system firmware update is not supported on LC servers.
Use the following examples as a reference to determine whether your installation will be concurrent or disruptive.
For the LC server systems, the installation of system firmware is always disruptive.
The update.hpm file updates the primary side of the PNOR and the primary side of the BMC only, leaving the golden sides unchanged.
Filename |
Size |
Checksum |
8348_810.1603.20160512b_update.hpm |
67109473 |
78f7e4cd27133df5b84ad45b54aea6e1 |
Note: The Checksum can be found by running the Linux/Unix/AIX md5sum command against the Hardware Platform Management (hpm) file (all 32 characters of the checksum are listed), ie: md5sum 8348_810..._update.hpm.
After a successful update to the firmware level 8348_810.1603.20160512b, the PNOR components and BMC should be at the following levels. The ipmitool "fru" command can be used to display FRU ID 43 and the BMC command line command "cat" can be used to display the BMC level file "cat /proc/ractrends/Helper/FwInf".
Note: FRU information for the PNOR level does not show the updated levels via the fru command until the system has been booted once at the updated level.
PNOR firmware levels from FRU ID 43 inventory list for driver:
FRU Device Description : System Firmware (ID 43)
Build Name: 810.1603.20160512b
Product Name : OpenPOWER Firmware
Product Version : IBM-habanero-ibm-OP8_v1.8_1.1
Product Extra : hostboot-bc98d0b-74f74b1
Product Extra : occ-0362706-opdirty-60bbdf1
Product Extra : skiboot-5.1.16
Product Extra : hostboot-binaries-43d5a59
Product Extra : habanero-xml-a71550e-9ba0a35
Product Extra : capp-ucode-105cb8f-opdirty
BMC Level: driver content
display BMC FW level via ssh session on the BMC , using this cmd # cat /proc/ractrends/Helper/FwInfo
FW_VERSION=2.16.91820
FW_DATE=Jun 6 2016
FW_BUILDTIME=10:51:08 CDT
FW_DESC=8348 P2 SRC RR9 06062016
FW_PRODUCTID=1
FW_RELEASEID=RR9
FW_CODEBASEVERSION=2.X
OP810.00 | |
8348_810.1603.20160512b / OP810.32 |
Impact: New function Severity: NA New features and functions
|
8348_810.1603.20160310b / OP810.30 |
Impact: Serviceability Severity: PE New features and functions
System Firmware changes that affect all systems
System Firmware changes that affect certain systems
|
8348_810.1549.20151116d / OP810.21 |
Impact: Security Severity: PE System Firmware changes that affect all systems
|
8348_810.1549.20151116c / OP810.20 |
Impact: Serviceability Severity: PE System Firmware changes that affect all systems
|
8348_810.1543.20151105a / OP810.10 |
Impact: Serviceability Severity: PE System Firmware changes that affect all systems
System firmware changes that affect certain systems |
8348_810.1539.20151015a / OP810.00 |
Impact: New Severity: New New features and functions for MTM 8348-21C: GA Level
GA restrictions on use of the BMC Advanced System Managment (ASM) web gui for doing firmware updates: |
IBM Power S812LC (8348-21C) server supports Linux which provides a UNIX like implementation across many computer architectures. Linux supports almost all of the Power System I/O and the configurator verifies support on order. For more information about the software that is available on IBM Power Systems, see the Linux on IBM Power Systems website:
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/linux/index.html
The Linux operating system is an open source, cross-platform OS. It is supported on every Power Systems server IBM sells. Linux on Power Systems is the only Linux infrastructure that offers both scale-out and scale-up choices. The supported version of Linux on the IBM Power S812LC (8348-21C) server is Ubuntu Server 14.04.03 TLS for IBM POWER8. For more information about Ubuntu Server for Ubuntu for POWER8 see the following website:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/power8
IBM intends to continue working with Red Hat to support the Power S812LC server with an upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 release. For additional questions about the availability of this release and supported Power servers, consult the Red Hat Hardware Catalog:
https://hardware.redhat.com
Another supported version of Linux on the Power S812LC server is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2. For additional questions about the availability of this release and supported Power servers, consult the Red Hat Hardware Catalog at https://hardware.redhat.com.
For information about the PowerLinux Community, see the following website:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/group/tpl
For information about the features and external devices that are supported by Linux, see this website:
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/linux/index.html
Use one of the following commands at the Linux command prompt to determine the current Linux level:
·cat /proc/version
·uname -a
The output string from the command will provide the Linux version level.
The opal-prd package on the Linux system collects the OPAL Processor Recovery Diagnostics messages to log file /var/log/syslog. It is recommended that this package be installed if it is not already present as it will help with maintaining the system processors by alerting the users to processor maintenance when needed.
On Ubuntu, do a dpkg -l "opal-prd". The output shows whether the package is installed on your system by marking it with ii (installed) and un (not installed).
This package provides a daemon to load and run the OpenPower firmware's Processor Recovery Diagnostics binary. This is responsible for runtime
maintenance of Power hardware.
If the package is not installed on your system, the following command can be run on Ubuntu to install it:
sudo apt-get install opal-prd
Use the ipmtool "fru" command or the BMC Advanced System Management (ASM) FRU option to look at product details of FRU 43.
ipmitool -I lanplus -H <bmc host IP address> -P admin -U ADMIN fru
Follow the instructions on Fix Central. You must read and agree to the license agreement to obtain the firmware packages.
The updating and upgrading of system firmware depends on several factors, such as the current firmware that is installed, and what operating systems is running on the system.
These scenarios and the associated installation instructions are comprehensively outlined in the firmware section of Fix Central, found at the following website:
http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/
Any hardware failures should be resolved before proceeding with the firmware updates to help insure the system will not be running degraded after the updates.
Run this command "hpm check" before starting an update to understand what is going to be updated:
ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P admin hpm check <xxxxx.hpm>
Firmware update steps for the LC servers can be managed via the command line with ipmitool command.
1) Power off the machine - install code from Standby Power state:
– ipmitool -H <hostname> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin chassis power off
2) Issue bmc reset (establish stable the starting point)
– ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin mc reset cold
3) Run the following commands to flash the BMC and firmware (command protects BMC memory content, avoid losing network settings) :
– ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin raw 0x32 0xba 0x18 0x00
– ipmitool -H <BMC IP> -U ADMIN -I lanplus -P admin -z 30000 hpm upgrade <xxxxx.hpm> force
4) If the BMC network settings get lost it is possible to restore them with the following command line steps:
a) Get serial connect to the BMC
b) Login and execute the following commands to setup the network:
– /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 ipsrc static
– /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 ipaddr x.x.x.x
– /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 netmask 255.255.x.x
– /usr/local/bin/ipmitool -H 127.0.0.1 -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin lan set 1 defgw ipaddr x.x.x.x
5) Attention: if you experience a segmentation fault error during the code update - try the command again and change the block size 30000 to 25000.
6) Power on and IPL the machine:
– ipmitool -H <hostname> -I lanplus -U ADMIN -P admin chassis power on
The "hpm upgrade" returns a "0" return code on success and a "-1" return code for any type of failure. To get more error information, the user must go to the /var/log/notice.log on the system where the ipmitool was run and there will be an error message that corresponds to the "-1" returned in the ipmitool. Below are possible error messages that can be generated for a failure in the command:
HpmfwupgValidateImageIntegrity: Validate Image failure = "Invalid MD5 signature" or "Invalid image signature" or "Unrecognized image version" or " Invalid header checksum".
HpmfwupgPreparationStage: Performing Preparation Stage = "Invalid image file for manufacturer", Invalid image file for product , Invalid device ID
Version not compatible for upgrade ="Version: Major x1, Minor: y1 Not compatible with Version: Major: x2 Minor: y2"
HpmfwupgPreUpgradeCheck: Pre-upgrade check
HpmfwupgUpgradeStage: Upgrade Stage - Activation = "Self test failed: Result1 = xx, Result2 = yy"
Open Power requires Source Forge ipmitool level v1.8.15 to execute correctly on the OP810 firmware. This works fine unless there is a need to in-band firmware update from the Ubuntu host. For this, the level of ipmitool from the Ubuntu packages must be installed. The next step shows how to install ipmitool 1.8.13-1ubuntu0.5 from Ubuntu 14.04.3 to enable in-band code update support for the LC servers:
sudo apt-get install ipmitool
One method to update the System Firmware on the LC server is to use the Advanced System Management browser GUI. The Chrome browser must be used for this method as there are problems in this release with using Firefox or IE where the firmware update will fail.
1.First you have to connect to the BMC Service Processor Interface. Use your browser and access the BMC service processor with it's configured IP address.
2.After the successful login, the "Advanced System Management Dashboard" will be displayed. This is the common screen for multiple activities that can be performed such as configuration, FRU information and firmware updates. General information regarding the current power consumption, sensor monitoring, event logs is displayed.
3.The next step is to select the Firmware Update Menu.
4.Then select the correct firmware update image type. Please select the HPM type for firmware updates. This is the only type that will be provided by the IBM Fix Central site which would have been downloaded to your workstation earlier.
5.Now select the firmware update file from where it was stored when down loaded to the web browser.
6.When the correct firmware image is selected, the GUI will show a list of components that will be updated. By default all the components will be selected. When the Proceed button is pressed, the firmware update will finally be performed
7.After the firmware is completed, the System will perform a reboot.
The service processor, or baseboard management controller (BMC), provides a hypervisor and operating system-independent layer that uses the robust error detection and self-healing functions that are built into the POWER8 processor and memory buffer modules. Open power application layer (OPAL) is the system firmware in the stack of POWER8 processor-based Linux-only servers. IBM PowerKVM technology offers key capabilities that can help consolidate and simplify the IT environment. PowerKVM servers can be managed by open source Linux tools that use the libvirt API such as the Kimchi point-to-point administration tool and PowerVC. QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer that hosts the virtual machines on a KVM hypervisor. It is the software that manages and monitors the virtual machines.
IBM PowerVC delivers easy-to-use advanced virtualization management capabilities that are virtualized by IBM PowerKVM. PowerVC manages PowerKVM Virtual Machines (VMs) within a resource pool and enables the capture, deployment, and inventory of VM images.
The service processor, or baseboard management controller (BMC), is the primary control for autonomous sensor monitoring and event logging features on the LC server.
The BMC supports the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) for system monitoring and management. The BMC monitors the operation of the firmware during the boot process and also monitors the OPAL hypervisor for termination. The firmware code update is supported through the BMC and Intelligent Platform Monitoring Interface (IPMI) and the Advanced System Management (ASM) console. The ASM console is accessed using a web browser with a "http:" connection to port. See section 1.2 for the supported browsers that can be used with ASM. For more information on using the BMC ASM, see the IBM Redbook PDF file for the IBM Power System S812LC Technical Overview and Introduction - section 3.4 Serviceability" , http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/redp5284.pdf.
The Open Power Abstraction Layer (OPAL) provides hardware abstraction and run time services to the running host Operating System. n PowerKVM systems, the Open Power Abstraction Layer (OPAL) firmware provides a hypervisor interface to the underlying hardware. OPAL firmware allows PowerKVM to use the VirtIO API. The VirtIO API specifies an independent interface between virtual machines and the service processor. The VirtIO API is a high performance API that para-virtualized devices use to gain speed and efficiency. VirtIO para-virtualized devices are needed for the guest operating systems that run I/O heavy tasks and applications.
For the 8348-21C only the OPAL Bare Metal (EC16) is available.
Find out more about OPAL skiboot here:
https://github.com/open-power/skiboot
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is an open standard for monitoring, logging, recovery, inventory, and control of hardware that is implemented independent of the main CPU, BIOS, and OS. It is the default console to use when you configure PowerKVM. The LC server provides one 10M/100M baseT IPMI port.
The ipmitool is a utility for managing and configuring devices that support IPMI. It provides a simple command-line interface to the service processor. You can install the ipmitool from the Linux distribution packages in your workstation, sourceforge.net, or another server (preferably on the same network as the installed server). For example, in Ubuntu, use this command:
$ sudo apt-get install ipmitool
For installing ipmitool from sourceforge, please see section 1.1 "Minimum ipmitool Code Level".
For more information about ipmitool, there are several good references for ipmitool commands:
1.The man page
2.The built-in command line help provides a list of IPMItool commands:
# ipmitool help
3.You can also get help for many specific IPMItool commands by adding the word help after the command:
# ipmitool channel help
4.For a list of common ipmitool commands and help on each, you may use the following link:
www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpcommonipmi.htm
To connect to your host system with IPMI, you need to know the IP address of the server and have
a valid password. To power on the server with the ipmitool, follow these steps:
1. Open a terminal program.
2. Power on your server with the ipmitool:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H fsp_ip_address -P ipmi_password power on
3. Activate your IPMI console:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H fsp_ip_address -P ipmi_password sol activate
For more help with configuring IBM PowerKVM on a Linux on Power Systems server see the
following:
https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpusingipmi.htm
Also, see the Quick Start Guide for Configuring IBM PowerKVM on Power Systems here:
https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/api/content/nl/en-us/linuxonibm/liabq/kvmquickstart_guide.pdf
Petitboot is a kexec based bootloader used by IBM POWER8 systems configured with PowerKVM.
After the POWER8 system powers on, the petitboot bootloader scans local boot devices and network interfaces to find boot options that are available to the system. Petitboot returns a list of boot options that are available to the system. If you are using a static IP or if you did not provide boot arguments in your network boot
server, you must provide the details to petitboot. You can configure petitboot to find your boot with the following instructions:
https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabppetitbootadvanced.htm
You can edit petitboot configuration options, change the amount of time before Petitboot
automatically boots, etc. with these instructions:
https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabppetitbootconfig.htm
After you select to boot the PowerKVM installer, the installer wizard walks you through the steps to set up disk options, your root password, time zones, and so on.
You can read more about the petitboot bootloader program here:
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/petitboot/petitboot.html
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a cross-platform, open source hypervisor that provides enterprise-class performance, scalability and security to run Linux and other
workloads on a range of processor architectures. For the Linux-only scale-out systems with POWER8 technology this mechanism is ported to Power Systems and called IBM PowerKVM (5765-KVM). The publication "IBM PowerKVM Configuration and Use SG24-8231" can be found here:
http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/abstracts/sg248231.html
IBM PowerKVM supports Big Endian (BE) and Little Endian (LE) mode for Ubuntu 14.04.03 LTS.
Note: Power S812LC and PowerKVM do not support AIX or IBM i guest VMs and cannot be managed by an HMC
IBM is working with Red Hat to support the Power S812LC server with an upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 release. For additional questions about the availability
of this release and supported Power servers, consult the Red Hat Hardware Catalog at https://hardware.redhat.com.
IBM PowerKVM supports the Power S812LC server with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2. For additional questions about the availability of this release and supported Power servers, consult the Red Hat Hardware Catalog at https://hardware.redhat.com.
For a complete list of supported virtualization options for IBM Power Systems Linux-onlyservers see this link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liaam/liaamvirtoptions.htm
If your system is not preconfigured with PowerKVM, you need to download the installer file.
PowerKVM installation files are available from the Entitled System Support site at:
http://www-304.ibm.com/servers/eserver/ess/index.wss
If you want to update your system with the latest PowerKVM package, you can find the updates through Fix Central or the IBM yum repository for PowerKVM. If your system has
Internet access, you can use Kimchi or yum. If you do not have Internet access, use the ibm-update-system utility.
https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpupdatesystem.htm
If you want to upgrade PowerKVM to a new release, see the publication Upgrade PowerKVM:
https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabp/liabpupgrade.htm
Kimchi is an Apache-licensed project hosted on GitHub. It is an HTML5-based management tool that can get you started with IBM PowerKVM. It runs as a daemon on the hypervisor host and interfaces with underlying libvirt, QEMU, and KVM components. You use Kimchi to create and manage guests, monitor your host system, create networking interfaces, add storage, and update packages. To use Kimchi, open a browser and point it to where ip_address is the IP address of your KVM system. Log in using the admin user name and password.
Note: When you connect to Kimchi, make sure that you enable SSL connections in your browser. For Firefox browsers, you might also be required to connect to
where ip_address is the IP address of your host KVM system and accept the self-signed certificate. Connect using the HTTP secure (HTTPS).
Kimchi represents a simple, open source, multi-platform virtualization tool to manage PowerKVM. You can learn more about the Kimchi project here:
https://github.com/kimchi-project/kimchi
The IBM Power Virtualization Center (5765-VCS) is an advanced enterprise virtualization management offering for Power Systems based on the OpenStack technology. OpenStack is an open source software that controls large pools of server, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center. IBM PowerVC Version 1.3.0 was announced in October, 2015 and is built on OpenStack (liberty). This comprehensive virtualization management offering enables virtual machine setup and management.
PowerVC includes the following features and benefits:
- Virtual machine image capture, deployment, resizing, and management
- Policy-based VM placement to help improve usage and reduce complexity
- Policy-based workload optimization using either VM migration or resource movement using mobile capacity on demand
-VM Mobility with placement policies to help reduce the burden on IT staff in a simplified GUI
-A management system that manages existing virtualization deployments
-Integrated management of storage, network, and compute resources
For full details about hardware and operating system support for PowerVC hosts., refer to Hardware and Software Requirements here:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSXK2N_1.2.3/com.ibm.powervc.kvm.help.doc/powervc_hwandsw_reqs_kvm.html
This guide helps you install Ubuntu on a Linux on Power Systems server.
Overview
Use the information found in http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabw/liabwkickoff.htm to install Linux, in this case Ubuntu, on a non-virtualized or bare metal IBM Power LC server. The Ubuntu installer is available for download for specific Linux on Power Systems. For information about which systems support Ubuntu, see Supported Linux distributions for POWER8 Linux on Power systems at https://ibm.biz/BdEH5t.
Date | Description |
07/28/2016 |
OP810.32 limited release |
03/18/2016 |
OP810.30 release |
12/14/2015 |
OP810.21 release |
12/08/2015 |
OP810.20 release |
11/30/2015 |
OP810.10 release |
10/30/2015 |
New for LC server OP810.00 release |
|
|