Power9 System Firmware

Applies to:   9080-M9S

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 Systems E980 (9080-M9S) 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 levels for this firmware for HMC x86,  ppc64 or ppc64le are listed below.

x86 -  This term is used to reference the legacy HMC that runs on x86/Intel/AMD hardware for both the 7042 Machine Type appliances and the Virtual HMC that can run on the Intel hypervisors (KVM, VMWare, Xen).
ppc64 or ppc64le - describes the Linux code that is compiled to run on Power-based servers or LPARS (Logical Partitions)

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

NovaLink levels earlier than "NovaLink 1.0.0.16 Feb 2020 release" with partitions running certain SR-IOV capable adapters is NOT supported at this firmware release

NovaLink levels earlier than "NovaLink 1.0.0.16 Feb 2020 release" do not support IO adapter FCs EC2R/EC2S, EC2T/EC2U, EC3L/EC3M, EC66/EC67 with FW930 and later.   If the adapter was already in use with FW910/920 at an older NovaLink level, upgrading to FW930/940 will result in errors in NovaLink and PowerVC which causes the loss of any management operation via NovaLink / PowerVC combination.  Upgrading systems in this configuration is not supported at the older NovaLink levels.  If the system is required to be at FW930/940 or was shipped with FW930/940, NovaLink must first be updated to "NovaLink 1.0.0.16 Feb 2020 release"  or later.

Possible partition crash when using Live Partition Mobility (LPM) or partition hang when doing a concurrent firmware update

A very intermittent issue has been found in the IBM lab when using partition mobility or firmware update.  For a mobility operation, the issue can result in a partition crash if the mobility target system is FW930.00, FW930.01 or FW930.02.  For a code update operation, the partition may hang.  The recovery is to reboot the partition after the crash or hang.  This problem is fixed in service pack FW930.03.

Downgrading firmware from any given release level to an earlier release level is not recommended

Firmware downgrade warnings:
1) Adapter feature codes (#EC2R/#EC2S/#EC2T/#EC2U and #EC3L/#EC3M and #EC66/EC67) when configured in SR-IOV shared mode in FW930 or later, even if originally configured in shared mode in a pre-FW930 release, may not function properly if the system is downgraded to a pre-FW930 release. The adapter should be configured in dedicated mode first (i.e. take the adapter out of SR-IOV shared mode) before downgrading to a pre-FW930 release.
2) If partitions have been run in POWER9 compatibility mode in FW940, a downgrade to an earlier release (pre-FW940) may cause a problem with the partitions starting.  To prevent this problem, the "server firmware" settings must be reset by rebooting partitions in "Power9_base" before doing the downgrade.

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.

2.1 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.

2.2 Concurrent Firmware Updates

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

Ensure that there are no RMC connections issues for any system partitions prior to applying the firmware update.  If there is a RMC connection failure to a partition during the firmware update, the RMC connection will need to be restored and additional recovery actions for that partition will be required to complete partition firmware updates.

2.3 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:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/9080-M9S/p9hat/p9hat_lparmemory.htm

2.4 SBE Updates

Power 9 servers contain SBEs (Self Boot Engines) and are used to boot the system.  SBE is internal to each of the Power 9 chips and used to "self boot" the chip.  The SBE image is persistent and is only reloaded if there is a system firmware update that contains a SBE change.  If there is a SBE change and system firmware update is concurrent, then the SBE update is delayed to the next IPL of the CEC which will cause an additional 3-5 minutes per processor chip in the system to be added on to the IPL.  If there is a SBE change and the system firmware update is disruptive, then SBE update will cause an additional 3-5 minutes per processor chip in the system to be added on to the IPL.  During the SBE update process, the HMC or op-panel will display service processor code C1C3C213 for each of the SBEs being updated.  This is a normal progress code and system boot should be not be terminated by the user. Additional time estimate can be between 12-20 minutes per drawer or up to 48-80 minutes for maximum configuration.

3.0 Firmware Information

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:

01VHxxx_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, 01VH900_040_040 and 01VH910_040_045 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

            Example: Currently installed release is 01VH900_040_040, new release is 01VH910_050_050.

            Example: VH910_040_040 is disruptive, no matter what level of VH910 is currently installed on the system.

            Example: Currently installed service pack is VH910_040_040 and new service pack is VH910_050_045.

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 VH910_040_040, new service pack is VH910_041_040.

3.1 Firmware Information and Description

 
Filename Size Checksum md5sum
01VH930_068_035.rpm 141052146
 54912
52a9a4d089e699ca2e45964c4a4d2910

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 01VH930_068_035.rpm

VH930
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/VH-Firmware-Hist.html
VH930_068_035 / FW930.03

08/22/19		 Impact:  Data                  Severity:  HIPER

System firmware changes that affect all systems
  • HIPER/Pervasive:  A change was made to fix an intermittent processor anomaly that may result in issues such as operating system or hypervisor termination, application segmentation fault, hang, or undetected data corruption.  The only issues observed to date have been operating system or hypervisor terminations.
  • A problem was fixed for a very intermittent partition error when using Live Partition Mobility (LPM) or concurrent firmware update.  For a mobility operation, the issue can result in a partition crash if the mobility target system is FW930.00, FW930.01 or FW930.02.  For a code update operation, the partition may hang.  The recovery is to reboot the partition after the crash or hang.
VH930_048_035 / FW930.02

06/28/19		 Impact: Availability       Severity: SPE

New Features and Functions
  • Support added for IBM Power Enterprise Pools 2.0.  This is a new IBM Power E980 offering designed to deliver enhanced multisystem resource sharing and by-the-minute consumption of on-premises Power E980 compute resources to clients deploying and managing a private cloud infrastructure.  Each Power Enterprise Pool (2.0) is monitored and managed from a Cloud Management Console in the IBM Cloud.  Capacity Credits may be purchased from IBM, an authorized IBM Business Partner, or online through the IBM Entitled System Support website, https://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/ess/index.wss, where available.  Clients may more easily identify capacity usage and trends across their Power E980 systems in a pool by viewing web-accessible aggregated data without spreadsheets or custom analysis tools.
  • Support was added for a new P9 six core processor with CCIN 5C33.
System firmware changes that affect all systems
  • A problem was fixed for a bad link for the PCIe3 expansion drawer (#EMX0) I/O drawer with the clock enhancement causing a system failure with B700F103.  This error could occur during an IPL or a concurrent add of the link hardware.
  • A problem was fixed for On-Chip Controller (OCC) power capping operation time-outs with SRC B1112AD3 that caused the system to enter safe mode, resulting in reduced performance.  The problem only occurred when the system was running with high power consumption, requiring the need for OCC power capping.
  • A problem was fixed for the "PCIe Topology " option to get cable information in the HMC or ASMI that was returning the wrong cable part numbers if the PCIe3 expansion drawer (#EMX0) I/O drawer clock enhancement was configured.  If cables with the incorrect part numbers are used for an enhanced PCIe3 expansion drawer configuration, the hypervisor will log a B7006A20 with PRC 4152 indicating an invalid configuration - https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/9080-M9S/p9eai/B7006A20.htm.
  • A problem was fixed for a drift in the system time (time lags and the clock runs slower than the true value of time) that occurs when the system is powered off to the service processor standby state.  To recover from this problem, the system time must be manually corrected using the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) before powering on the system.  The time lag increases in proportion to the duration of time that the system is powered off.
VH930_035_035 / FW930.00

05/17/19		 Impact:  New      Severity:  New

All features and fixes from the FW920.30 service pack (and below) are included in this release.

New Features and Functions
  • Support was added to allow the FPGA soft error checking on the PCIe I/O expansion drawer (#EMX0) to be disabled with the help of IBM support using the hypervisor "xmsvc" macro.  This new setting will persist until it it is changed by the user or IBM support.  The effect of disabling FPGA soft error checking is to eliminate the FPGA soft error recovery which causes a recoverable PCIe adapter outage.  Some of the soft errors will be hidden by this change but others may have unpredictable results, so this should be done only under guidance of IBM support.
  • Support for the PCIe3 expansion drawer (#EMX0) I/O drawer clock enhancement so that a reset of the drawer does not affect the reference clock to the adapters so the PCIe lanes for the PCIe adapters can keep running through an I/O drawer FPGA reset.  To use this support, new cable cards, fanout modules, and optical cables are needed after this support is installed: PCIe Six Slot Fan out module(#EMXH) - only allowed to be connected to converter adapter cable card;  PCIe X16 to CXP Optical or CU converter adapter for the expansion drawer (#EJ19); and new AOC cables with feature/part number of #ECCR/78P6567, #ECCX/78P6568, #ECCY/78P6569, and #ECCZ/78P6570. These parts cannot be install concurrently, so a scheduled outage is needed to complete the migration.
  • Support added for RDMA Over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) for SR-IOV adapters.
  • Support added for SMS menu to enhance the I/O information option to have "vscsi" and "network" options.  The information shown for "vscsi" devices is similar to that provided for SAS and Fibre Channel devices.  The "network" option provides connectivity information for the adapter ports and shows which can be used for network boots and installs.
  • Support added to monitor the thermal sensors on the NVMe SSD drives (feature codes #EC5J, #EC5K, #EC5L) and use that information to adjust the speed of the system fans for improved cooling of the SSD drives.
  • Support added to allow integrated USB ports to be disabled.  This is available via an Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) menu option:  "System Configuration -> Security -> USB Policy".  The USB disable policy, if selected, does not apply to pluggable USB adapters plugged into PCIe slots such as the 4-Port USB adapter (#EC45/#EC46), which are always enabled.
System firmware changes that affect all systems
  • A problem was fixed for a clock card failure with SRC B158CC62 logged calling out the wrong clock card and not calling out the cable and system backplane as needed.  This fix does not add processors to the callout but in some cases the processor has also been identified as the cause of the clock card failure.
  • A problem was fixed for a system IPLing with an invalid time set on the service processor that causes partitions to be reset to the Epoch date of 01/01/1970.  With the fix, on the IPL, the hypervisor logs a B700120x when the service processor real time clock is found to be invalid and halts the IPL to allow the time and date to be corrected by the user.  The Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) can be used to correct the time and date on the service processor.  On the next IPL, if the time and date have not been corrected, the hypervisor will log a SRC B7001224 (indicating the user was warned on the last IPL) but allow the partitions to start, but the time and date will be set to the Epoch value.
  • A problem was fixed for a possible boot failure from a ISO/IEC 13346 formatted image, also known as Universal Disk Format (UDF).
    UDF is a profile of the specification known as ISO/IEC 13346 and is an open vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media such as DVDs and newer optical disc formats.  The failure is infrequent and depends on the image.  In rare cases, the boot code erroneously fails to find a file in the current directory.  If the boot fails on a specific image, the boot of that image will always fail without the fix.
  • A problem was fixed for broadcast bootp installs or boots that fail with a UDP checksum error.
  • A problem was fixed for failing to boot from an AIX mksysb backup on a USB RDX drive with SRCs logged of BA210012, AA06000D, and BA090010.  The boot error does not occur if a serial console is used to navigate the SMS menus.

4.0 How to Determine The 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: VH920_123.

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 USB flash memory device 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: VHxxx_yyy_zzz

Where xxx = release level

Instructions for installing firmware updates and upgrades can be found at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/9080-M9S/p9eh6/p9eh6_updates_sys.htm

IBM i Systems:

For information concerning IBM i Systems, go to the following URL to access Fix Central: 
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

Choose "Select product", under Product Group specify "System i", under Product specify "IBM i", then Continue and specify the desired firmware PTF accordingly.

7.0 Firmware History

The complete Firmware Fix History (including HIPER descriptions)  for this Release level can be reviewed at the following url:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/server/firmware/VH-Firmware-Hist.html

8.0 Change History

Date
 Description
February 20, 2020 Updated NovaLink warning in section 2.0 Important Information.
December 12, 2019 Added NovaLink warning and updated the Downgrading firmware warnings in section 2.0 Important Information.
September 20, 2019 Fix descripton update for firmware level VH930_068_035 / FW930.03.