System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER:  A problem was fixed which may occur on a target system following a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration of an AIX partition utilizing Active Memory Expansion (AME) with 64 KB page size enabled using the vmo tunable: "vmo -ro ame_mpsize_support=1".  The problem may result in AIX termination, file system corruption, application segmentation faults, or undetected data corruption.
  Note:  If you are doing an LPM migration of an AIX partition utilizing AME and 64 KB page size enabled involving a POWER8 or POWER9 system, ensure you have a Service Pack including this change for the appropriate firmware level on both the source and target systems.
• HIPER/Pervasive:  A problem was fixed for certain  SR-IOV adapters in Shared mode where multicast and broadcast packets were not properly routed out to the physical port.  This may result in network issues such as ping failure or inability to establish TCP connections.  This problem only affects the SR-IOV adapters with the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB; #EC3L/EC3M with CCIN 2CE; and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
  This problem was introduced by a fix delivered in the FW940.40 service pack.
  Update instructions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
• A problem was fixed for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migrations from non-trusted POWER9 systems to POWER10 systems. The LPM migration failure occurs every time a LPM migration is attempted from a non-trusted system source to FW1010 and later.  For POWER9 systems, non-trusted is the default setting.  The messages shown on the HMC for the failure are the following:
   HSCL365C The partition migration has been stopped because platform firmware detected an error (041800AC).
   HSCL365D The partition migration has been stopped because target MSP detected an error (05000127).
   HSCL365D The partition migration has been stopped because target MSP detected an error (05000127).
  A workaround for the problem is to enable the trusted system key on the POWER9 FW940/FW950 source system which can be done using an intricate procedure.  Please contact IBM Support for help with this workaround.
  

• For a system with a partition running AIX 7.3, a problem was fixed for running Live Update or Live Partition Mobility (LPM).  AIX 7.3 supports Virtual Persistent Memory (PMEM) but it cannot be used with these operations, but the problem was making it appear that PMEM was configured when it was not.  The Live Update and LPM operations always fail when attempted on AIX 7.3.  Here is the failure output from a Live Update Preview:
  "1430-296 FAILED: not all devices are virtual devices.
  nvmem0
  1430-129 FAILED: The following loaded kernel extensions are not known to be safe for Live Update:
  nvmemdd
  ...
  1430-218 The live update preview failed.
  0503-125 geninstall:  The lvupdate call failed.
  Please see /var/adm/ras/liveupdate/logs/lvupdlog for details."
  

New features and functions

• Support added to Redfish to provide a command to set the ASMI user passwords using a new AccountService schema.   Using this service, the ASMI admin, HMC, and general user passwords can be changed.
• Support was changed to disable Service Location Protocol (SLP) by default for newly shipped systems or systems that are reset to manufacturing defaults.  This change has been made to reduce memory usage on the service processor by disabling a service that is not needed for normal system operations.  This change can be made manually for existing customers by changing it in ASMI with the options "ASMI -> System Configuration -> Security -> External Services Management" to disable the service.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for the system going to a "password update required" state on the HMC when downgrading from FW940 to FW930 service packs.  This problem is rare and can only happen if the passwords on the service processor are set to the factory default values.  The workaround to this problem is to update the FSP user password on the HMC.
• A problem was fixed for Time of Day (TOD) being lost for the real-time clock (RTC) with an SRC B15A3303 logged when the service processor boots or resets.  This is a very rare problem that involves a timing problem in the service processor kernel.  If the server is running when the error occurs, there will be an SRC B15A3303 logged, and the time of day on the service processor will be incorrect for up to six hours until the hypervisor synchronizes its (valid) time with the service processor.  If the server is not running when the error occurs, there will be an SRC B15A3303 logged, and If the server is subsequently IPLed without setting the date and time in ASMI to fix it, the IPL will abort with an SRC B7881201 which indicates to the system operator that the date and time are invalid.
• A problem was fixed for intermittent failures for a reset of a Virtual Function (VF) for SR-IOV adapters during Enhanced Error Handling (EEH) error recovery.  This is triggered by EEH events at a VF level only, not at the adapter level.  The error recovery fails if a data packet is received by the VF while the EEH recovery is in progress.  A VF that has failed can be recovered by a partition reboot or a DLPAR remove and add of the VF.
• A problem was fixed for performance degradation of a partition due to task dispatching delays.  This may happen when a processor chip has all of its shared processors removed and converted to dedicated processors. This could be driven by a DLPAR remove of processors or Dynamic Platform Optimization (DPO).
  
• A problem was fixed for a logical partition activation error that can occur when trying to activate a partition when the adapter hardware for an SR-IOV logical port has been physically removed or is unavailable due to a hardware issue. This message is reported on the HMC for the activation failure:  "Error:  HSCL12B5 The operation to remove SR-IOV logical port <number> failed because of the following error: HSCL1552 The firmware operation failed with extended error" where the logical port number will vary.  This is an infrequent problem that is only an issue if the adapter hardware has been removed or another problem makes it unavailable.  The workaround for this problem is to physically add the hardware back in or correct the hardware issue.  If that cannot be done, create an alternate profile for the logical partition without the SR-IOV logical port and use that until the hardware issue is resolved.
• A problem was fixed for incomplete periodic data gathered by IBM Service for #EMXO PCIe expansion drawer predictive error analysis.  The service data is missing the PLX (PCIe switch) data that is needed for the debug of certain errors.
• A problem was fixed for a rare failure for an SPCN I2C command sent to a PCIe I/O expansion drawer that can occur when service data is manually collected with hypervisor macros "xmsvc -dumpCCData and xmsvc -logCCErrBuffer".   If the hypervisor macro "xmsvc "is run to gather service data and a CMC Alert occurs at the same time that requires an SPCN command to clear the alert, then the I2C commands may be improperly serialized, resulting in an SPCN I2C command failure.  To prevent this problem, avoid using xmsvc -dumpCCData and xmsvc -logCCErrBuffer to collect service data until this fix is applied.
• A problem was fixed for a system hang or terminate with SRC B700F105 logged during a Dynamic Platform Optimization (DPO) that is running with a partition in a failed state but that is not shut down.  If DPO attempts to relocate a dedicated processor from the failed partition, the problem may occur.  This problem can be avoided by doing a shutdown of any failed partitions before initiating DPO.
• A problem was fixed for a system crash with HMC message HSCL025D and SRC B700F103 logged on a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) inactive migration attempt that fails.  The trigger for this problem is inactive migration that fails a compatibility check between the source and target systems.
  
• A problem was fixed for the Systems Management Services (SMS) menu " I/O Device Information" option being incorrect when displaying the capacity for an NVMe or Fibre Channel (FC) NVMe disk.  This problem occurs every time the data is displayed.
• A problem was fixed for an infrequent SRC of B7006956 that may occur during a system power off.  This SRC indicates that encrypted NVRAM locations failed to synchronize with the copy in memory during the shutdown of the hypervisor. This error can be ignored as the encrypted NVRAM information is stored in a redundant location, so the next IPL of the system is successful.
• A problem was fixed for a misleading SRC B7006A20 (Unsupported Hardware Configuration) that can occur for some error cases for PCIes #EMX0 expansion drawers that are connected with copper cables.  For cable unplug errors, the SRC B7006A88 (Drawer TrainError) should be shown instead of the B7006A20.   If a B7006A20 is logged against copper cables with the signature "Prc UnsupportedCableswithFewerChannels" and the message "NOT A 12CHANNEL CABLE", this error should instead follow the service actions for a B7006A88 SRC.  
  
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters not being able to create the maximum number of VLANs that are supported for a physical port.  There were insufficient memory pages allocated for the physical functions for this adapter type.  The SR-IOV adapters affected have the following Feature Codes and CCINs:  #EC66/#EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
  Update instructions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters that can have B400FF02 SRCs logged with LPA dumps during a vNIC remove operation.  The adapters can have issues with a deadlock in managing memory pages.  In most cases, the operations should recover and complete.  This fix updates the adapter firmware to XX.29.2003  for the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB; #EC3L/EC3M with CCIN 2CE; and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
  Update instructions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
• The following problems were fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters:
  1) An error was fixed that occurs during a VNIC failover where the VNIC backing device has a physical port down or read port errors with an SRC B400FF02 logged.
  2) A problem was fixed for adding a new logical port that has a PVID assigned that is causing traffic on that VLAN to be dropped by other interfaces on the same physical port which uses OS VLAN tagging for that same VLAN ID.  This problem occurs each time a logical port with a non-zero PVID that is the same as an existing VLAN is dynamically added to a partition or is activated as part of a partition activation, the traffic flow stops for other partitions with OS configured VLAN devices with the same VLAN ID.  This problem can be recovered by configuring an IP address on the logical port with the non-zero PVID and initiating traffic flow on this logical port.  This problem can be avoided by not configuring logical ports with a PVID if other logical ports on the same physical port are configured with OS VLAN devices.
  This fix updates the adapter firmware to 11.4.415.37 for the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EN15/#EN16 with CCIN 2CE3, #EN17/#EN18 with CCIN 2CE4, #EN0H/#EN0J with CCIN 2B93, #EN0M/#EN0N with CCIN 2CC0, #EN0K/#EN0L with CCIN 2CC1, #EL56/#EL38 with CCIN 2B93, and #EL57/#EL3C with CCIN 2CC1.
  Update instructions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
• A problem was fixed for some serviceable events specific to the reporting of EEH errors not being displayed on the HMC.  The sending of an associated call home event, however, was not affected.  This problem is intermittent and infrequent.
• A problem was fixed for possible partition errors following a concurrent firmware update from FW910 or later. A precondition for this problem is that DLPAR operations of either physical or virtual I/O devices must have occurred prior to the firmware update  The error can take the form of a partition crash at some point following the update. The frequency of this problem is low.  If the problem occurs, the OS will likely report a DSI (Data Storage Interrupt) error.  For example, AIX produces a DSI_PROC log entry.  If the partition does not crash, it is also possible that some subsequent I/O DLPAR operations will fail.
• A problem was fixed for a missing hardware callout and guard for a processor chip failure with SRC BC8AE540 and signature "ex(n0p0c5) (L3FIR[28]) L3 LRU array parity error".
• A problem was fixed for a missing hardware callout and guard for a processor chip failure with Predictive Error (PE) SRC BC70E540 and signature "ex(n1p2c6) (L2FIR[19]) Rc or NCU Pb data CE error".  The PE error occurs after the number of CE errors reaches a threshold of 32 errors per day.
• A problem was fixed for a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration that failed with the error  "HSCL3659 The partition migration has been stopped because orchestrator detected an error" on the HMC.  This problem is intermittent and rare that is triggered by the HMC being overrun with unneeded LPM message requests from the hypervisor that can cause a timeout in HMC queries that result in the LPM operation being aborted.  The workaround is to retry the LPM migration which will normally succeed.
• A problem was fixed for a service processor mailbox ( mbox) timeout error with SRC B182953C during the IPL of systems with large memory configurations and "I/O Adapter Enlarged Capacity" enabled from ASMI.  The error indicates that the hypervisor did not respond quickly enough to a message from the service processor but this may not result in an IPL failure.  The problem is intermittent, so if the IPL does fail, the workaround is to retry the IPL.
• Problems were fixed for DLPAR operations that change the uncapped weight of a partition and DLPAR operations that switch an active partition from uncapped to capped.  After changing the uncapped weight, the weight can be incorrect.  When switching an active partition from uncapped to capped, the operation can fail.
• A problem was fixed where the Floating Point Unit Computational Test, which should be set to "staggered" by default, has been changed in some circumstances to be disabled. If you wish to re-enable this option, this fix is required.  After applying this service pack,  do the following steps:
  1) Sign in to the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
  2) Select Floating Point Computational Unit under the System Configuration heading and change it from disabled to what is needed: staggered (run once per core each day) or periodic (a specified time).
  3) Click "Save Settings".
• A problem was fixed for a system termination with SRC B700F107 following a time facility processor failure with SRC B700F10B.  With the fix, the transparent replacement of the failed processor will occur for the B700F10B if there is a free core, with no impact to the system.
  
• A problem was fixed for an SR-IOV adapter in shared mode configured as Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA) where unmatched unicast packets were not forwarded to the promiscuous mode VF.
  Update instructions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.

• On systems with an IBM i partition, a problem was fixed for physical I/O property data not being able to be collected for an inactive partition booted in "IOR" mode with SRC B200A101 logged.   This can happen when making a system plan (sysplan) for an IBM i partition using the HMC and the IBM i partition is inactive.  The sysplan data collection for the active IBM i partitions is successful.
  

New features and functions

• Support was added for Samsung DIMMs with part number 01GY853.  If these DIMMs are installed in a system with older FW940 firmware than FW940.32, the DIMMs will fail and be guarded with SRC BC8A090F logged with HwpReturnCode "RC_CEN_MBVPD_TERM_DATA_UNSUPPORTED_VPD_ENCODE".
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Pervasive: A problem was fixed for a system IPL failure when DIMMs (RDIMMs or NVDIMMs) have mixed configurations with dual populated memory channels and single populated memory channels. This problem occurs If there are dually populated memory channels that precede a single DIMM memory channel for a processor. This causes the IPL to fail with B150BA40 and BC8A090F logged with HwpReturnCode "RC_MSS_CALC_POWER_CURVE_NEGATIVE_OR_ZERO_SLOPE " and HWP Error description "Power curve slope equals 0 or is negative". A workaround for this problem is to reconfigure the memory to have the single DIMM memory channels be in front of memory channels that have both DIMM slots occupied.
• HIPER/Pervasive:  A problem was fixed for a checkstop due to an internal Bus transport parity error or a data timeout on the Bus. This is a very rare problem that requires a particular SMP transport link traffic pattern and timing. Both the traffic pattern and timing are very difficult to achieve with customer application workloads. The fix will have no measurable effect on most customer workloads although highly intensive OLAP-like workloads may see up to 2.5% impact.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for a partition hang in shutdown with SRC B200F00F logged.  The trigger for the problem is an asynchronous NX accelerator job (such as gzip or NX842 compression) in the partition that fails to clean up successfully.  This is intermittent and does not cause a problem until a shutdown of the partition is attempted.  The hung partition can be recovered by performing an LPAR dump on the hung partition.  When the dump has been completed, the partition will be properly shut down and can then be restarted without any errors.
  

New features and functions

• Support added to be able to set the NVRAM variable 'real-base' from the Restricted OF Prompt (ROFP). Prior to the introduction of ROFP, customers had the ability to set 'real-base' from the OF prompt.  This capability was removed in the initial delivery of ROFP in FW940.00. One use for this capability is that, in some cases, OS images (usually Linux) need more memory to load their image for boot. The OS image is loaded in between 0x4000 'load-base' and 0x2800000 'real-base'.  
  
• Added support  in ASMI for a new panel to do Self -Boot Engine (SBE) SEEPROM validation.  This validation can only be run at the service processor standby state.  
  If the validation detects a problem, IBM recommends the system not be used and that IBM service be called.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Pervasive: A problem was fixed to be able to detect a failed PFET sensing circuit in a core at runtime, and prevent a system fail with an incomplete state when a core fails to wake up.  The failed core is detected on the subsequent IPL.  With the fix. a core is called out with the PFET failure with SRC BC13090F and hardware description "CME detected malfunctioning of PFET headers." to isolate the error better with a correct callout.
• A problem was fixed for a slow down in PCIe adapter performance or loss of adapter function caused by a reduction in interrupts available to service the adapter. This problem can be triggered over time by partition activations or DLPAR adds of PCIe adapters to a partition.  This fix must be applied and the system re-IPLed for existing adapter performance problems to be resolved. However, the fix will prevent future issues without re-ipl if applied before the problem is observed.
• A problem was fixed for certain PCIe adapters and NVMe U.2 devices. The following feature codes are affected and the presence of these features in the 9009-41A server can result in higher fan speeds and therefore higher acoustic levels after upgrading the firmware (the other models are also affected but to a lesser extent).  Refer to the acoustic levels published in the IBM Knowledge Center currently located at ===>https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/9009-41A/p9had/p9had_90x.htm:
  #EC5J witn CCIN 59B4;  #EC5K with CCIN 59B5; #EC5L with CCIN 59B6; #EC5X with CCIN 59B7; #EC7A/#EC7B with CCIN 594A; #EC7C/#EC7D with CCIN 594B; #EC7E/#EC7F with CCIN 594C; #EC7J/#EC7K  with CCIN 594A; #EC7L/#EC7M with CCIN 594B; #EC7N/#EC7P with CCIN 594C; #ES1E/#ES1F with CCIN 59B8; #ES1G/#ES1H with CCIN 59B9;  #EC5V/#EC5W with CCIN 59BA; #EC5G/#EC5B and #EC6U/#EC6V with CCIN 58FC;  #EC5W/#EC5D and #EC6W/#EC6X with CCIN 58FD; and #EC5G/#EC5B and #EC6Y/#EC6Z with CCIN 58FE.
• A problem was fixed for not logging SRCs for certain cable pulls from the #EMXO PCIe expansion drawer. With the fix, the previously undetected cable pulls are now detected and logged with SRC B7006A8B and B7006A88 errors.
• A problem was fixed for a system hang and HMC "Incomplete" state that may occur when a partition hangs in shutdown with SRC B200F00F logged. The trigger for the problem is an asynchronous NX accelerator job (such as gzip or NX842 compression) in the partition that fails to clean up successfully. This is intermittent and does not cause a problem until a shutdown of the partition is attempted.
• A problem was fixed for a VIOS, AIX, or Linux partition hang during an activation at SRC CA000040. This will occur on a system that has been running for more than 814 days when the boot of the partition is attempted if the partitions are in POWER9_base or POWER9 processor compatibility mode.
  A workaround to this problem is to re-IPL the system or to change the failing partition to POWER8 compatibility mode.
  
• A problem was fixed for performance tools perfpmr, tprof and pex that may not be able to collect data for the event based options. 
  This can occur any time an OS thread becomes idle.  When the processor cores are assigned to the next active process, the performance registers may be disabled.
• A problem was fixed for a rare system hang with SRC BC70E540 logged that may occur when adding processors through licensing or the system throttle state changing (becoming throttled or unthrottled) on an Enterprise Pool system. The trigger for the problem is a very small timing window in the hardware as the processor loads are changing.
• A problem was for an intermittent anchor card timeout with Informational SRC B7009020 logged when reading TPM physical storage from the anchor card. There is no customer impact for this problem as long as NVRAM is accessible.
• A problem was fixed for the On-Chip Controller (OCC) going into safe mode (causes loss of processor performance) with SRC BC702616 logged. This problem can be triggered by the loss of a power supply (an oversubscription event). The problem can be circumvented by fixing the issue with the power supply.
• A problem was fixed for the error handling of a rare DIMM VPD error that causes incorrect logging of SRCs B1232A09 and B1561314, calling out the system planar, processor chip, Centaur DIMM controller, and riser card FRUs that actually do not need replacement.
• A problem was fixed for the error handling of a system with an unsupported memory configuration that exceeds available memory power. Without the fix, the IPL of the system is attempted and fails with a segmentation fault with SRCs B1818611 and B181460B logged that do not call out the incorrect DIMMs.
  
• A problem was fixed for the Self Boot Engine (SBE) going to termination with an SRC B150BA8D logged when booting on a bad core. Once this happens, this error will persist as the bad core is not deconfigured. To recover from this error and be able to IPL, the bad core must be manually deconfigured. With the fix, the failing core is deconfigured and the SBE is reconfigured to use another core so the system is able to IPL.
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters that have a rare, intermittent error with B400FF02 and B400FF04 logged, causing a reboot of the VF. The error is handled and recovered without any user intervention needed. The SR-IOV adapters affected have the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/#EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/#EC2U with CCIN 58FB; #EC3L/#EC3M with CCIN 2CE; and #EC66/#EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
• A problem was fixed for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) being shown as enabled at the OS when it has been disabled by the ASMI command line using the server processor command of "cfcuod -LPM OFF".  LPM is actually disabled and the status shows correctly on the HMC.  The status on the OS can be ignored (for example as shown by the AIX command "lparstat  -L") as LPM will not be allowed to run when it is disabled.
• A problem was fixed for an SRC B7006A99 informational log now posted as a Predictive with a call out of the CXP cable FRU.  This fix improves FRU isolation for cases where a CXP cable alert causes a B7006A99 that occurs prior to a B7006A22 or B7006A8B.  Without the fix, the SRC B7006A99 is informational and the latter SRCs cause a larger hardware replacement even though the earlier event identified a probable cause for the cable FRU.
  

• On systems with an uncapped shared processor partition in POWER9 processor compatibility mode. a problem was fixed for a system hang following Dynamic Platform Optimization (DPO), memory mirroring defragmentation, or memory guarding that happens as part of memory error recovery during normal operations of the system.
• On systems with a partition using Virtual Persistent Memory (vPMEM) LUNS configured with a 16 MB MPSS (Multiple Page Segment Size) mapping, a problem was fixed for temporary system hangs. The temporary hang may occur while the memory is involved in memory operations such as Dynamic Platform Optimization (DPO), memory mirroring defragmentation, or memory guarding that happens as part of memory error recovery during normal operations of the system. 
  
• On systems with partitions having user mode enabled for the External Interrupt Virtualization Engine (XIVE), a problem was fixed for a possible system crash and HMC "Incomplete" state when a  force DLPAR remove of a PCIe adapter occurs after a dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) operation fails for that same PCIe adapter. 
  

New features and functions

• DEFERRED: Host firmware support for anti-rollback protection.  This feature implements firmware anti-rollback protection as described in NIST SP 800-147B "BIOS Protection Guidelines for Servers".  Firmware is signed with a "secure version".  Support added for a new menu in ASMI called "Host firmware security policy" to update this secure version level at the processor hardware.  Using this menu, the system administrator can enable the "Host firmware secure version lock-in" policy, which will cause the host firmware to update the "minimum secure version" to match the currently running firmware. Use the "Firmware Update Policy" menu in ASMI to show the current "minimum secure version" in the processor hardware along with the "Minimum code level supported" information. The secure boot verification process will block installing any firmware secure version that is less than the "minimum secure version" maintained in the processor hardware.
  Prior to enabling the "lock-in" policy, it is recommended to accept the current firmware level.
  WARNING: Once lock-in is enabled and the system is booted, the "minimum secure version" is updated and there is no way to roll it back to allow installing firmware releases with a lesser secure version.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Pervasive:  A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters for a condition that may result from frequent resets of adapter Virtual Functions (VFs), or transmission stalls and could lead to potential undetected data corruption.
  The following additional fixes are also included:
  1) The VNIC backing device goes to a powered off state during a VNIC failover or Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration.  This failure is intermittent and very infrequent.
  2) Adapter time-outs with SRC B400FF01 or B400FF02 logged.
  3) Adapter time-outs related to adapter commands becoming blocked  with SRC B400FF01 or B400FF02 logged.
  4) VF function resets occasionally not completing quickly enough resulting in SRC B400FF02 logged.
  This fix updates the adapter firmware to 11.4.415.33 for the following Feature Codes and CCINs:  #EN15/#EN16 with CCIN 2CE3, #EN17/#EN18 with CCIN 2CE4, #EN0H/#EN0J with CCIN 2B93, #EN0M/#EN0N with CCIN 2CC0, #EN0K/#EN0L with CCIN 2CC1, #EL56/#EL38 with CCIN 2B93, and #EL57/#EL3C with CCIN 2CC1.
  The SR-IOV adapter firmware level update for the shared-mode adapters happens under user control to prevent unexpected temporary outages on the adapters.  A system reboot will update all SR-IOV shared-mode adapters with the new firmware level.  In addition, when an adapter is first set to SR-IOV shared mode, the adapter firmware is updated to the latest level available with the system firmware (and it is also updated automatically during maintenance operations, such as when the adapter is stopped or replaced).  And lastly, selective manual updates of the SR-IOV adapters can be performed using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).  To selectively update the adapter firmware, follow the steps given at the IBM Knowledge Center for using HMC to make the updates:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
  Note: Adapters that are capable of running in SR-IOV mode, but are currently running in dedicated mode and assigned to a partition, can be updated concurrently either by the OS that owns the adapter or the managing HMC (if OS is AIX or VIOS and RMC is running).
  
• A problem was fixed for the REST/Redfish interface to change the success return code for object creation from "200" to "201".  The "200" status code means that the request was received and understood and is being processed.  A "201" status code indicates that a request was successful and, as a result, a resource has been created.  The Redfish Ruby Client, "redfish_client" may fail a transaction if a "200" status code is returned when "201" is expected.
• A problem was fixed to allow quicker recovery of PCIe links for the #EMXO PCIe expansion drawer for a run-time fault with B7006A22 logged.  The time for recovery attempts can exceed six minutes on rare occasions which may cause I/O adapter failures and failed nodes.  With the fix, the PCIe links will recover or fail faster (in the order of seconds) so that redundancy in a cluster configuration can be used with failure detection and failover processing by other hosts, if available, in the case where the PCIe links fail to recover.
• A problem was fixed for a concurrent maintenance "Repair and Verify" (R&V) operation for a #EMX0 fanout module that fails with an "Unable to isolate the resource" error message.  This should occur only infrequently for cases where a physical hardware failure has occurred which prevents access to slot power controls.  This problem can be worked around by bringing up the "PCIe Hardware Topology" screen from either ASMI or the HMC after the hardware failure but before the concurrent repair is attempted.  This will avoid the problem with the PCIe slot isolation   These steps can also be used to recover from the error to allow the R&V repair to be attempted again.
• A problem was fixed for a rare system hang that can occur when a page of memory is being migrated.  Page migration (memory relocation) can occur for a variety of reasons, including predictive memory failure, DLPAR of memory, and normal operations related to managing the page pool resources.
• A problem was fixed for utilization statistics for commands such as HMC lslparutil and third-party lpar2rrd that do not accurately represent CPU utilization. The values are incorrect every time for a partition that is migrated with Live Partition Mobility (LPM).  Power Enterprise Pools 2.0 is not affected by this problem.  If this problem has occurred, here are three possible recovery options:
  1) Re-IPL the target system of the migration.
  2) Or delete and recreate the partition on the target system.
  3) Or perform an inactive migration of the partition.  The cycle values get zeroed in this case.
• A problem was fixed for running PCM on a system with SR-IOV adapters in shared mode that results in an "Incomplete" system state with certain hypervisor tasks deadlocked. This problem is rare and is triggered when using SR-IOV adapters in shared mode and gathering performance statistics with PCM (Performance Collection and Monitoring) and also having a low-level error on an adapter.  The only way to recover from this condition is to re-IPL the system.
• A problem was fixed for an enhanced PCIe expansion drawer FPGA reset causing EEH events from the fanout module or cable cards that disrupt the PCIe lanes for the PCIe adapters.  This problem affects systems with the PCIe expansion drawer enhanced fanout module (#EMXH) and the enhanced cable card (#EJ1R or #EJ20). The error is associated with the following SRCs being logged:
  B7006A8D with PRC 37414123 (XmPrc::XmCCErrMgrBearPawPrime | XmPrc::LocalFpgaHwReset)
  B7006A8E with PRC 3741412A (XmPrc::XmCCErrMgrBearPawPrime | XmPrc::RemoteFpgaHwReset)
  If the EEH errors occur, the OS device drivers automatically recover but with a reset of affected PCIe adapters that would cause a brief interruption in the I/O communications.
  
• A problem was fixed for a PCIe3 expansion drawer cable that has hidden error logs for a single lane failure.  This happens whenever a single lane error occurs. Subsequent lane failures are not hidden and have visible error logs. Without the fix, the hidden or informational logs would need to be examined to gather more information for the failing hardware.
• A problem was fixed for an infrequent issue after a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operation from a POWER9 system to a POWER8 or POWER7 system.  The issue may cause unexpected OS behavior, which may include loss of interrupts, device time-outs, or delays in dispatching.  Rebooting the affected target partition will resolve the problem.
• A problem was fixed for a partition crash or hang following a partition activation or a DLPAR add of a virtual processor. For partition activation, this issue is only possible for a system with a single partition owning all resources. For DLPAR add, the issue is extremely rare.
• A problem was fixed for a DLPAR remove of memory from a partition that fails if the partition contains 65535 or more LMBs. With 16MB LMBs, this error threshold is 1 TB of memory.  With 256 MB LMBs, it is 16 TB of memory.  A reboot of the partition after the DLPAR will remove the memory from the partition.
• A problem was fixed for an IPL failure with SRC BA180020 logged for an initialization failure on a PCIe adapter in a PCIe3 expansion drawer.  The PCIe adapters that are intermittently failing on the PCIe probe are the PCIe2 4-port Fibre Channel Adapter with feature code #5729 and the PCIe2 4-port 1 Gb Ethernet Adapter with feature code #5899.  The failure can only occur on an IPL or re-IPL and it is very infrequent.  The system can be recovered with a re-IPL.
• A problem was fixed for a partition configured with a large number (approximately 64) of Virtual Persistent Memory (PMEM) LUNs hanging during the partition activation with a CA00E134 checkpoint SRC posted.  Partitions configured with approximately 64 PMEM LUNs will likely hang and the greater the number of LUNs, the greater the possibility of the hang.  The circumvention to this problem is to reduce the number of PMEM LUNs to 64 or less in order to boot successfully.  The PMEM LUNs are also known as persistent memory volumes and can be managed using the HMC.  For more information on this topic, refer to https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_lpar_pmem_settings.htm.
  
• A problem was fixed for non-optimal On-Chip Controller (OCC) processor frequency adjustments when system power limits or user power caps are exceeded.  When a workload causes power limits or caps to be exceeded, there can be large frequency swings for the processors and a processor chip can get stuck at minimum frequency.  With the fix, the OCC now waits for new power readings when changing the processor frequency and uses a master power capping frequency to keep all processors at the same frequency.  As a workaround for this problem, do not set a power cap or run a workload that would exceed the system power limit.
• A problem was fixed for PCIe resources under a deconfigured PCIe Host Bridge (PHB) being shown on the OS host as available resources when they should be shown as deconfigured. While this fix can be applied concurrently, a re-IPL of the system is needed to correct the state of the PCIe resources if a PHB had already been deconfigured.
• A problem was fixed for incorrect run-time deconfiguration of a processor core with SRC B700F10B. This problem can be circumvented by a reconfiguration of the processor core but this should only be done with the guidance of IBM Support to ensure the core is good.
  
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapter errors where a B400F011 is reported instead of a more descriptive B400FF02 or B400FF04.  The LPA dump still happens which can be used to isolate to the issue.  The SR-IOV adapters affected have the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/#EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/#EC2U with CCIN 58FB; #EC3L/#EC3M with CCIN 2CE; and #EC66/#EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
• A problem was fixed for mixing modes on the ports of SR-IOV adapters that causes SRC B200A161, B200F011, B2009014 and B400F104 to be logged on boot of the failed adapter. This error happens when one port of the adapter is changed to option 1 with a second port set at either option 0 or option 2.  The error can be cleared by taking the adapter out of SR-IOV shared mode. The SR-IOV adapters affected have the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/#EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/#EC2U with CCIN 58FB; #EC3L/#EC3M with CCIN 2CE; and #EC66/#EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters with the following issues:
  1) The VNIC backing device goes to a powered off state during a VNIC failover or Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migration.  This failure is intermittent and very infrequent.
  2) Adapte time-outs with SRC B400FF01 or B400FF02 logged.
  3) Adapter time-outs related to adapter commands becoming blocked with SRC B400FF01 or B400FF02 logged
  4)VF function resets occasionally not completing quickly enough resulting in SRC B400FF02 logged.
  This fix updates the adapter firmware to 11.4.415.33 for the following Feature Codes and CCINs:  #EN15/#EN16 with CCIN 2CE3, #EN17/#EN18 with CCIN 2CE4, #EN0H/#EN0J with CCIN 2B93, #EN0M/#EN0N with CCIN 2CC0, #EN0K/#EN0L with CCIN 2CC1, #EL56/#EL38 with CCIN 2B93, and #EL57/#EL3C with CCIN 2CC1.
  The SR-IOV adapter firmware level update for the shared-mode adapters happens under user control to prevent unexpected temporary outages on the adapters.  A system reboot will update all SR-IOV shared-mode adapters with the new firmware level.  In addition, when an adapter is first set to SR-IOV shared mode, the adapter firmware is updated to the latest level available with the system firmware (and it is also updated automatically during maintenance operations, such as when the adapter is stopped or replaced).  And lastly, selective manual updates of the SR-IOV adapters can be performed using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).  To selectively update the adapter firmware, follow the steps given at the IBM Knowledge Center for using HMC to make the updates:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm.
  Note: Adapters that are capable of running in SR-IOV mode, but are currently running in dedicated mode and assigned to a partition, can be updated concurrently either by the OS that owns the adapter or the managing HMC (if OS is AIX or VIOS and RMC is running).
• A problem was fixed for Novalink-created virtual ethernet and vNIC adapters having incorrect SR-IOV Hybrid Network Virtualization (HNV) values. The AIX and other OS hosts may be unable to use the adapters. This happens for all virtual ethernet and vNIC adapters created by Novalink in the FW940 releases up to the FW940.10 service pack. The fix will correct the settings for new Novalink created virtual adapters, but any pre-existing virtual adapters created by Novalink in FW940 must be deleted and recreated.
• A problem was fixed for partitions configured to run as AIX, VIOS, or Linux partitions that also own specific Fibre Channel (FC) I/O adapters (see below) are subject to a partition  crash during boot if the partition does not already have a boot list. During the initial boot of a new partition (containing 577F, 578E, 578F or 579B adapters), the boot might fail with one of the following reference codes: BA210001, BA218001, BA210003, or BA218003.  This most often occurs on deployments of new partitions that are booting for the first time for either a network install or booting to the Open Firmware prompt or SMS menus for the first time.  The issue requires that the partition owns one or more of the following FC adapters and that these adapters are running at microcode firmware levels older than version 11.4.415.5:
  -  Feature codes #EN1C,/#EN1D and #EL5X/#EL5W with CCIN 578E
  - Feature codes #EN1A/# EN1B and #EL5U/#EL5V with CCIN 578F
  - Feature codes #EN0A,/#EN0B and #EL5B/#EL43 with CCIN 577F
  The frequency of the problem  is somewhat rare because it requires the following:
  - Partition does not already have a default boot list
  - Partition configured with one of the FC adapters listed above
  - The FC adapters must be running a version of microcode with unsigned/unsecure adapter microcode
  The following work around was created for systems having this issue: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1367103.
  With the fix,  the FC adapters are given a temporary substitute for the FCode on the adapter but not the entire microcode image.  The adapter microcode is not updated.  This workaround is done so the system can boot from the adapter  until the adapter can be updated by the customer with the latest available microcode from IBM Fix Central.  In the meantime, the FCode substitution is made from the 12.4.257.15 level of the microcode.
• A problem was fixed for mixing memory DIMMs with different timings (different vendors) under the same memory controller that fail with an SRC BC20E504 error and DIMMs deconfigured. This is an "MCBIST_BRODCAST_OUT_OF_SYNC" error.  The loss of memory DIMMs can result in an IPL failure.  This problem can happen if the memory DIMMs have a certain level of timing differences.  If the timings are not compatible, the failure will occur on the IPL during the memory training. To circumvent this problem, each memory controller should have only memory DIMMs from the same vendor plugged.
• A problem was fixed for the SR-IOV logical port of an  I/O adapter logging a B400FF02 error because of a time-out waiting on a response from the firmware. This rare error requires a very heavily loaded system. For this error, word 8 of the error log is 80090027. No user intervention is needed for this error as the logical port recovers and continues with normal operations.
• A problem was fixed for a security vulnerability for the Self Boot Engine (SBE).  The SBE can be compromised from the service processor to allow injection of malicious code. An attacker that gains root access to the service processor could compromise the integrity of the host firmware and bypass the host firmware signature verification process. This compromised state can not be detected through TPM attestation.  This is Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue number CVE-2021-20487.

• On systems with an IBM i partition, a problem was fixed for a dedicated memory IBM i partition running in P9 processor compatibility mode failing to activate with HSCL1552 "the firmware operation failed with extended error".  This failure only occurs under a very specific scenario - the new amount of desired memory is less than the current desired memory, and the Hardware Page Table (HPT) size needs to grow.
• On systems with AIX and Linux partitions, a problem was fixed for AIX and Linux partitions that crash or hang when reporting any of the following Partition Firmware RTAS ASSERT rare conditions:
  1) SRC BA33xxxx errors - Memory allocation and management errors.
  2) SRC BA29xxxx errors - Partition Firmware internal stack errors.
  3) SRC BA00E8xx errors - Partition Firmware initialization errors during concurrent firmware update or Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operations.
  This problem should be very rare.  If the problem does occur, a partition reboot is needed to recover from the error.
  

New features and functions

• DEFERRED:  Maximum Performance mode was enhanced to increase the cap on the maximum processor frequency for some workloads, providing for better performance.  As the workload or active core count decrease, the processor uses less power, which enables the frequency to be increased above nominal.  In the Maximum Performance mode, the allowed socket power is increased to the maximum value, which results in top performance but with increased fan noise and higher power consumption.
• Enable periodic logging of internal component operational data for the PCIe3 expansion drawer paths. The logging of this data does not impact the normal use of the system.
• Support added for SR-IOV Hybrid Network Virtualization (HNV) in a production environment (no longer a Technology Preview) for AIX and IBM i.   This capability allows an AIX or IBM i partition to take advantage of the efficiency and performance benefits of SR-IOV logical ports and participate in mobility operations such as active and inactive Live Partition Mobility (LPM) and Simplified Remote Restart (SRR).  HNV is enabled by selecting a new Migratable option when an SR-IOV logical port is configured. The Migratable option is used to create a backup virtual device.  The backup virtual device can be either a Virtual Ethernet adapter or a virtual Network Interface Controller (vNIC) adapter. In addition to this firmware HNV support in a production environment requires HMC 9.1.941.0 or later, AIX Version 7.2 with the 7200-04 Technology Level and Service Pack 7200-04-02-2015 or AIX Version 7.1 with the 7100-05 Technology Level and Service Pack 7100-05-06-2015, IBM i 7.3 TR8 or IBM i 7.4 TR2, and VIOS 3.1.1.20.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed for a processor core failure with SRCs B150BA3C and BC8A090F logged that deconfigures the entire processor for the current IPL.  A re-IPL of the system will recover the lost processor with only the bad core guarded.
• A problem was fixed for Performance Monitor Unit (PMU) events that had the incorrect Alink address (Xlink data given instead) that could be seen in 24x7 performance reports.  The Alink event data is a recent addition for FW940 and would not have been seen at the earlier firmware levels.
• A problem was fixed for an SR-IOV adapter hang with B400FF02/B400FF04 errors logged during firmware update or error recovery.  The adapter may recover after the error log and dump, but it is possible the adapter VF will remain disabled until the partition using it is rebooted.  This affects the SR-IOV adapters with the following feature codes and CCINs:   #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA;  #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB;  #EC3L/EC3M with CCIN 2CEC;  and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
• A problem was fixed for the location code of the Removable EXchange (RDX) docking station being incorrectly reported as P1-P3.  The correct location code is Un-P3. This problem pertains only to the S914 (9009-41A), S924 (9009-42A) and the H924 (9223-42H) models.  Please refer to the following IBM Knowledge Center article for more information on the location codes:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/9009-42A/p9ecs/p9ecs_914_924_loccodes.htm  
  
• A problem was fixed for extraneous B400FF01 and B400FF02 SRCs logged when moving cables on SR-IOV adapters.  This is an infrequent error that can occur if the HMC performance monitor is running at the same time the cables are moved.  These SRCs can be ignored when accompanied by cable movement.
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters that can have B400FF02 SRCs logged with LPA dumps during Live Partition Mobility (LPM) migrations or vNIC failovers.  The adapters can have issues with a deadlock on error starts after many resets of the VF and errors in managing memory pages.  In most cases, the operations should recover and complete.  This fix updates the adapter firmware to 1X.25.6100  for the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB;  #EC3L/EC3M with CCIN 2CE; and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
  The SR-IOV adapter firmware level update for the shared-mode adapters happens under user control to prevent unexpected temporary outages on the adapters.  A system reboot will update all SR-IOV shared-mode adapters with the new firmware level.  In addition, when an adapter is first set to SR-IOV shared mode, the adapter firmware is updated to the latest level available with the system firmware (and it is also updated automatically during maintenance operations, such as when the adapter is stopped or replaced).  And lastly, selective manual updates of the SR-IOV adapters can be performed using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).  To selectively update the adapter firmware, follow the steps given at the IBM Knowledge Center for using HMC to make the updates:   https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER9/p9efd/p9efd_updating_sriov_firmware.htm
  Note: Adapters that are capable of running in SR-IOV mode, but are currently running in dedicated mode and assigned to a partition, can be updated concurrently either by the OS that owns the adapter or the managing HMC (if OS is AIX or VIOS and RMC is running).
  
• A problem was fixed where SR-IOV adapter VFs occasionally failed to provision successfully on the low-speed ports (1 Gbps) with SRC B400FF04 logged, or SR-IOV adapter VFs occasionally failed to provision successfully with SRC B400FF04 logged when the RoCE option is enabled.
  This affects the adapters with low speed ports (1 Gbps) with the following  Feature Codes and CCINs:  #EN0H/EN0J with CCIN 2B93, #EN0M/EN0N with CCIN 2CC0,  #EN0K/EN0L with CCIN 2CC1, #EL56/EL38 with CCIN 2B93, and #EL57/EL3C with CCIN 2CC1. And it affects  the adapters with the ROCE option enabled  with the following feature codes and CCINs:   #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA;  #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB;  #EC3L/EC3M with CCIN 2CEC;  and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
• A problem was fixed for an expired trial or elastic Capacity on Demand ( CoD) memory not warning of the use of unlicensed memory if the memory is not returned. This lack of warning can occur if the trial memory has been allocated as Virtual Persistent Memory (vPMEM).
• A problem was fixed for a B7006A96 fanout module FPGA corruption error that can occur in unsupported PCIe3 expansion drawer(#EMX0) configurations that mix an enhanced PCIe3 fanout module (#EMXH) in the same drawer with legacy PCIe3 fanout modules (#EMXF, #EMXG, #ELMF, or #ELMG).  This causes the FPGA on the enhanced #EMXH to be updated with the legacy firmware and it becomes a non-working and unusable fanout module.  With the fix, the unsupported #EMX0 configurations are detected and handled gracefully without harm to the FPGA on the enhanced fanout modules.
• A problem was fixed for possible dispatching delays for partitions running in POWER8, POWER9_base or POWER9 processor compatibility mode.
• A problem was fixed for system memory not returned after create and delete of partitions, resulting in slightly less memory available after configuration changes in the systems.  With the fix, an IPL of the system will recover any of the memory that was orphaned by the issue.
• A problem was fixed for failover support for the Mover Service Partition (MSP) where a failover to the MSP partner during an LPM could cause the migration to abort.   This vulnerability is only for a very specific window in the migration process. The recovery is to restart the migration operation.
• A rare problem was fixed for a checkstop during an IPL that fails to isolate and guard the problem core.  An SRC is logged with B1xxE5xx and an extended hex word 8 xxxxDD90.  With the fix, the failing hardware is guarded and a node is possibly deconfigured to allow the subsequent IPLs of the system to be successful.
• A problem was fixed for a hypervisor error during system shutdown where a B7000602 SRC is logged and the system may also briefly go "Incomplete" on the HMC but the shutdown is successful.  The system will power back on with no problems so the SRC can be ignored if it occurred during a shutdown.
  
• A problem was fixed for certain large I/O adapter configurations having the PCI link information truncated on the PCI-E topology display shown with ASMI and the HMC.  Because of the truncation, individual adapters may be missing on the PCI-E topology screens.
  
• A problem was fixed for certain NVRAM corruptions causing a system crash with a bad pointer reference instead of expected Terminate Immediate (TI) with B7005960 logged.
• A problem was fixed for certain SR-IOV adapters that do not support the "Disable Logical Port" option from the HMC but the HMC was allowing the user to select this, causing incorrect operation.  The invalid state of the logical port causes an "Enable Logical Port" to fail in a subsequent operation.  With the fix, the HMC provides the message that the "Disable Logical Port" is not supported for the adapter.  This affects the adapters with the following  Feature Codes and CCINs: #EN15/EN16 with CCIN 2CE3,  #EN17/EN18 with CCIN 2CE4, #EN0H/EN0J with CCIN 2B93, #EN0M/EN0N with CCIN 2CC0,  #EN0K/EN0L with CCIN 2CC1, #EL56/EL38 with CCIN 2B93, and #EL57/EL3C with CCIN 2CC1. 
  
• A problem was fixed for the service processor ASMI "Factory Reset" option to disable the IPMI service as part of the factory reset.  Without the fix, the IPMI operation state will be unchanged by the factory reset.
• A problem was fixed to remove unneeded resets of a VF for SR-IOV adapters, providing for improved performance of the startup or recovery time of the VF.  This performance difference may be noticed during a Live Partition Mobility migration of a partition or during vNIC (Virtual Network Interface Controller) failovers where many resets of VFs are occurring.
• A problem was fixed for SR-IOV adapters having an SRC B400FF04 logged when a VF is reset.  This is an infrequent issue and can occur for a Live Partition Mobility migration of a partition or during vNIC (Virtual Network Interface Controller) failovers where many resets of VFs are occurring.  This error is recovered automatically with no impact on the system.
• A problem was fixed for initial configuration of  SR-IOV adapter VFs with certain configuration settings for the following Feature Codes and CCINs:   #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB;  #EC3L/EC3M with CCIN 2CE;  and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
  These VFs may then fail following an adapter restart, with other VFs functioning normally.  The error causes the VF to fail with an SRC B400FF04 logged.  With the fix, VFs are configured correctly when created.  
  Because the error condition may pre-exist in an incorrectly configured logical port, a concurrent update of this fix may trigger a logical port failure when the VF logical port is restarted during the firmware update.  Existing VFs with the failure condition can be recovered by dynamically removing/adding the failed port and are automatically recovered during a system restart.
• A problem was fixed for TPM hardware failures not causing SRCs to logged with a call out if the system is configured in ASMI to not require TPM for the IPL.  If this error occurs, the user would not find out about it until they needed to run with TPM on the IPL.  With the fix, the error logs and notifications will occur regardless of how the TPM is configured.

• On systems with an IBM i partition, a problem was fixed for a D-mode IPL failure when using a USB DVD drive in an IBM 7226 multimedia storage enclosure.  Error logs with SRC BA16010E, B2003110, and/or B200308C can occur.  As a circumvention, an external DVD drive can be used for the D-mode IPL.
• On systems with an IBM i partition, a problem was fixed that occurs after a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) of an IBM i partition that may cause issues including dispatching delays and the inability to do further LPM operations of that partition.  The frequency of this problem is rare.  A partition encountering this error can be recovered with a reboot of the partition.
  
• On systems with an IBM i partition in POWER9 processor compatibility mode, a problem was fixed for an MSD in IBM i with SRCs B6000105 or B6000305 logged when a PCIe Host Bridge (PHB) or PCIe Expansion Drawer (#EMX0) is added to the partition.  For this to occur, the adapter had to be previously assigned to a partition (any OS) that was in POWER9 processor compatibility mode and then removed through a DLPAR or partition shut down such that the adapter is taken through recovery.
• For systems with deconfigured cores and using the default performance and power setting of "Dynamic Performance Mode" or "Maximum Performance Mode", a rare problem was fixed for an incorrect voltage/frequency setting for the processors during heavy workloads with high ambient temperature.  This error could impact power usage, expected performance, or system availability if a processor fault occurs.  This problem can be avoided by using ASMI "Power and Performance Mode Setup"  to disable "All modes" when there are cores deconfigured in the system.
  
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for an HMC "Incomplete" state for a system after the HMC user password is changed with ASMI on the service processor.  This problem can occur if the HMC password is changed on the service processor but not also on the HMC, and a reset of the service processor happens.  With the fix, the HMC will get the needed "failed authentication" error so that the user knows to update the old password on the HMC.
  

• HIPER/Pervasive:   For systems using PowerVM NovaLink to manage partitions, a problem was fixed for the hypervisor rejecting setting the system to be NovaLink managed.  The following error message is given:   "FATAL pvm_apd[]: Hypervisor encountered an error creating the ibmvmc device. Error number 5."  This always happens in FW940.00 and FW940.01 which prevents a system from transitioning to be NovaLink managed at these firmware levels.  If you were successfully running as NovaLink managed already on FW930 and upgraded to FW940, you would not experience this issue. 
  For more information on PowerVM Novalink, refer to the IBM Knowledge Center article:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9eig/p9eig_kickoff.htm.

New features and functions

• Support was added for improved security for the service processor password policy.  For the service processor, the "admin", "hmc" and "general" password must be set on first use for newly manufactured systems and after a factory reset of the system.  The IPMI interface has been changed to be disabled by default in these scenarios.  The REST/Redfish interface will return an error saying the user account is expired.  This policy change helps to enforce the service processor is not left in a state with a well known password.  The user can change from an expired default password to a new password using the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
• Support was added for real-time data capture for PCIe3 expansion drawer (#EMX0) cable card connection data via resource dump selector on the HMC or in ASMI on the service processor.  Using the resource selector string of "xmfr -dumpccdata" will non-disruptively generate an RSCDUMP type of dump file that has the current cable card data, including data from cables and the retimers.
• Improvements to link stack algorithms.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed for an intermittent IPMI core dump on the service processor.  This occurs only rarely when multiple IPMI sessions are starting and cleaning up at the same time.  A new IPMI session can fail initialization when one of its session objects is cleaned up.  The circumvention is to retry the IPMI command that failed.
• A problem was fixed for system hangs or incomplete states displayed by HMC(s) with SRC B182951C logged.  The hang can occur during operations that require a memory relocation for any partition such as Dynamic Platform Optimization (DPO), memory mirroring defragmentation, or memory guarding that happens as part of memory error recovery during normal operations of the system.
• A problem was fixed for possible unexpected interrupt behavior for partitions running in POWER9 processor compatibility mode.  This issue can occur during the boot of a partition running in POWER9 processor compatibility mode with an OS level that supports the External Interrupt Virtualization Engine (XIVE) exploitation mode.  For more information on compatibility modes, see the following two articles in the IBM Knowledge Center:
  1) Processor compatibility mode overview:   https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9hc3/p9hc3_pcm.htm
  2) Processor compatibility mode definitions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9hc3/p9hc3_pcmdefs.htm
• A problem was fixed for an intermittent IPL failure with SRC B181E540 logged with fault signature " ex(n2p1c0) (L2FIR[13]) NCU Powerbus data timeout".  No FRU is called out.  The error may be ignored and the re-IPL is successful.  The error occurs very infrequently.  This is the second iteration of the fix that has been released.  Expedient routing of the Powerbus interrupts did not occur in all cases in the prior fix, so the timeout problem was still occurring.
  

• DEFERRED:  For systems using the Feature Code #EPIM 8-core processor, a problem was fixed for a slightly degraded UtlraTurbo maximum frequency (approximately 3% less) compared to what is expected for this processor chip.  The fix requires new Workload Optimized Frequency (WOF) tables for the processor, so the system must be re-IPLed for the installed fix to be active.  The WOF UltraTurbo maximum frequency can only be achieved when turning cores off or operating below the 50% workload capacity of the system.
• On systems running IBM i partitions configured as Restricted I/O partitions that are also running in either P7 or P8 processor compatibility mode, a problem was fixed for a likely hang during boot with BA210000 and BA218000 checkpoints and error logs after migrating to FW940.00 level system firmware.  The trigger for the problem is booting IBMi partitions configured as Restricted I/O partitions in P7 or P8 compatibility mode on FW940.00 system firmware.  Such partitions are usually configured this way so that they can be used for live partition migration (LPM) to and
  from P7/P8 systems. Without the fix, the user can do either of the following as circumventions for the boot failure of the IBM i partition:
  1) Move the partition to P9 compatibility mode
  2) Or remove the 'Restricted I/O Partition' property
  

• All features and fixes from the FW930.11. service pack (and below) are included in this release.  At the time of the FW940.00 release, the FW930.11 is a future FW930 service pack scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019.

• User Mode NX Accelerator Enablement for PowerVM.  This enables the access of NX accelerators such as the gzip engine through user mode interfaces.  The IBM Virtual HMC (vHMC) 9.1.940 provides a user interface to this feature.  The LPAR must be running in POWER9 compatibility mode to use this feature.  For more information on compatibility modes, see the following two articles in the IBM Knowledge Center:
  1) Processor compatibility mode overview:    https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9hc3/p9hc3_pcm.htm
  2) Processor compatibility mode definitions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9hc3/p9hc3_pcmdefs.htm
• Support for SR-IOV logical ports in IBM i restricted I/O mode.
  
• Support for user mode enablement of the External Interrupt Virtualization Engine (XIVE).  This user mode enables the management of interrupts to move from the hypervisor to the operating system for improved efficiency.  Operating systems may also have to be updated to enable this support.  The LPAR must be running in POWER9 compatibility mode to use this feature.  For more information on compatibility modes, see the following two articles in the IBM Knowledge Center:
  1) Processor compatibility mode overview:    https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9hc3/p9hc3_pcm.htm
  2) Processor compatibility mode definitions:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER9/p9hc3/p9hc3_pcmdefs.htm
• Extended support for PowerVM Firmware Secure Boot.  This feature restricts access to the Open Firmware prompt and validates all adapter boot driver code. Boot adapters, or adapters which may be used as boot adapters in the future, must be updated to the latest microcode from IBM Fix Central.  The latest microcode will ensure the adapters support the Firmware Secure Boot feature of Power Systems. This requirement applies when updating system firmware from a level prior to FW940 to levels FW940 and later.  The latest adapter microcode levels include signed boot driver code.  If a boot-capable PCI adapter is not installed with the latest level of adapter microcode, the partition which owns the adapter will boot, but error logs with SRCs BA5400A5 or BA5400A6 will be posted. Once the adapter(s) are updated, the error logs will no longer be posted.
  
• Linux OS support was added for PowerVM LPARs for the PCIe4 2x100GbE ConnectX-5 RoCE adapter with feature codes of #EC66/EC67 and CCIN 2CF3.  Linux versions RHEL 7.5 and SLES 12.3 are supported.

• A problem was fixed for incorrect call outs for PowerVM hypervisor terminations with SRC B7000103 logged.  With the fix, the call outs are changed from SVCDOCS, FSPSP04, and FSPSP06 to FSPSP16.  When this type of termination occurs, IBM support requires the dumps be collected to determine the cause of failure.
  
• A problem was fixed for an IPL failure with the following possible SRCs logged:  11007611, 110076x1, 1100D00C, and 110015xx.  The service processor may reset/reload for this intermittent error and end up in the termination state.