System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Non-Pervasive: A problem was fixed for a system checkstop during a power on IPL when service processor FSP B is the primary with SRC BC50E504 logged.  This problem always happens if FSP B is in the primary role for the IPL.  If FSP B is currently the primary service processor, this problem can be circumvented by doing an HMC FSP failover to make FSP A the primary and FSP B the secondary.
• A problem was fixed for a Power Management halt error that could prevent the On-Chip Controller (OCC) Safe mode from being fully achieved (OCC is disabled but frequencies are not throttled), resulting in the system running at valid high voltage and frequencies but without the means to react to future thermal events.  This could cause the processors to run too hot and generate over-temperature warnings in some situations.
  This fix updates the Self-Boot Engine (SBE).

• DEFERRED:  The Minimum Secure Version level was updated to correlate to FW1010.01.  This change will prevent a back-level firmware update of the system to FW1010.00

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Non-Pervasive:   A problem was fixed for memory DIMM failures during the IPL with SRCs BC20090F and BC20E504 logged.  This is an intermittent and rare problem for a false memory training error that can be recovered from by unguarding the failed DIMMs and doing another IPL of the system.
• HIPER/Non-Pervasive:  A problem was fixed for processor spare lane deployment in case of lane failures.  Without the spare lane fix the processor bus goes to half-bandwidth with a degrade in performance when there are link errors.  To recover from this error,  the processor must be replaced.  
  
• A problem was fixed for a system failure during processor recovery with SRC B113E504 logged.  The occurrence of errors which trigger the need for processor recovery are rare.
• A security problem was fixed for the PowerVM Hypervisor that could allow a privileged user to gain access to another VM due to an assignment of duplicate World Wide Port Names (WWPNs).  In some cases, the PowerVM hypervisor can assign duplicate WWPN ids to virtual fiber channel adapters in peer VMs after a specific series of service actions are performed  The WWPN needs to be a unique identifier in the network.  This  Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures(CVE) id is CVE-2021-38923.
  

• This server firmware includes the SR-IOV adapter firmware level xx.30.1004 for the following Feature Codes and CCINs: #EC2R/EC2S with CCIN 58FA; #EC2T/EC2U with CCIN 58FB; and #EC66/EC67 with CCIN 2CF3.
• 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.
  
• Support was added for a new service processor command that can be used to 'lock' the power management mode, such that the mode can not be changed except by doing a factory reset.
• 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. 
  
• Support was added to generate a service processor fipsdump whenever there is Hostboot (HB) TI and HB dump.  Without this new support, an HB crash (with an HB dump) does not generate a fipsdump and the FSP FFDC at that point in time. So it was difficult to correlate what was seen in the HB dump to what was happening on the FSP at the time of the HB fail.
• 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 for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) to allow LPM migrations when virtual optical devices are configured for a source partition.  LPM automatically removes virtual optical devices as part of the LPM process.  Without this enhancement, LPM is blocked if virtual optical devices are configured.
  
• Support for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) to select the fastest network connection for data transfer between Mover Service Partitions (MSPs). The configured network capacity of the adapters is used as the metric to determine what may provide the fastest connection. The MSP is the term used to designate the Virtual I/O Server that is chosen to transmit the partition’s memory contents between source and target servers.
• Support has been dropped for the smaller logical-memory block (LMB) sizes of 16MB, 32MB, and 64MB. 128MB and 256MB are the only LMB sizes that can be selected in ASMI.
• Support has been dropped for Active Memory Sharing (AMS) on POWER10 servers.
• Support for PowerVM for an AIX Update Access Key (UAK) for AIX 7.2.  Interfaces are provided that validate the OS image date against the AIX UAK expiration date. Informational messages are generated when the release date for the AIX operating system has passed the expiration date of the AIX UAK during normal operation. Additionally, the server periodically checks and informs the administrator about AIX UAKs that are about to expire, AIX UAKs that have expired, or AIX UAKs that are missing. It is recommended that you replace the AIX UAK within 30 days prior to expiration.
  For more information, please refer to the Q&A document for "Management of AIX Update Access Keys" at
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6480845.
• Support for LPAR Radix Page Table mode in PowerVM.
• Support for PowerVM encrypted NVRAM that enables encryption of all partition NVRAM data and partition configuration information.
• Support for isolating faults to a single node that occur between an SMP cable and two nodes using Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR).
• Support for booting IBM i from a PCIe4 LP 32Gb 2-port Optical Fibre Channel Adapter with Feature Code #EN1K.
  
• Support for VIOS 3.1.3 (based on AIX 7.2 TL5 (AIX 72X) on POWER10 servers.
• Support for the IBM 4769 PCIe3 Cryptographic Coprocessor hardware security module (HSM).  This HSM has Feature Code #EJ37 with CCIN C0AF.  Its predecessors are IBM 4768, IBM 4767, and IBM 4765.
• Support for a mainstream 800GB NVME U.2 7 mm SSD (Solid State Drive) PCIe4 drive in a 7 mm carrier with Feature Code #EC7Q and CCIN 59B4 for AIX, Linux, and VIOS.
  
• Support for a PCIe4 x16 to CXP Converter card for the attachment of two active optical cables (AOC) to be used for external storage and PCIe fan-out attachment to the PCIe expansion drawers.  This cable card has Feature Code #EJ24 and CCIN 6B53.
• Support for new PCIe 4.0 x8 dual-port 32 Gb optical Fibre Channel (FC) short form adapter based on the Marvell QLE2772 PCIe host bus adapter (6.6 inches x 2.731 inches). The adapter provides two ports of 32 Gb FC capability using SR optics. Each port can provide up to 6,400 MBps bandwidth. This adapter has feature codes #EN1J/#EN1K with CCIN 579C. 
  
• Support for new PCIe 3.0 16 Gb quad-port optical Fibre Channel (FC)l x8 short form adapter based on the Marvell QLE2694L PCIe host bus adapter (6.6 inches x 2.371 inches). The adapter provides four ports of 16 Gb FC capability using SR optics. Each port can provide up to 3,200 MBps bandwidth. This adapter has feature codes #EN1E/#EN1F with CCIN 579A.