Power7 Entry Systems Firmware

4GB Memory DIMM

8GB Memory DIMM

16GB Memory DIMM

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Pervasive:  A security problem was fixed in the OpenSSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol that allowed clients and servers, via a specially crafted handshake packet, to use weak keying material for communication.  A man-in-the-middle attacker could use this flaw to decrypt and modify traffic between the management console and the service processor.  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue number for this problem is CVE-2014-0224.
• HIPER/Pervasive:  A security problem was fixed in OpenSSL for a buffer overflow in the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) when handling invalid DTLS packet fragments.  This could be used to execute arbitrary code on the service processor.  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue number for this problem is CVE-2014-0195.
• HIPER/Pervasive:  Multiple security problems were fixed in the way that OpenSSL handled read and write buffers when the SSL_MODE_RELEASE_BUFFERS mode was enabled to prevent denial of service.  These could cause the service processor to reset or unexpectedly drop connections to the management console when processing certain SSL commands.  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue numbers for these problems are CVE-2010-5298 and CVE-2014-0198.
• HIPER/Pervasive:  A security problem was fixed in OpenSSL to prevent a denial of service when handling certain Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) ServerHello requests. A specially crafted DTLS handshake packet could cause the service processor to reset.  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue number for this problem is CVE-2014-0221.
• HIPER/Pervasive:  A security problem was fixed in OpenSSL to prevent a denial of service by using an exploit of a null pointer de-reference during anonymous Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) key exchange.  A specially crafted handshake packet could cause the service processor to reset.  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue number for this problem is CVE-2014-3470.

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused a built-in self test (BIST) for GX slots to create corrupt error log values that core dumped the service processor with a B18187DA.  The corruption was caused by a failure to initialize the BIST array to 0 before starting the tests.
• Help text for the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) "System Configuration/Hardware Deconfiguration/Clear All Deconfiguration Errors" menu option was enhanced to clarify that when selecting "Hardware Resources" value of "All hardware resources", the service processor deconfiguration data is not cleared.   The "Service processor" must be explicitly selected for that to be cleared.
• A problem was fixed that prevented guard error logs from being reported for FRUs that were guarded during the system power on.  This could happen if the same FRU had been previously reported as guarded on a different power on of the system.  The requirement is now met that guarded FRUs are logged on every power on of the system.
• DEFERRED: A problem was fixed that caused a system checkstop with SRC B113E504 for a recoverable hardware fault.  This deferred fix addresses a problem that has a very low probability of occurrence.  As such customers may wait for the next planned service window to activate the deferred fix via a system reboot.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, a problem was fixed that where an Offline Converter Assembly (OCA) fault would appear to persist after an OCA micro-reset or OCA replacement.  The fault bit reported to the OS may not be cleared, indicating a fault still exists in the I/O drawer after it has been repaired.
• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, a problem was fixed that occurred during Offline Converter Assembly (OCA) replacement operations. The fix prevents a false  Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) fault and the logging of SRCs 10001511 or 10001521 from occurring.    This resulted in the OCA LED getting stuck in an on or "fault" state and the OCA not powering on.
• On systems involved in a series of consecutive Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operations, a memory leak problem was fixed in the run time abstraction service (RTAS) that caused a partition run time AIX crash with SRC 0c20.  Other possible symptoms include error logs with SRC BA330002 (RTAS memory allocation failure).
• On a system with partitions with redundant Virtual Asynchronous Services Interface (VASI) streams,  a problem was fixed that caused the system to terminate with SRC B170E540.  The affected partitions include Active Memory Sharing (AMS), encapsulated state partitions, and hibernation-capable partitions.  The problem is triggered when the management console attempts to change the active VASI stream in a redundant configuration.  This may occur due to a stream reconfiguration caused by Live Partition Mobility (LPM); reconfiguring from a redundant Paging Service Partition (PSP) to a single-PSP configuration; or conversion of a partition from AMS to dedicated memory.
• On a system with a disk device with multiple boot partitions, a problem was fixed that caused System Management Services (SMS) to list only one boot partition.  Even though only one boot partition was listed in SMS, the AIX bootlist command could still be used to boot from any boot partition.
• On a system with a partition with a AIX and Linux boot source to support dual booting, a problem was fixed that caused the Host Ethernet Adapter (HEA) to be disabled when rebooting from Linux to AIX.  Linux had disabled interrupts for the HEA on power down, causing an error for AIX when it tried to use the HEA to access the network.
  

New Features and Functions

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

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• On systems with utility processors,  an accounting problem with utility processor minutes was fixed.
•  A problem was fixed that caused a migrated partition to reboot during transfer to a VIOS 2.2.2.0, and later, target system. A manual reboot would be required if transferred to a target system running an earlier VIOS release.  Migration recovery may also be necessary.
• A problem was fixed that caused a service processor dump to be generated with SRC B18187DA "NETC_RECV_ER" logged.
• A problem was fixed that caused a L2 cache error to not guard out the faulty processor, allowing the system to checkstop again on an error to the same faulty processor.
• A problem was fixed that caused a HMC code update failure for the FSP on the accept operation with SRC B1811402 or FSP is unable to boot on the updated side.
• A problem was fixed that caused a 1000911E platform event log (PEL) to be marked as not call home.  The PEL is now a call home to allow for correction.  This PEL is logged when the hypervisor has changed the Machine Type Model Serial Number (MTMS) of an external enclosure to UTMP.xxx.xxxx because it cannot read the vital product data (VPD), or the VPD has invalid characters, or if the MTMS is a duplicate to another enclosure.
• A problem was fixed that caused the state of the Host Ethernet Adapter (HEA) port to be reported as down when the physical port is actually up.
• A problem was fixed that caused the system attention LED to be lit without a corresponding SRC and error log for the event.  This problem typically occurs when an operating system on a partition terminates abnormally.
• DEFERRED: A problem was fixed that caused a system checkstop during hypervisor time keeping services. This deferred fix addresses a problem that has a very low probability of occurrence.  As such customers may wait for the next planned service window to activate the deferred fix via a system reboot.
  

• On systems with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, the firmware was enhanced to guarantee that an SRC will be generated when there is a power supply voltage fault.  If no SRC is generated, a loss of power redundancy may not be detected, which can lead to a drawer crash if the other power supply goes down.  This also fixes a problem that causes an 8 GB Fiber channel adapter in the drawer to fail if the 12V level fails in one Offline Converter Assembly (OCA).
  
• On systems managed by an HMC with a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer installed, a problem was fixed that caused the hardware topology on the management console for the managed system to show "null" instead of "operational" for the affected I/O drawers.
• For 8233-E8B and 8236-E8C systems, a problem was fixed that prevented the clear of the file on the service processor that contains partition data when the Advanced Management System Interface (ASMI) was used to "Reset Server Firmware Settings" from the Factory Configuration menu.  This problem caused the HMC managed system to go into the recovery state.
• On systems running AIX or Linux, a problem was fixed that caused the operating system to halt when an InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter (HCA) adapter fails or malfunctions.
• A problem was fixed in the run-time abstraction services (RTAS) extended error handling (EEH) for fundamental reset that caused partitions to crash during adapter updates.  The fundamental reset of adapters now returns a valid return code.  The adapter drivers using fundamental reset affected by this fix are the following:
  
  • QLogic PCIe Fibre Channel adapters (combo card)
  •  IBM PCIe Obsidian
  • Emulex BE3-based ethernet adapters
  • Broadcom-based PCIe2 4-port 1Gb ethernet
  • Broadcom-based FlexSystem EN2024 4-port 1Gb ethernet for compute nodes

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused a card (and its children) that was removed after the system was booted to continue to be listed in the guard menus in the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1813221, which indicates a failure of the battery on the service processor, to be erroneously logged after a service processor reset or power cycle.
• A problem was fixed that caused various SRCs to be erroneously logged at boot time including B181E6C7 and B1818A14.
• A problem was fixed that caused a code update operation to fail with a time-out error, creating a call-home with SRC B1818A0F .  This problem is more likely to occur on HMC-managed systems experiencing a high level of management activity during a code update.
• A problem was fixed that caused the service processor (or system controller) to crash when it boots from the new level during a concurrent firmware installation.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7006A72 to be erroneously logged.
• The Power Hypervisor was enhanced to insure better synchronization of vSCSI and NPIV I/O interrupts to partitions.
• A problem was fixed that was caused by an attempt to modify a virtual adapter from the management console command line when the command specifies it is an Ethernet adapter, but the virtual ID specified is for an adapter type other than Ethernet.  The managed system has to be rebooted to restore communications with the management console when this problem occurs; SRC B7000602 is also logged.

System firmware changes that affect certain systems

• On systems with an I/O tower attached, a problem was fixed that caused SRCs 10009135 and 10009139 to be erroneously logged.
• A problem was fixed that caused the Field Core Override (FCO) value in the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) menus to be displayed incorrectly the first time the ASMI menus were accessed.
• On systems with an I/O tower attached, a problem was fixed that caused multiple service processor reset/reloads if the tower was continuously sending invalid System Power Control Network (SPCN) status data.
• A problem was fixed that caused the HMC to display incorrect data for a virtual Ethernet adapter's transactions statistics.
• A problem was fixed that caused a hibernation resume operation to hang if the connection to the paging space is lost near the end of the resume processing.  This is more likely on a partition that supports remote restart.
• A problem was fixed that caused the system to terminate with a bad address checkstop during mirroring defragmentation.
  
• A problem was fixed that prevented the HMC command "lshwres" from showing any I/O adapters if any adapter name contained the ampersand character in the VPD.
• On a system running a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operation, a problem was fixed that caused the partition to successfully appear on the target system, but hang with a 2005 SRC.
  
• On a partition with a large number of potentially bootable devices, a problem was fixed that caused the partition to fail to boot with a default catch, and SRC BA210000 may also be logged.
• On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) partitions, a problem was fixed that may arise due to the incorrect handling of a return code in an error path during the Live Partition Mobility (LPM) of an AMS partition.
• On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) partitions, a timing problem was fixed that may occur if the system is undergoing AMS pool size changes.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• HIPER/Non-Pervasive: DEFERRED:  A problem was fixed that caused a system crash with SRC B170E540.
• HIPER/Non-Pervasive:  A related problem was also fixed that could cause a live lock on the power bus resulting in a system crash.
• To address poor placement of partitions following a reboot of a server with unlicensed cores, the firmware was enhanced to run the affinity manager when the initialize configuration operation is done from the HMC.  A problem was also fixed that caused the hypervisor to be left in an inconsistent state after a partition create operation failed.
  

New Features and Functions

• Support for booting the IBM i operating system from a USB tape drive.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that caused a partition with dedicated processors to hang with SRC  BA33xxxx when rebooted, after it was migrated using a Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operation from a system running Ax730 to a system running Ax740, or vice versa.
• The firmware was enhanced to call out the correct field replaceable units (FRUs) when SRC B124E504 with description "Chnl init TO due to SN stuck in recovery" was logged.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B1818A10 to be erroneously logged after a system firmware installation.
• A problem was fixed that caused booting from a virtual fibre channel tape device to fail with SRC B2008105.
• The firmware was enhanced to log SRCs BA180030 and BA180031 as informational instead of predictive.
• A problem was fixed that caused a "code accept" during a concurrent firmware installation from the HMC to fail with SRC E302F85C.  This is most likely to occur on model FHB systems.
• On systems running the AIX operating system, a problem was fixed that caused the hypervisor to crash with SRC B7000103, after an HEA (Host Ethernet Adapter) error was logged, when there is a lot of AIX activity on the HEAs.
• A problem was fixed that caused the suspension of a partition to fail if a large amount of data has to be stored to resume the partition.
• A problem was fixed that caused a system crash with unrecoverable SRC B7000103 with "ErFlightRecorder" in the failing stack.
• On systems booting from an NPIV (N-port ID virtualization) device, a problem was fixed that caused the boot to intermittently terminate with the message "PReP-BOOT: unable to load full PReP image.".  This problem occurs more frequently on the IBM V7000 Storage System running the SAN Volume Controller (SVC), but not on every boot.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B181E6F1 with the description "RMGR_PERSISTENT_EVENT_TIMEOUT" to be erroneously logged.
• A problem was fixed that prevented a change to the system operating mode ("M" or "N") made in the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) menu from being displayed in the physical control (operator) panel.
  
• A problem was fixed that caused a memory leak in the service processor firmware.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B155A491 to be erroneously logged during multiple system IPLs.  This SRC may cause the system to terminate.
• A problem was fixed that caused the default value for Field Core Override to be incorrect in the ASMI menus the first time the system is booted.
  
• The ASMI menus were enhanced to more clearly indicate which processor cores were deconfigured by the Field Core Override (FCO) option (F/C 2319).
• On 8202-E4B and 8205-E6B systems, the firmware was enhanced to call out a failing VRM, instead of the memory card on which the VRM is plugged, if the VRM fails when the system is booting.
• On 8231-E2B systems, the firmware was enhanced to improve the service actions for SRC 11002691.

• The firmware was enhanced to fix a potential performance degradation on systems utilizing the stride-N stream prefetch instructions dcbt (with TH=1011) or dcbtst (with TH=1011).  Typical applications executing these algorithms include High Performance Computing, data intensive applications exploiting streaming instruction prefetchs, and applications utilizing the Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library (ESSL) 5.1.
• On systems on which Internet Explorer (IE) is used to access the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) on the Hardware Management Console (HMC), a problem was fixed that caused IE to hang for about 10 minutes after saving changes to network parameters on the ASMI.
• A problem was fixed that caused informational SRC A70047FF, which may indicate that the Anchor (VPD) card should be replaced, to be erroneously logged again after the Anchor card was replaced.
• A problem was fixed that caused a network installation of IBM i to fail when the client was on the same subnet as the server.
• On systems with a 5796 or 5797 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that could cause a system hang.
• On system managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the lsstat command on the HMC to display an erroneously high number of packets transmitted and received on a vlan interface.
  
• On systems with a 7311 I/O drawer attached, a problem was fixed that caused a system boot to hang with C700406E.
  
• On system managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that caused the lsstat command on the HMC to display an erroneously high number of packets transmitted and received on a vlan interface.
• On 8202-E4B and 8205-E6B systems with the feature code (F/C) 5610 or F/C 5685 PCI expansion riser installed, a multi-port communications adapter installed in a slot on the expansion riser, and that are managed by an HMC, a problem was fixed that prevented hardware discovery by the HMC of the communication adapter from completing.  This problem could also cause making a system plan to fail with SRC BA350000.
  

New Features and Functions

• Support for IBM i Live Partition Mobility (LPM)
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• A problem was fixed that prevented the user from changing the boot mode or keylock setting after a remote restart-capable partition is created, even after the partition's paging device is on-line.

• The firmware resolves undetected N-mode stability problems and improves error reporting on the feature code (F/C) 5802 and 5877 I/O drawer power subsystem.
  

System firmware changes that affect all systems

• The firmware was enhanced to properly display a memory controller that has been guarded out manually on the "Deconfiguration Records" menu option (under "System Service Aids") on the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI).
  
• A problem was fixed that caused multiple service processor dumps to be unnecessarily taken during a concurrent firmware update.  SRC B181EF9A, which indicates that the dump space on the service processor is full, was logged as a result.
• The firmware was enhanced to increase the threshold for recoverable SRC B113E504 so that the processor core reporting the SRC is not guarded out.  This prevents unnecessary performance loss and the unnecessary replacement of processor modules.
• A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7000602 to be erroneously logged at power on.
• The firmware was enhanced to recognize new USB-attached devices so that they will be listed as boot devices in the System Management Services (SMS) menus.
• A problem was fixed that caused booting or installing a partition or system from a USB device to fail with error code BA210012.  This usually occurs when an operating system (OS) other than the OS that is already on the partition or system is booted or installed.
• On the System Management Services (SMS) remote IPL (RIPL) menus, a problem was fixed that caused the SMS menu to continue to show that an Ethernet device is configured for iSCSI, even though the user has changed it to BOOTP.
  
• The firmware was enhanced to log SRCs BA180030 and BA180031 as informational instead of predictive.
• The firmware was enhanced to increase the threshold of soft NVRAM errors on the service processor to 32 before SRC B15xF109 is logged.  (Replacement of the service processor is recommended if more than one B15xF109 is logged per week.)
  
• A problem was fixed that caused the internal PCI slot fault LEDs to erroneously turn on after AC power was removed, then reapplied.

• HIPER/Non-pervasive:  On systems managed by a Hardware Management Console (HMC), and on which a concurrent system firmware update was done, a problem was fixed that caused the number of processors available on the managed system shown on the management console to be smaller than it should have been.
• A problem was fixed that caused the hypervisor to hang during a concurrent operation on a F/C 5802, 5803, 5873 or 5877 I/O drawer.  Recovering from the hypervisor hang required a platform reboot.
  
• A problem was fixed that impacted performance if profiling was enabled in one or more partitions.  Performance profiling is enabled:
   - In an AIX or VIOS partition using the tprof (-a, -b, -B, -E option) command or pmctl (-a, -E option) command.
   - In an IBM i partition when the PEX *TRACE profile (TPROF) collections or PEX *PROFILE collections are active.
   - In a Linux partition using the perf command, which is available in RHEL6 and SLES11; profiling with oprofile does not cause the problem.
• A problem was fixed that prevented the operating system from being notified that a F/C 5802 or 5877 I/O drawer had recovered from an input power fault (SRC 10001512 or 10001522).
  
• On a system that is being upgraded from Ax720 system firmware to Ax730 system firmware, the firmware was enhanced to log B1818A0F as informational instead of predictive if it occurs during the firmware upgrade.
• On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS), the allocation of the memory was enhanced to improve performance.
• A problem was fixed that caused the suspension of a logical partition running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) to fail because the disk headers had not been erased.
• On systems with an iSCSI network, when booting a logical partition using that iSCSI network, a problem was fixed that caused the iSCSI gateway parameter displayed on the screen to be incorrect.  It did not impact iSCSI boot functionality.
• On systems running Active Memory Sharing (AMS) and Active Memory Mirrorring (AMM), a problem was fixed that caused memory allocation to fail.  This in turn caused a partition to fail to boot with SRC A2009030.
• On systems using the Advanced Energy Manager (AEM) to run in Dynamic Power Save (DPS) mode, and with deconfigured processor cores, a problem was fixed that caused the processor voltages to be set incorrectly, which in turn caused the system to use more power than it should have been using.
• On systems managed by an HMC and using affinity groups, a problem was fixed that prevented one of the partitions from being placed correctly.
  

System firmware changes that affect certain systems