AS730
For Impact, Severity and other Firmware definitions, Please
refer to the below 'Glossary of firmware terms' url:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/power5cm/home.html#termdefs
The complete Firmware Fix History for this
Release Level can be
reviewed at the following url:
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/server/firmware/AS-Firmware-Hist.html
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AS730_140_093
/ FW731.71
08/21/14
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Impact: Security
Severity: HIPER
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.
- 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.
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AS730_138_093
/ FW731.70
05/09/14
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Impact: Availability
Severity: SPE
New Features and Functions
- 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
- A problem was fixed that prevented the service processor
from recognizing the I/O hub Host Fabric Interface (HFI) and Collective
Acceleration Unit (CAU) components as valid functional units
(FUs). This caused guard reports to show "Invalid FU" as
the hardware type of the components along with an incorrect
"DECONFIGURED" call out hardware state.
- A problem was fixed that caused system memory to guarded
when service processor errors on the FRU Support Interface (FSI)
occurred.
- A problem was fixed that caused a flood of predictive error
(PE) logs with SRC B181E550 for Integrated Switch Router (ISR) chip
recoverable errors. The errors are logged by the service
processor PRD component with signature description "io(n0p0) Undefined
error code" but there is no hardware guarded.
- 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 SRC B1754201 predictive
error to be logged without call out actions. Missing call outs
were added for bus errors accessing the Torrent chip.
- A problem was fixed that could block Host Fabric Interface
(HFI) array error recovery and eventually lead to a double bit error,
which would cause the HFI to become unusable until the next system
reboot.
- A problem was fixed that caused an error log generated by
the partition firmware to show conflicting firmware levels. This
problem occurs after a firmware update or a logical partition migration
(LPM) operation on the system.
- A problem was fixed in the isolation of PCI faults for
stopped clocks so that the error would not cause a system-wide
failure. The error is now limited to the affected logical
partition (LPAR).
- 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.
- 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.
- A problem was fixed that caused a lose of Time of Day (TOD)
clock redundancy after a power repair of a Distributed Conversion and
Control Assembly (DCCA). After the DCCA repair, the primary and
secondary TOD were assigned to the same oscillator in the DCCA that
never lost power, even though both system oscillators were functional.
- 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 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 running AIX or Linux, a problem was fixed that
caused a partition to fail to boot with SRC CA260203. This
problem also can cause concurrent firmware updates to fail.
- On systems using IPv6 addresses, the firmware was enhanced
to reduce the time it take to install an operating system using the
Network Installation Manager (NIM).
- 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 in a high-performance computing (HPC) B-side
cluster with an 8D_2S cross-coupled topology, a problem in the Local
Network Management Controller (LNMC) was fixed that caused distance
link (D-link) virtual channel (VC) deadlocks when using indirect
routes. Secondary routes had been erroneously included in the
indirect route chain. For this problem, the Executive Manager
Server (EMS) will repeatedly log "VC Deadlock Error" messages
into the /var/opt/isnm/cnm/logs/EVT_SUM.log
- 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:
o QLogic PCIe Fibre Channel adapters (combo card)
o IBM PCIe Obsidian
o Emulex BE3-based ethernet adapters
o Broadcom-based PCIe2 4-port 1Gb ethernet
o Broadcom-based FlexSystem EN2024 4-port 1Gb ethernet for compute nodes
- On systems with a DIMM error, a problem was fixed in
the service processor memory diagnostic that caused the
de-configuration of all memory. The memory diagnostic had failed
all the memory due to special attention flooding caused by the bad
hardware that did not allow the memory diagnostic to
complete. With the special attention flooding prevented,
the memory diagnostic is now able to isolate the DIMM error to a FRU
location and guard it so the system is able to IPL.
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AS730_130_093
/ FW731.61
10/25/13
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Impact: Availability
Severity: SPE
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On systems in a
high-performance computing (HPC) B-side cluster with an 8D_2S
cross-coupled topology, a problem in the Local Network Management
Controller (LNMC) was fixed that caused distance link (D-link) virtual
channel (VC) deadlocks when using indirect routes. Secondary
routes had been erroneously included in the indirect route chain.
For this problem, the Executive Manager Server (EMS) will repeatedly
log "VC Deadlock Error" messages into the
/var/opt/isnm/cnm/logs/EVT_SUM.log
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| AS730_125_093
03/11/13
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Impact: Availability
Severity: SPE
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- 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 system to abnormally
terminate due to a null pointer reference.
- The firmware was enhanced to reduce "sender hang" errors
and failures to boot nodes via the cluster fabric.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On large clusters, a problem was fixed that caused some
links in the system to remain permanently in the DOWN_RECV_GOOD
state. The links in question will not be fully utilized for data
transmission. The problem occurs with regular frequency on large
clusters when re-IPLing all CECs in the system.
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| AS730_118_093
11/02/12
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Impact: Function
Severity: SPE
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- DEFERRED: A problem
was fixed that could cause a live lock on the power bus resulting in a
system crash.
- The firmware was
enhanced to increase the
performance of certain applications by updating the routing tables.
- A problem was fixed that
caused a segmentation fault in the service processor firmware.
When this occurred, a PERC error with SRC B181C350 was logged.
- 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 the gateway network address to be shown incorrectly on the
System Management Services (SMS) menus when booting a partition on an
iSCSI network.
- A problem was fixed that
caused a "code accept" during a concurrent firmware installation from
the HMC to fail with SRC E302F85C.
- On storage drawers in a
cross-coupled topology, an attempt to place an indirect (failover)
route at an SNID location in the SRT1 route table may result in a
failover route that uses the opposite compute sub-cluster as a bounce
point. The firmware was enhanced to prevent this, since there are
no physical links between the two compute sub-clusters in a
cross-coupled topology. Having a failover route through the
opposite compute sub-cluster will lead to packet loss and application
failure.
- A problem was fixed that
prevented predictive guard errors from being deleted on the secondary
service processor. This caused hardware to be erroneously guarded
out if a service processor failover occurred.
- A problem was fixed that
caused the service processor to be reset during a CEC power off or
reboot. This causes the system to terminate, followed by a
platform reboot. SRC B181E6C7 is typically logged when this
problem occurs.
- A problem was fixed that
caused a system crash with unrecoverable SRC B7000103 and
"ErFlightRecorder" in the failing stack.
- A problem was fixed that
caused the following symptoms on user-level jobs:
1. During job initialization when starting communication
over the cluster fabric, an error message similar to the following:
4:ERROR 629
fD4fs: Message type 21 from source 4 4:MPI-PAMI ERROR: pami_init()
failed with rc(1) 4:ERROR: 0031-309 Connect failed during message
passing
initialization, task 4, reason:
2. The initialization may succeed, but an HFI translation
failure may occur, causing a time out on the cluster network and other
side effects.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- A problem was fixed that caused the dual-port Ethernet
adapter, F/C 5270 and F/C 5708, to fail to power on with SRC B7006970.
- On systems in a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster in
8D topology, a problem was fixed that caused a secondary route to be
linked to an indirect route chain. Jobs that are run in indirect
route mode may experience hangs and performance problems.
- The firmware was enhanced to improve the performance when
indirect routing is used in large cluster systems.
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| AS730_103_093
06/27/12
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Impact: Availability
Severity: SPE
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- A problem was fixed that caused a
segmentation fault in the service processor firmware. When this
occurred, a perc error with SRC B181C350 was logged.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On nodes with a single DCCA running AS730_093, a problem
was fixed that prevented the node from booting, with SRC 10008732
erroneously logged.
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| AS730_093_093
06/13/12
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Impact: Serviceability
Severity: SPE
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- DEFERRED: 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.
- The firmware
was enhanced to correctly handle bus errors between the P7 processor
chip and the I/O hub chip.
- The firmware was enhanced to correctly diagnose the failing
FRU when SRC B1xxE504 with error signature "MCFIR[14] - Hang timer
detector" was logged.
- The firmware was enhanced to improve the FRU callouts when
the number of multi-bit errors on a POWER7 processor bus exceeds the
threshold. This reduces the number of FRUs replaced on a failing
system.
- A problem was fixed the caused a system to crash when the
system was in low power (or safe mode), and the system attempted to
switch over to nominal mode.
- The firmware was enhanced to reduce the impact of heavy
volume errors, which can be logged as "sender hang" errors.
- The firmware was enhanced to reduce the number of "retry
fetch CE" and "DRAM spare" error logs entries that call out memory
DIMMs.
- A problem was fixed that caused the first processor module
in a node to be erroneously called out if an over-temperature condition
was detected, instead of the processor module that was reporting the
over-temperature condition.
- The firmware was enhanced to handle the I/O hub ISR
(Integrated Switch Router) link port errors as software-recoverable,
rather than as hard failures. Before this enhancement, the links
would have been guarded out even though these errors were recoverable.
- A problem was fixed that caused a service processor kernel
panic due to an out-of-memory condition, with SRC B181720D.
System firmware changes that affect certain systems
- On systems with F/C 5708 and 5270 Dual port 10GB Ethernet
adapter cards installed, a problem was fixed that caused SRC B7006970
to be erroneously logged when the card was powered on.
- In asymmetric and cross-coupled topologies, if there are no
direct dlink connections between a storage drawer and a compute
supernode (either through fail-in-place or through having a compute
drawer or drawers at standby), then the storage drawer, upon restart or
re-initialization of the lnmc daemon (lnmcd), does not provide a
failover route to the target compute supernode even though there are
suitable bounce points within the compute sub-cluster that can provide
the indirect route. The firmware was enhanced to provide this
indirect route.
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| AS730_084_084
04/12/12
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Impact: Function
Severity: SPE
New Features and Functions
- Support for cross-coupled compute-to-storage topology for a
2 drawer storage sub-cluster.
- Support for cross-coupled compute-to-storage topology for a
4 drawer storage sub-cluster.
System firmware changes that affect all systems
- The firmware was enhanced to allow a node to continue to
boot when unrecoverable SRC B181B70C is logged.
- A problem was fixed that caused an extraneous error log
entry
calling out DCCA-B and hub R5 when power was removed from DCCA-A, and
the service processor and TPMD in DCCA-A were primary.
- The firmware was enhanced to more gracefully handle the
system
shutdown that is required when a hypervisor hang condition was
encountered. SRCs B7000602, B182951C, B1813918 and A7001151 were
logged, and a service processor failover occurred, when the hypervisor
hang condition and subsequent system crash occurred.
- The firmware was enhanced to cause the secondary service
processor to automatically pick up configuration changes stored on the
primary service processor. This prevents the new configuration
information from being lost if a service processor failover occurs
before the secondary has picked up the new configuration information;
typically this problem will only be encountered just after a system is
installed.
- The firmware was enhanced to gracefully recover, and log
the correct error logs, if the secondary DCCA loses power.
- A problem was fixed that prevented communication between
the
compute and storage networks in asymmetric ISR network
topologies.
This affected network topologies DD2_64_8_2A, DD2_64_8_2B, DD2_64_8_4A,
and DD2_64_8_4B.
- A problem was fixed that caused SRC B181E6F1
("RMGR_PERSISTENT_EVENT_TIMEOUT") to be erroneously logged.
- The firmware was enhanced to reduce the number of memory
DIMMs replaced due to correctable errors being logged.
- A problem was fixed that caused unrecoverable SRC B130CD03
to be erroneously logged.
- A problem was fixed that caused SRC B7000602 to be
erroneously logged at power on.
- The firmware was enhance to prevent a potential deadlock in
the
opposite-side storage drawer if all of the cross-coupled dlinks between
a compute supernode (at runtime) and a storage drawer (at runtime) are
taken down. This problem also affects indirect routing from
compute to
storage over cross-coupled links.
- A problem was fixed that caused the Local Network
Management
Controller (LNMC) to be set to the wrong state during a service
processor (DCCA) fail-over. If this problem occurs, the most
likely
symptom will be a communication failure on the ISR network.
- A problem was fixed that caused a partition running AIX to
crash.
- A new level of optical link firmware is included in this
service
pack, and the optical link firmware update function is enabled.
The
new optical link device firmware will be automatically installed the
next time the node is booted after this service pack is
installed. Please see
"Additional
Details About Installing This Service Pack" in
the "Important Information" section.
- 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.)
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