RE: New version of HMC.

Rob,

You stated that firmware can be loaded to be applied later. I don't
see how you can do an install without an activate on a FSP. You can do a
Retrieve, which goes out and loads the Firmware to the HMC, but doesn't load
it on the FSP.

When you "approve" firmware to go from the T to the P side, you
don't need an IPL.

Anytime a release changes, ie go from 01SF235 to 01SF240 that
definitely requires a full system IPL (shutdown all partitions, and restart
the FSP). When you are putting on what could be referred to as a PTF, ie go
from 01SF240_299 to 01SF240_320 there is another parameter on the name. So,
when you get 01SF240_320_201 that last number says if you currently have a
PTF higher then 201 (in our example we had 299) then the firmware update can
be done concurrently (meaning you can load and apply without having to IPL
the FSP). If the number of your current PTF had been lower, then it would
be a disruptive IPL, and all partitions would need to be ended. IBM has
been really good about making most of the fixes non-disruptive over the last
year. I would agree that at 01SF225 & 01SF230 almost every update seemed to
be disruptive.

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 3:05 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: New version of HMC.

If you have an HMC you might as well use it to check these levels out.
Hey, if you do it might help to make sense out of what you are seeing in
STRSST.
Log on to your HMC and tell it you want to update your firmware. When you
get into it, tell it you just want to check the current levels. (Yeah,
it's a little scary that you have to start the update to see your current
values but you'll quickly get over that fear after you do it once.) Then
maybe the GUI will explain it better.

Once you get your firmware and HMC code up to speed, V7 of HMC's interface
is generally much better.

It's just to get there you have to update firmware, update HMC, update
firmware, update HMC, repeat - depending on how far you are behind.

Much of this should be familiar to those who came from AS/400s and
remember having to IPL to A side then B side (I forget which first) to
apply cumes and what not. iSeries people may not be quite so familiar.

Firmware can be loaded to be applied later. Then it can be applied. Then
it can be "approved" (much like being applied permanently). Most of this
can be done with 1 IPL of the firmware (which, unfortunately, is quite
disruptive to the lpars on that rack).

Did drive up to Rochester and asked why the hell I had to IPL the whole
rack, even when I had redundant FSP's. Why couldn't they upgrade one,
then upgrade the other later? Answer was something about the IPL applying
CEC (pronounced "keck") updates. Which is a nice explanation, but I'd
still like my resolution.

Rob Berendt