Re: HMC OS upgrade - 740 to 770

Its a standard feature on all xseries servers (which the HMC uses as it
base, a cr3 is really an x336). The IMM remote control feature is nice as
is an ethernet KVM if available. People used to have trouble with the
original RSA/RSAII cards (same stuff, older name). i dont know if the
current IMM works better.


On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 11:54 PM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<he he> It's a feature available to all IBM System x servers. In the 336
(CR3) or 3550 (CR4+) machine it's called a remote media key which
enables the server to be controlled remotely by a java app. This is for
the IMM. If you have IMM2 this feature is no longer hardware but a
software key that yields 'Advanced' functions including remote control.

It's not fabulous of course because it's java but it works and is better
than even a 10 minute drive!!

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/TIPS0849.html?Open

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 12/11/2013 9:39 PM, Steinmetz, Paul wrote:

Larry,

Tell me more about the "magic chip" allow remote console of the HMC

through the service processor.

Thanks
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DrFranken

Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 9:26 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: HMC OS upgrade - 740 to 770

I watch the getupgfiles command run. If it cannot verify the signatures

of the files it complains. If it doesn't complain then it succeeded. One of
my upgrades on Tuesday did in fact complain as the bzImage file somehow was
damaged moving it to the FTP server and needed to be retransmitted before
getupgfiles would succeed.

As to the failure: Depends on the failure.

Some of my customers put the 'magic chip' (I forget the name) to allow

remote console of the HMC through the service processor. With that you can
watch the remote upgrade and restart it etc. Unfortunately if it requires
media to be installed for example to recover from backup then you'll need
someone there with fingers.

So my rule for such HMC upgrades is that if the HMC is mission critical

to the enterprise then at least one of these must be true: A) There are two
HMCs. Upgrade only one at a time. or B) I'm on site for the upgrade.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 12/11/2013 4:12 PM, Steinmetz, Paul wrote:

Bryan or Larry,

1) How do you confirm if the getupgfiles command is successful.
I know you can watch the files download in /hmcdump, but when complete,

/hmcdump is empty.

getupgfiles -h ftp.software.ibm.com -u anonymous --passwd ftp /-d
/software/server/hmc/network/v7350

2) How do you handle remotely if the upgrade hangs, I had to force

power off the HMC.

Thanks
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DrFranken
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 3:12 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: HMC OS upgrade - 740 to 770

I haven't done an upgrade with media in some time, always use the
network images. This process works marvelously and saves me a lot of
mileage. Did two of them yesterday one from V7R7.4.0 and one from
V7R7.3.0 up to V7R7.7.0.2 with no issues. Both were hours of drive time

away from me so the network is the way to go.

I do have one system with V7R7.8.0 running but the network upgrade to

that did fail and I had to reload from DVD media.

Interesting thing about V7R7.8.0 is that DVD RAM is no longer a valid

backup target.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 12/11/2013 2:30 PM, Steinmetz, Paul wrote:

To all,

I just completed an HMC OS upgrade, 740 SP2 to 770 SP 2.
The first upgrade failed, I tried using the images downloaded from IBM

directly to HMC.

Something was either missing or one of the images was corrupted.
Did anyone ever have a successful upgrade from media downloaded from

IBM to HMC.

As a back up solution, I burned the HMC recovery disks from my PC,

these iso downloaded ok.

Followed section 2 of Scratch install of HMC from Recovery CDs.
Then Restore upgrade data from USB.

Everything back to normal, and upgraded to latest, 770 SP 2.
78 is out, but not recommended by HMC folks until next year.

Also applied latest firmware, AL 740 121, will be doing a platform IPL

Monday night to apply all firmware.

Thank You
_____
Paul Steinmetz
IBM i Systems Administrator

Pencor Services, Inc.
462 Delaware Ave
Palmerton Pa 18071

610-826-9117 work
610-826-9188 fax
610-349-0913 cell
610-377-6012 home

psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pencor.com/

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