Re: SWMA, HWMA and Update Access Keys....

[Pete Helgren <pete@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Jim.  That would have been a "nice to know" before the UAK 
expired.  Firmware has always been a bit of a mystery for me on IBM i.  
Never really gave it a second thought until Rob posted about issues with 
incompatible levels and ensuing hassles with HMC, etc.  I have been 
meaning to look into it, since I knew I was back level.

The good Dr. Franken also weighed in with "IBM Has made many levels of 
Firmware available even without hardware support" which makes me wonder 
"Am I SOL without HWMA or not?"  Current firmware on the 9009 I have is:

                            Display Firmware Status

                                                                                

 Service partition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :   Yes

 Firmware update policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :   *HMC

 Server IPL source  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :   Permanent

 Firmware product ID/release  . . . . . . . . . . . :   5733909  V1R1M0

 Update access key expiration date  . . . . . . . . :   07/09/22

                                                                                

                                                                                

           --Server firmware---  --Operating system--

           Fix         PTF       Fix         PTF       Update

 Copy      pack        ID        pack        ID        Status

 *ACTIVE   VL910_135   MH01812

           FW910.30

 *TEMP     VL910_135   MH01812   *NONE       *NONE     None

           FW910.30              *NONE

 *PERM     VL910_135   MH01812   *NONE       *NONE     None

           FW910.30              *NONE

                                                                         Bottom

Pretty old, I know.  So should I attempt to get HWMA?  Follow the PRPQ 
route to just take my chances with the status quo?  Try to update the 
Firmware to see if I can?

Pete Helgren
www.petesworkshop.com
GIAC Secure Software Programmer-Java
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
Twitter - Sys_i_Geek  IBM_i_Geek

On 7/11/2022 10:25 AM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:
> You will not be able to update the firmware, and eventually not be able to
> apply PTFs due to incompatibility, but the system will keep running.
>
> You will need to request a PRPQ for the firmware support only, IBM will
> only sell one year at a time on that.  It's a royal, class A, major PITA to
> get done.
>
> IBM does not seem to realize that the dwindling support personnel in the
> field and the awful lack of experience and education/training of these
> folks are driving customers away from IBM Hardware support.  Last week I
> had to instruct the SSR how to replace a disk unit since "he had never done
> it before on an IBM i system".  Did not even know how to sign in to SST.
> He was trying to get SMIT to come up (AIX utility).
>
> That said, hardware support on a single system is not too awful in price.
>
>
>
> --
> Jim Oberholtzer
> Chief Technical Architect
> Agile Technology Architects