Re: Seeking recommendations on hmc and firmware level to update/upgrade to

Aha! The following was exactly what I was thinking:

Feature exclusion between FW1040.00 and FW1030.20:
The following feature is supported only with firmware level FW1040.00 and
HMC 10.2.1040 and is excluded from FW1030.20:
- NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer (#ESR0)
The following features are supported with firmware level FW1030.20 and HMC
10.2.1040 but are *excluded* from FW1040.00:
- PCIe3 12 Gb x8 SAS Tape HBA adapter(#EJ2B/#EJ2C)
- PCIe4 32 Gb 4-port optical FC adapter (#EN2L/#EN2M)
- PCIe4 64 Gb 2-port optical FC adapter (#EN2N/#EN2P)
- Mixed DDIMM support for the Power E1050 server (#EMCM)
- 100 V power supplies support for the Power S1022s server (#EB3R)

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6992631

I am going to upgrade to 1050

On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 8:04 AM Rob Berendt <robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

I stand corrected. It wasn't 1050 that was the issue. It was 1040. 1040
was a special STS or Short Term Solution. Avoid it and go to 1050 as a LTS.

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7031014

says:

At the time of general availability, FW1040 is required to support the
NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawer. FW1040 is a limited, interim release, and is
different from IBM's normal releases in the following manner:
- Normal releases have service pack support for 2 years after the release.
However, FW1040 is only supported from GA until the next major FW version
becomes available.
- Only a single service pack for FW1040 is planned near the release of the
next major FW version.
- Clients who install FW1040 must perform a disruptive upgrade once the
next major FW version becomes available.
- IBM manufacturing installs FW1040 for customer orders with NED24 NVMe
Expansion Drawers included. However, FW1030 is installed for customer
orders without NED24 NVMe Expansion Drawers.
- IBM is not planning to release IBM i PTFs for FW1040. Support will
continue for the FW1030 stream ONLY until the next firmware release is
published.

On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 9:00 AM Rob Berendt <robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Resending with a subject line:

I'm at HMC: Version: 10 Release: 2 Service Pack: 1041

FLRT says that's good. Says there are no recommended upgrades.
Says Latest version: V10 R3 M1050.

I'm at firmware ML1030_065_026. FLRT recommends I update
to ML1030_075_026 or upgrade to ML1050_052_052.

What FLRT doesn't say is that if I grade my firmware to ML1050_052_052 I
had better have my HMC at V10R3M1050 (PTF MF41419). I left feedback.

1 - What started this are some security concerns with my current level of
HMC.
2 - I seem to recall something about if I am using one hardware feature
in a P10 then I should be at 104x of firmware but if I am using this other
hardware feature I should be using a 105x of firmware. Does the latest
105x of firmware cover this?
3 - Any reason not to upgrade HMC to V10R3M1050 and firmware to
ML1050_052_052? I do not usually subscribe to the notion that I should
always be a level or more behind.

We're at IBM i 7.5TR3 and AIX 7200-05-06-2320. FLRT is recommending an
upgrade of our AIX.