SPARC M7 Series Servers : Upgrade Sun System Firmware From 9.4.3.d to 9.5.2.g or later

Asset ID:	1-71-2099205.1
Update Date:	2017-10-11
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 2099205.1 : SPARC M7 Series Servers : Upgrade Sun System Firmware From 9.4.3.d to 9.5.2.g or later

Applies to:

SPARC M7-16 - Version All Versions and later
SPARC M7-8 - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal

This task contains special instructions that you must perform to upgrade the Sun System Firmware from version 9.4.3.d to 9.5.2.g or later. Allocate at least four hours to perform this task.
Download the firmware package and the Oracle Solaris miniroot fallback image from My Oracle Support (https://support.oracle.com) before you begin this procedure.
Details on what to download can be found in:

Important Notes :

This procedure does not apply to SPARC T7 Servers,
- See T7 Firmware Upgrade Process When Going to System SysFW 9.5.2.g or Later From Any SysFW Version Earlier Than 9.5.2.g (Doc ID 2090115.1)
Sun System Firmware version 9.5.2.g or later requires updates to the FPGAs,
Perform all updates to the FPGAs, including all required power cycles, before you upgrade the firmware to version 9.5.2.g or later.
The HW Programmables 1.0.6 README for the FPGAs update on My Oracle Support contains a link to a MOS article that includes instructions on how to update the FPGAs.
You must perform all of the steps before you upgrade the firmware.
Refer to SPARC M7 Series Servers: Firmware for the Various Hardware Components Used on SPARC M7 SeriesServers, Doc ID 2076387.1

Solution

You can perform a number of steps from the Oracle ILOM CLI or web interface, or from Oracle Ops Center, but during the complete procedure you do need to have a local serial connections to both SPs.

This procedure focuses on the CLI. All commands shown must be run on the active SP, unless specified differently.

1. Check the SP role and current version of the Sun System Firmware.

->show /SP/redundancy status
/SP/redundancy
Properties:
status = Active

->show /System/firmware
/System/Firmware
Targets:
Other_Firmware
Properties:
system_fw_version = Sun System Firmware 9.5.4.a 2016/03/11 14:26
->

If the current version is at least 9.5.2.g, you do not need to perform the steps in this procedure.
Refer to the README for the firmware for instructions on how to upgrade the firmware.

2. Stop the system, and wait until the power_state property displays as off.

-> stop /System
Are you sure you want to stop all of the configured hosts on the system (y/n)? y
Stopping /System
stop:
/HOST0: Stopping
/HOST1: Stopping
...
-> show /System power_state
Properties:
power_state = Off

3. On the Active SP, record the current network settings, the SP hostname and diag/hw_change_level for all HOSTs, on the Standby SP record hostname too.

Note - You must have local serial connections to both SPs before you can proceed.

-> show /SP/network
/SP/network
...
Properties:
commitpending = (Cannot show property)
ipdiscovery = static
ipgateway = 10.129.89.1
ipnetmask = 255.255.255.0
pendingipdiscovery = static
pendingipgateway = 10.129.89.1
pendingipnetmask = 255.255.255.0
...
-> show -o table -level 2 /SP/network ipaddress
Target | Property | Value
------------------------------+-----------------------------------+------------------------
/SP/network/ACTIVE_SP | ipaddress | 10.129.89.49
/SP/network/HOST0 | ipaddress | 0.0.0.0
/SP/network/HOST1 | ipaddress | 0.0.0.0
/SP/network/HOST2 | ipaddress | 0.0.0.0
/SP/network/HOST3 | ipaddress | 0.0.0.0
/SP/network/SP0 | ipaddress | 10.129.89.50
/SP/network/SP1 | ipaddress | 10.129.89.51
-> show /SP hostname
...
hostname = m7-8-tvp540-a-sp0
...
-> show /HOST0/diag hw_change_level
...
hw_change_level = off
...
-> show /HOST1/diag hw_change_level
...
...

4. Back up the current SP configuration.

This step uses the IP address of the server on which to save the configuration file. You can also use the host name.

-> set /SP/config passphrase=passphrase
-> set /SP/config dump_uri=scp://user@IP-address/file-name.xml

5. Load the Sun System Firmware package.

This step uses the IP address of the server to which you downloaded the firmware package. You can also use the host name.

-> load -source http://IP-address/Sun_System_Firmware-9_5_4_a-SPARC_M7-Systems.pkg

Note - You should see console messages and errors after the SP reboot. These messages and errors are expected. The following screen example shows some of the messages and errors.

Erasing 512 Kibyte @ 40000000 -- 100 % complete.
...
2015-12-08 18:59:15 ** Error: cannot find /package/ilom_rom.pkg
...
env: can't execute 'perl': No such file or directory
...
waiting for vbsc deploy ... failed. Timeout after 901 seconds

Both SPs might also report that they are the Standby SP. The following is not an error. The two SPs negotiate the roles properly.

waiting for role determination ... done (took 15 secs). Role='Standby'

There is a slight chance that a SPARC M7-8 server with two PDomains might report that SP0 with SPM1 and SP1 with SPM1 as not present, even though they function normally, as in the
following example.

2015-12-11 13:55:41: /SYS/SP0/SPM0 inventory is available
2015-12-11 13:55:41: /SYS/SP1/SPM0 inventory is available
2015-12-11 13:55:41: /SYS/SP0/SPM1 is not present
2015-12-11 13:55:41: /SYS/SP1/SPM1 is not present

If these errors occur, check the serial console of the affected SPM, and confirm that the SP finished rebooting.

You can log in to the Active SP to check the SPM with the "show /System/Other_Removable_Devices/Service_Processors state_sp -level 4" command to ensure that the SPM is online.

6. Restore the SP network settings.

You must perform this step from the serial console for the Active SP. Watch the serial console output to determine the Active SP name, and log in to that serial console. If you are not on the active SP, connect your serial cable to the other SP and check the SP role again. Once you are connected to the active SP, apply the settings you recorded in step 3, as shown in the following commands:

-> set /SP/network pendingipgateway=IP-address pendingipnetmask=netmask
-> set /SP/network/ACTIVE_SP pendingipaddress=IP-address
-> set /SP/network commitpending=true
Set 'commitpending' to 'true'
->

7. Restore the SP configuration.

This step uses the IP address on which you saved the SP configuration file. You can also use the host name.

-> set /SP/config passphrase=passphrase
-> set /SP/config load_uri=scp://user@IP-address/filename.xml

This step prompts you to reboot all of the SPs. You do not need to reboot all of the SPs immediately. The needed SP reboot occurs automatically as part of the firmware loading step.

Note - The host name for the SP and SPP property might not be restored correctly.

Log in to each SP (SP0 and SP1) on the serial consoles, and correct the host name property manually with the recorded values of step 3.

Note - If you restore the SP configuration using the serial console, you should expect the following message printed to the /SP/logs/event/list file.

Config restore: Unable to restore property '/SP/serial/external/commitpending'

8. Load the fallback image.

This step uses the IP address of the server on which you downloaded the Oracle Solaris miniroot fallback image. You can also use the host name.

-> load -source http://IP-address/sol-11_3_2_4_0-fallback_boot-sparc.pkg

Select the fallback image corresponding to the OS version installed on your system. If your HOSTS run different SRUs, select the fallback image that is equal of newer then the most recent SRU in use by your HOSTS.

9. Perform the final load of the Sun System Firmware package.

This step uses the IP address of the server on which you downloaded the firmware package. You can also use the host name.

-> load -source http://IP-address/Sun_System_Firmware-9_5_4_a-SPARC_M7-Systems.pkg

After the SPs reboot, you can resume normal operations. In some cases, an SP or SPM might be reported as degraded or faulty with the following ereports and faults:

2015-12-10/14:52:26 ereport.fs.file.missing@/SYS/SP1/SPM1_file = /package/ilom_rom.pkg
2015-12-10/14:59:36 defect.ilom.fs.file-missing@/SYS/SP1/SPM1 [FRU = /SYS/
SP1]defect.ilom.fs.file-missing

You can repair these faults in the fault management shell.

-> start /SP/faultmgmt/shell
Are you sure you want to start /SP/faultmgmt/shell (y/n) y
faultmgmtsp> fmdump -av
faultmgmtsp> fmadm repair /SYS/SP1

Note - Typically, when you start a host, the host runs POST using /HOSTn/diag/default_level rather than using /HOSTn/diag/hw_change_level. After this procedure, make sure that "/HOSTn/diag/hw_change_level" has been properly restored to its recorded value from step 3. It may be set as max, causing an extended startup sequence. You might want to change that setting to save time before you start a host.

References

<NOTE:2090115.1> - T7 Firmware Upgrade Process When Going to System SysFW 9.5.2.g or Later From Any SysFW Version Earlier Than 9.5.2.g

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