topic Re: EFI upgrade question in Integrity Servers

EFI upgrade question

Ryan Neira — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 10:44:32 GMT

Hi,
I've got a new rx3600 server with no OS loaded on it. When trying to load the Sept 06 release of HP-UX 11i v2, I get a kernel panic that hangs the server. When loading an older release, it loads fine.
I noticed the EFI version is 1.10, and it looks like there are newer versions of the Ssytem Firmware available from HP, so I tried to upgrade it. However, there is no MP (Management Processor) in this server, so the upgrade fails when I boot the server from the new firmware CD. There are other instructions that say to copy the upgrade file to the /boot/efi partition on the hard drive, but how can I do that if there is no OS loaded yet? If the EFI resides on the EFI partition on the hard drive, how am I able to access the EFI shell when the machine powers up but before I boot from a hard drive? This is very confusing.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

Re: EFI upgrade question

Torsten. — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:06:42 GMT

Hi,

this all sounds some strange.
First of all you should run "info fw" on the EFI prompt to get your current version.

You will find the most current version on the web:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3257032&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3257031&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=54

You can just untar the EFI package, put it on a cdrom or usb stick ("filename.efi"), boot the server and run the file.

Of course you should read the instructions.

Re: EFI upgrade question

Ryan Neira — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:22:02 GMT

That link you supplied is the firmware that I downloaded. I did download the ISO image instead of the EFI image (there are two options for the download), but I'm not sure if that makes a difference. I burned the ISO to a CD and booted the server from the CD. It entered into the firmware update program, but immediately errored out because it did not detect an MP card in the system. I could not capture the error as it was on the system console, but it was similar to 'MP ' not found. Looks like it was looking for a model of the MP card but came back with a null value or something.

I looked at the instructions for the EFI image install, but it looks like you need to copy the image to the EFI partition:

"Determine the character-special device file for the EFI partition on your disk. Type: "ioscan -fknC disk". The file will be /dev/rdsk/*s1. (i.e. /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s1) If there are more than one such file, check "bdf" output to identify the name of the disk associated with the root "/" directory. For more information, type "man vgdisplay" and "man 4 efi". "

There is no OS loaded on this server yet, so this doesn't seem possible. I suppose i could load an older version then update the EFI, but I'm still worried that the absence of the MP card will cause a problem.

Thanks,
Ryan

Re: EFI upgrade question

rick jones — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:43:54 GMT

It sounds doubly strange because I didn't think it was possible (supported?) to order an rx3600 without an MP...but I could be wrong I suppose but:

http://h20341.www2.hp.com/integrity/cache/388384-0-0-0-121.html

does not show an MP as an optional accessory like it does for say the rx2620:

http://h20341.www2.hp.com/integrity/cache/332442-0-0-0-121.html

(both of which were reached via http://www.hp.com/go/[rx3600|rx2620] )

so my inclination would be to suggest you are missing some required hardware...

Re: EFI upgrade question

kris rombauts — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:19:15 GMT

Ryan,

don't think you have to look into trying to upgrade this system for now to fix your instalaltion problem. The EFI version you refer to is the EFI boot manager shell and this is V1.10 [14.62] i guess, their is no newer version available, unless you want to upgrade this system to eventual newer system f/w.
The only change in Sysfw V1.32 compared to the first release of the RX3600 firmware V1.31 is added support for 4 Gbyte DIMMS.

Every RX3600 system comes with a management processor, did you tried to configure the MP/iLO2 card such that you can access the system remotely via the network ?

Have a look at the supplied documentation that normally comes with the server on how to setup the MP/iLO2. Their is a LAN and serial port at the back of the server that allow you to connect it the way you want it.
Once you have access to it, you can also access the hardware logs which might help to find out why the UX installation hangs.

HTH

Kris

Re: EFI upgrade question

Ryan Neira — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:43:06 GMT

Thanks Kris,
That is goof info on the EFI boot manager - I'll keep that in mind. Unfortunately this server really doesnt have an MP card - it is a loaner/demo server we got from Intel, so it isnt really standard setup. I'll look into getting an MP card for it, then troubleshoot from there.

Thanks,
Ryan

Re: EFI upgrade question

rick jones — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:40:26 GMT

are you certain there isn't an mp - the mp is the thing with the serial ports on it. iirc it should be all the way on the right when looking from the back