topic Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem in BladeSystem - General

Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Rob_69_1 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:22:30 GMT

Hello, I have a C3000 enclosure containing 2 BL460C G1 blades.

I upgraded the following firmwares (apparently, everything is working):

- OA --> 2.50
- ILO2 --> 1.77
- BL460C BIOS ROM --> I15 11/02/2008

Now, according to what is shown by OA, Power Management Controller Versions on the 2 blades are as follows:

- Bay 1 --> 0.8
- Bay 5 --> 3.3

I don't get why Power Mgmt on Bay 1 didn't get automatically upgraded to 3.3 when I upgraded ILO2 on that server, but anyway...

The problem is, that I now wish to upgrade Power Mgmt Controllers to V 3.4 (it should be the latest), to get rid of the warnings on OA and especially to have everything in place.

I downloaded CP010551.scexe and tried to execute it, but it says that:

"You must install the iLO Channel Interface driver to use this component"

But I couldn't find any way to find a proper version of the ILO CHANNEL, because my OS is OracleVM 2.1.2 and it's not listed.

Versions for X86 would fail to rebuild when I try to install the RPM.

Under "XEN" (I initially thought THAT would be the right place to look into, as OracleVM is based on XEN) THERE IS NOTHING related to ILO CHANNELL.

Any ideas? I'm really stuck on this, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Rob_69_1 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:03:30 GMT

Hi all,

I try to put the question again in a different way...

I wish to upgrade Power Management Controller Firmware on 2 blades (BL460C).

To do so, I tried to follow this howto:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01668472〈=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=3355016&prodTypeId=12454

As explained in the Howto, I need to install the ILO CHANNELL device driver to be able to proceed. But I can't find a proper version of this software (my OS is OracleVM, let's say XEN to simplify).

The question is: are there any alternative ways to upgrade Power Management Firmware?

Or, if no alternatives are available: how can I install the needed-to-proceed ILO CHANNELL device driver?

Thank you for ANY, and I mean ANY, ideas. that would be greatly appreciated...

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Prokopets — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:35:52 GMT

Rob, i'm not sure... If downtime is acceptable you can try Firmware Upgrade CD.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Rob_69_1 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:05:11 GMT

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I have to say I wasn't aware of this CD... Can you please point me to an URL where it is possible to download it?

In the meanwhile, I'll try to search for it too...

Thanks again.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Michael Garner_1 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:10:23 GMT

Rob,
You can update the PowerPIC firmware in one of the following ways:

1)Boot the Firmware Maintenance CD. Agree to the EULA and select the language to use. At this point, type â CTRL-ALT-d+b+xâ (press and hold CTRL and ALT, then press â dâ , then â bâ , then â xâ . This will open a debug window on the Firmware CD. Insert a USB key with the Linux PowerPIC Firmware component on it and mount it (â mkdir /mntpntâ , â mount /dev/sda1 /mntpntâ ). After it is mounted, you can run the Linux PowerPIC firmware component manually (â cd /mntpntâ , â ./CP01xxxx.scexeâ , where xxxx is the rest of the component numberâ . You may have to use the â -fâ flag to force the installation if it has previously failed.
2)PXE boot using the SSSTK boot environment and mount a USB key or remote file system with the PowerPIC firmware component on it and execute it as above
3) Setup an RDP job with the PowerPIC component and remotely deploy the firmware in an offline mode
4)Boot the Firmware Deployment Tool 1.50 or 1.51. Right after POST completes and you hear the system beep, there will be a blinking cursor for about 5 seconds. During this time, if you type the word â consoleâ , you will get a Linux console similar to what you see on the Firmware CD. At that point, you can insert a USB key and follow the instructions above in #1 for mounting and executing the PowerPIC firmware.

You can get the Firmware Maintenance CD and Firmware Deployment Tool (FDT) at this URL;
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3621782&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=3621769&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005

and scrolling to the Firmware-CDROM section.

Regards,
Michael

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Rob_69_1 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:29:49 GMT

Wow! Thanks Michael. I guess that if I won't be able to update after this, it's because it's impossible :-)

I see some strange characters on the screen close to the key sequences you tell me to type at the various stages, maybe the forum doesn't show them correctly... But I'll try, maybe non right away but I'll try, and after that I'll update this forum.

Thank you very much.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Michael Garner_1 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:39:17 GMT

Rob,
The characters are CTRL+ALT+d+b+x (pressing and holding CTRL and ALT while typing d, then b, then x.

Sorry about that.

Regards,
Michael

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Rob_69_1 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:08:46 GMT

I'm impressed. Everything went just SMOOTH and now the Power Management Firmware is up to date, same version on both the blades. More than that, I learnt something new that I suspect will be SO useful in the future.

Thanx!

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Clint Phillips — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:12:38 GMT

Thanks a lot for the debug mode suggestion. It's a quick way to update the new bl465c bios on blades with no O/S.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Shmern — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:59:59 GMT

Yup agreed, now if only i could actually get a copy of the firmware !

I suspect a new iLo/or firmware cd will be released quickly to resolve this issue!

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Gunnar Andersson — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:02:45 GMT

After upgrading OAfirmw to 2.51 I have 4 BL460G1(Bios 11/02/2008) with power managment controller version 3.3. I,ve booted the systems via "firmware deployment tool" BB150.2009_0213.1.iso and there is no difference. The 12 BL465(bios 11/06/2208)in the same enclosure have PMC version 0.5.
The "BladeSystem Matrix Compabilty chart" say's firmware bundle 1.51 if that could help me but I can't find it. and PMC version 3.4 cant' find that either.What to do ?

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Rob_69_1 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:59:03 GMT

I'm not sure if PMC firmware 0.5 is upgradable in any way... HP says that "it doesn't need to be upgraded", but I'm afraid it's a polite way to say that it's going to stay like that... They say it's an ok version, though

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Gunnar Andersson — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:33:14 GMT

Yes so it say's.It seems that all my older servers have 0.5 and most of the newer has different versions like 0.8, 3.3 so the solution will probably be to upgrade these to 3.4b when it comes(next week I heard)

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

IT Network Administrato — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:28:00 GMT

Hey all,

We have 3 x C3000 and 4 x C7000 Blade Enclosures, and last week I upgraded them all to OA Firmware 2.51 and Virtual Connect Firmware 2.10.

In the Rack Firmware I see that one BL460c Blade Server shows 0.5 for the Power Management Controller Firmware, and all the others show 3.3.

All of the servers that list 3.3 then have a Question Mark (?) next to the firmware version and information that states they should be upgraded.

I contacted HP yesterday and they said they had not received any calls about this and did not have a solution. They would investigate and hopefully get back to me today.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Gunnar Andersson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:17:15 GMT

I have the same issue
I heard from HP that it was problem with 3.4 and that 3.4b will available this week.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Jpuertas — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:58:09 GMT

Hi guys!

I have a C3000 with 5 blades (bl460c).

As most of you in this thread, I've upgraded to OA firmware 2.51.

Upgraded the firmware of the blades to latest version (I15 11/02/2008) and ILO to 1.77.

The thing is (and I've read this happened to some of you):

1 Blade has Power Management Controller version 3.3 (so far is ok)

4 Blades has Power Management Controller version 0.5 (which is the version with problems with the latest firmwares!)

Would anybody tell me HOW in the world can I upgrade PMC firmware to 3.3? Cause I don't recall having upgraded the first one to 3.3...

Can anybody send me the firmware file?

Cause neither the firmware CD (latest version)nor the online firmware upgrade tool will upgrade it.

HP doesn't give me help on this, and these are critical servers for me.

Thanks in advance to everyone!

Juan Manuel.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Gunnar Andersson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:53:04 GMT

When you use "rack firmware" its says that
version 0.5 don't need upgrade and on servers with version 0.8 and 3.3 it say's that a newer version is available, however it was problem with version 3.4 so for that reason it was withdrawn. Version 3.4b should be out shortly.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

Daniel Rintsch — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:35:04 GMT

Today I also made some updates in our Bladecenter. First I updates all ILO to 1.77 and afterwards, I pdated the OnBoardAdministrator to 2.51. Now I get the same update messages as the other before.

Party I made updates at the firmware but I had no success. According to HP advisory, http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01668472〈=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=3355016&prodTypeId=12454 should the ILO update also update the Power Mgmt. but it doesn't work.

With the firmware CD to handle is too risky for use because I will not be able to explain ony unschedules downtime of our productive SAP system.

Does anybody has an idea, where to download?

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

c3_1 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:07:30 GMT

Turn off Dynamic Power Capping!

The problem of degraded only happens when OA sees too much power being used.

If you leave capping enabled and have 3.3 (or 3.4?), you may find systems crashing/hanging or in my case bricking the blade when the cap is reached and OA is forced to reduce power to some resources. If that resource is a blade during firmware upgrade, you get a brick.

Re: Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

c3_1 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:26:14 GMT

3.4B showed up, and so did ILO 1.78

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=1842750&prodNameId=3288156&swEnvOID=1113&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-ac03a247e59f460a8ad9d2eda1