Advisory: ProLiant Servers with Certain Intel Xeon Processors - BIOS update not available!

[anthony11]

Advisory: ProLiant Servers with Certain Intel Xeon Processors - CRITICAL SYSTEM ROM UPGRADE REQUIRED to Prevent a Rare Possibility of System Crashes or Unpredictable System Behavior in Virtualized Environments that Utilize Intel VT FlexPriority

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c03898077-2%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

This came out almost two weeks ago (Document ID: c03898077) and while I found the BIOS update as Linux scripts:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    1642607 Aug 17 10:49 DL580G7.BIOS-2013.07.01(14Aug2013).CP020972.scexe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    1459977 Aug 17 14:28 DL380G7.BIOS.2013.07.02(14Aug2013).CP021253.scexe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    2207452 Aug 17 14:45 DL380pG8.BIOS-2013.09.08(B)(13Aug2013).CP021293.scexe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    2201000 Aug 17 14:49 DL360pG8.BIOS-2013.09.08(B)(13Aug2013).CP021304.scexe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    1429594 Aug 17 15:43 DL380G6.BIOS-2013-07-02.(14Aug2013)-CP021344.scexe

the updates don't seem to be available for EXSi -- the very systems that are affected!  Eg., the "Online ROM Flash Component for VMware ESXi - HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 (P70) Servers" is still stuck at 2013.03.01 (26 Mar 2013)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=5177957&swItem=MTX-02dbac160ca245308e6d4717d5&prodNameId=5214568&swEnvOID=4115&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=5

While ESXi is itself mostly a barebones Linux, I'm not comfortable trying to run the Linux-designated scripts for something as sensitive as a BIOS update.

Anyone know when the update advised here might actually be available?

[Suman_1978]

Hi,

Have you checked the OS Independent downloads for HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Server.

The offline method is available.

If you want only Online method, the release date is not available at this moment.

Thank You!
I am a HP employee.

[anthony11]

So, I would have to set up a Microsoft Windows VM, download that to it, bind a USB port to the VM, write to a USB drive, then boot from the drive via iLO media redirection?

That's an awful lot of hassle for each of dozens of systems.

[Oscar A. Perez · Accepted solution]

iLO4 v1.30 will let you flash the ROM BIOS from its WebGUI.

Just extract the Linux .scexe to a folder and the use the Administrator->Firmware page to flash the ROM image.

Power Cycle the server after flash is completed.

[anthony11]

Thanks, Oscar.  I hadn't noticed that about 1.30, but will investigate.  ESXi sure doesn't make things easy, I can't even get an ipmitool binary that will run there :-/

[anthony11]

I just successfully used this to update a DL360p G8. None of my G7 systems currently run ESXi so iLO4 support meets my needs.