changes in system BIOS on ML570G2 dated 26/04/2005 P32

[Bill O'Brien_3]

HP came in and updated the system BIOS to 26/04/2005 P32 and the Smartarray firmware to vn. 2.34 on two ML570 G2s that we have in Germany. The servers are running VMWare with Citrix and Oracle VMs running on each one. Now the application team are saying that one of their calculations in Oracle is failing and the last time it ran successfully is the day before the servers had the new BIOS loaded. Too strange for words? This is a long shot but anyone have any clues why a BIOS upgrade would affect Oracle data and/or calculations. We have the same software running on a test server (also ML570G2), this has the updated Smartarray firmware but not the new BIOS. The calculation works ok there. Someone mentioned something about language/regional settings in the BIOS. Is there such a thing and could it have an effect?

[Brian_Murdoch]

Bill,

Here is the BIOS history listing for the ML570G2 (P32). There is nothing obvious here but this is just a brief summary. HP make technical modifications where necesary which won't be disclosed as this will be confidential.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/revision/6996.html

It should be possible to enter the BIOS and use the redundant (Backup) ROM BIOS (The one before the change) as two copies are held, unless the BIOS was flashed twice in which case they will both be the same version.
Press F9 at POST
Enter Advanced Options
Redundant ROM Selection
Switch to Backup ROM

That way you can easily prove whether the new BIOS is at fault and then contact HP for a resolution. You can run on the old BIOS until the problem is addressed in a later version.

I hope this helps.

Brian

[Bill O'Brien_3]

Thanks Brian, that makes sense. At the moment we have upgraded the BIOS on our test server and are going to see if we can reproduce the problem there.