Power Mgmt Controller, Firmware Update problem

[Rob_69_1]

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.

[Rob_69_1]

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...

[Prokopets]

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

[Rob_69_1]

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.

[Michael Garner_1]

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

[Rob_69_1]

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.

[Michael Garner_1 · Accepted solution]

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

[Rob_69_1]

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!

[Clint Phillips]

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.

[Shmern]

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!