Request for design enhancement input on firmware management

[HP Itanium Product Team]

Dear Community Members

Our supportability engineers are designing new processes for updating firmware for systems, storage, networking and I/O cards. We are interested in understanding what firmware management features are important to you (our customers). We would like to get your opinion on installation processes, intelligent software tools for managing firmware, and general information about the current firmware management and update processes.

If you are interested, please go to the following URL and complete the web-based survey.

http://docs.hp.com/survey/customer_survey_on_firmware.html

Once you have submitted the survey, please come back to this thread and reply that you have completed the web-based questionnaire.

With your input, we can plan to greatly enhance the firmware update process for HP customers like you.

Thanks! We look forward to your input...

HP Itanium Product Team

[Stan Sieler · Accepted solution]

I filled out the survey.

One thing I didn't have a
chance to mention was that
the current CPU firmware
inventory list is hard
to search. Frequently,
model numbers are
conflated (e.g., 917 and
927 into 9x7) which makes
it hard to find a firmware
patch by model number.
Also, some models are
(thanks to stupid marketing
people...wait, that's an
oxymoron) "obscure".
E.g., most HP 9000s that
*don't* appear to have
a model number of the
form 8xx according to
*marketing* really *do*
have such a model number
internally (e.g., E35
or I70, or K220). Thus,
a knowledgeable user who
know he/she has a 9000/817
may not find the model number
in the firmware list.

For reasons known only to
the demented minds of HP
marketing, some 9000s have
very hard to find model
numbers. It used to be
that "uname -a" gave you
everything one needed,
including model # and serial
#. But, here's an rp2430
(aka A500 :)
HP-UX ozma B.11.11 U 9000/800 1829007846 unlimited-user license

no mention of model# Sheesh!

the "model" command reports:
9000/800/A400-6X
...no mention of "rp2430".

Thus, an HP-UX admin person
wanting to check for updated
firmware for this machine
*would not know* to search
for "rp2430"...they'd
search for A400/-6X
or 9000/800/A400-6X.
Yet, someone looking at the
nameplace of the machine
might search for rp2430!

In short (too late :),
the firmware documentation
must list all variations
of model numbers.

(BTW, who was the bright person
who got rid of the serial
number on the Itanium models
of HP-UX?)

[John Bolene]

survey completed

[Jamie Willard_2]

Survey Complete.

I support many 9000 and 3000 systems. Finding the proper firmware is definatly a chore. It seems that each box has 3-5 different names, and there doesn't seem to be a cross reference sheet. Of course knowing how to cross reference this makes me money, but still... What about the people who don't have the exposure to the amount of HP equipment I do? How are they supposed to track all these names and figure out what firmware they need?

[Claudiu Schmidt]

survey completed

[HP Itanium Product Team]

Thanks

[Gbenu]

Survey Completed