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Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

  • 1.  Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Sat May 03, 2025 04:24 AM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Sat May 03, 2025 04:25 AM

    We are planning to upgrade a partition on Power10 server from V7R5 to V7R6. The configuration is as follows :

    • Server : 9028-21B (S1012)
    • Firmware : ML1060_088 MH03690 (for All *ACTIVE/*TEMP/*PERM)
    • Current IBM i version : V7R5 (IBM i Guest Partition managed by HMC)
    • Cumulative PTF package : C4312750
    • HMC : 7063-CR2, V10 R3 SP1061 / MF71710

     

    I ran the IBM Pre-Upgrade Verification Tool for IBM i and got an error that the firmware needed to be updated.

    Overview

    Firmware Level

    Determine if the current level of firmware supports the target release.

    Current release: V7R5M0
    Target release: V7R6M0
    Check results: Failure

    Details

    The following items were checked:

    • UAK Expiration: 2028-04-08 ✔
    • Firmware Level: ML1060_088 ✗

    Messages

    Message:
    Firmware does not meet minimum level requirements.

    Details:
    The version of firmware that was detected on this system is not supported on the target release.
    The detected version of firmware was: ML1060_088.
    Minimum firmware version is: ML1060_117.

    Recovery:
    Review IBM i Server Firmware FAQ for more information about supported firmware levels.

    I checked FLRT, but It appears that 7.6 is not yet supported, and IBM i 7.6 does not appear as an option when selecting the latest server firmware. The "IBM i 7.6 - Base Enhancements" and "announcement material" pages only state "The minimum system firmware level is FW1060." and the requirements for the last three digits are unclear.

    If there is an IBM site that has the exact last 3 digits of the Firmware level required for 7.6, it would be helpful to know.

    Thank you.



    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
    Technical Advisor, iS Technoport
    ------------------------------



  • 2.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Sun May 04, 2025 04:50 PM

    Hello Hideyuki!

    It looks like there is a bug in the PRUV tool version you have. 

    If you download the latest version of the tool you should not be getting the error anymore. At least that's what the following article indicates:

    IBM Pre-Upgrade Verification Tool for IBM i

    Documented tool updates:

    pruv_7.6.0.20250422 (April 22, 2025)

      • Corrected Power10 minimum firmware for 7.6 from ML1060_117 to ML1060_107 (MM and MH firmware remain correct)

    Hope this helps,

    Roman



    ------------------------------
    Roman Chloupek
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Sun May 04, 2025 10:57 PM

    Dear Yahaki-san

    >>>> If there is an IBM site that has the exact last 3 digits of the Firmware level required for 7.6, it would be helpful to know. <<<<

    It is practically impossible for IBM i, PUVT, and FLRT information to be in synch in real time because they are maintained by different groups of people in IBM. 

    The general idea about Power server firmware (and HMC SW level, firmware of SAN and tape library, and such) is that it should always be updated to the latest level available regardless of which OS you are running in the server. The same idea applies to IBM i PTFs.  

    My experience was that IBM i customers in ASEAN did SW update at their convenience which practically means rarely - except when SW update can be done on-line without interruption (I remember IBM tape library has this feature as it has dual controllers and SW update is done for a controller at a time). Most of the time, this went without serious problem encountered. Other times that were not too frequent, they encountered problem when all SWs are not at their latest level. I remember one such rare case in the distant past (POWER7 server, IIRC) in which the 770 server restarted itself out of the blue and the investigation revealed that it was a bug in server firmware and its update solved the issue.



    ------------------------------
    Satid S
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Mon May 05, 2025 09:16 AM

    I clicked on the feedback button on the FLRT to report that 7.6 is not on the drop down yet and we need this for the firmware level.



    ------------------------------
    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
    Business Systems Analyst, Lead
    Dekko
    Fort Wayne
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Tue May 06, 2025 08:06 AM

    for what's worth, i upgraded a 9105 from v7.5 to v7.6 with *active firmware:

    ML1030_099
    FW1030.70 

    jsut te test system, but seems to be working...



    ------------------------------
    Bryan Dietz
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Mon May 05, 2025 04:20 PM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Mon May 05, 2025 04:21 PM

    Chloupek-san,

    > If you download the latest version of the tool you should not be getting the error anymore. At least that's what the following article indicates:

    Thanks a lot for the information. The machine is down right now, so I will check back after Wednesday.

    > Corrected Power10 minimum firmware for 7.6 from ML1060_117 to ML1060_107 (MM and MH firmware remain correct)

    So I guess I still need to update the Firmware, even though the server was just installed at the end of last year...

     

    Satid-san,

    > The general idea about Power server firmware (and HMC SW level, firmware of SAN and tape library, and such) is that it should always be updated to the latest level available regardless of which OS you are running in the server. The same idea applies to IBM i PTFs. 

    It is almost always very difficult to bring all related S/W up-to-date at once because of the "don't fix what isn't broken" principle.

     

    Berendt-san,

    > I clicked on the feedback button on the FLRT to report that 7.6 is not on the drop down yet and we need this for the firmware level.

    Thanks for reporting back to IBM. Personally, I expect FLRT to be up to date and referenced by everyone.

     

    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
    Technical Advisor, iS Technoport
    ------------------------------

     

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Tue May 06, 2025 11:12 AM

    Just got an email

    Hi Robert Berendt,

    We added the IBM i Release 7.6 to FLRT. 

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Regards,

    Ashutosh Agarwal



    ------------------------------
    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
    Business Systems Analyst, Lead
    Dekko
    Fort Wayne
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Wed May 07, 2025 11:09 PM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Wed May 07, 2025 11:12 PM

    Hello,

    I downloaded latest PRUV tool (pruv_7.6.0.20250422.jar) and ran the jar file.
    As shown in the figure, the check failed because Firmware ML 1060_107 is required.

    To be sure, I also checked with FLRT and got the same result.

     

    It appears that a Firmware update is mandatory for installing 7.6 on Power10 servers purchased before March 2025.

    Thank you for the information and advice!

    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
    Technical Advisor, iS Technoport
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Wed May 07, 2025 11:40 PM

    Hello Yahagi-san!

    Your assessment is correct. You are currently at ML1060_088_053 / FW1060.20, which is 2 levels behind ML1060_107 / FW1060.30. 

    But this will be an easy concurrent FSP firmware update if you happen to have either HMC appliance or vHMC (i.e. virtual HMC / VM instance) as they allow these firmware updates while the LPARs hosted on your POWER10 server will keep running unaffected. On the other hand, if your POWER10 server and its FSP firmware is IBM i OS managed, (i.e. you do not have an HMC) then you would have to apply those fixes delayed and re-IPL your server-managing IBM i partition to activate them.

    There is one deferred fix addressing  "Increased VDD voltage is expected to help prevent OMI lane degrades", which requires platform re-IPL, but I believe that should not prevent you from installing v7.6 successfully even without immediate platform re-IPL. Activation of that one deferred fix could be postponed to some later time in the future when platform re-IPL would be more convenient/less impactful to your business.

    Power10 System Firmware Fix History - Release levels ML10xx

    Hope this help.

    Roman



    ------------------------------
    Roman Chloupek
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Thu May 08, 2025 01:01 AM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Thu May 08, 2025 01:03 AM

    Hello Roman-san,

    Thank you for your valuable comments.

    > Your assessment is correct. You are currently at ML1060_088_053 / FW1060.20, which is 2 levels behind ML1060_107 / FW1060.30. 

    I noticed that the "Server Firmware for stand-alone IBM i systems" page is also updated and as far as I know the information provided by IBM seems to be consistent. That being said, I assume that there are a fair number of users who are still operating with the old Firmware, so it would be desirable to list the last three digits of the Firmware on the landing page and in the announcement letter as well.

    According to "ML1060_107 / FW1060.30 Release Notes" and "Power10 System Firmware Fix History - Release levels ML10xx", ML1060_093_053 / FW1060.21 is marked HIPER because of security fixes and appears to be Firmware that should be applied even if you do not do a release-up.

    > But this will be an easy concurrent FSP firmware update if you happen to have either HMC appliance or vHMC (i.e. virtual HMC / VM instance) as they allow these firmware updates while the LPARs hosted on your POWER10 server will keep running unaffected. On the other hand, if your POWER10 server and its FSP firmware is IBM i OS managed, (i.e. you do not have an HMC) then you would have to apply those fixes delayed and re-IPL your server-managing IBM i partition to activate them.

    I have never performed a firmware update on the HMC-managed server, so your comments are very helpful. I am going to read "Master Document for Server Firmware and HMC Code Wizard" to see how to proceed.


    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
    Technical Advisor, iS Technoport
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Thu May 08, 2025 02:21 AM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Thu May 08, 2025 02:22 AM

    I have finished updating the firmware and report for your information.

    • The procedure was completed without problems as described in "Power System Concurrent Firmware Update HMC V10R1M1020 or later".
    • As Roman-san mentioned, no need to terminate partitions of the Power10 server and update the Firmware in concurrent.
    • There is no need to download firmware images, etc. from FixCentral. If you follow the wizard, HMC will obtain the update directly from the IBM service site.
    • It took about 40 minutes with screen capture and logging while referring to the documentation, and was performed from a remote HMC on the PC side.
    • After the Firmware update is complete, you can run the DSPFMWSTS command on the IBM i partition to verify that the Firmware level applied is *ACTIVE.
    •  It is also immediately checked as Passed in the PRUV tool.
     
    Thank you very much for all your help!

    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
    Technical Advisor, iS Technoport
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Do I need to update my Power10 firmware to release up from 7.5 to 7.6?

    Posted Thu May 08, 2025 02:31 AM

    Cool beans, Yahagi-san! You are rocking and rolling now  :-)



    ------------------------------
    Roman Chloupek
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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