Updating the different end points in your data center and keeping them on the latest recommended and supported levels is of importance, specifically from a security perspective and updating HMC with frequent security updates would involve you downloading the update file from the IBM site manually and use one of the supported options of FTP, SFTP, NFS, USB, Local Disk. So, to simplify this process, an option of updating HMC through IBM website has been introduced with HMC V10 R2 M1030 release. In this blog, we will talk about how to update HMC using IBM website option and the new user experience for performing HMC updates introduced in HMC V10 R3 M1050.
Through IBM website option, you can quickly get the list of available HMC updates based on the current HMC level from HMC itself without needing to go through IBM website manually. From the available list, user can choose an iFix/SP and update the HMC. If an update has any prerequisites, then user needs to install all the prerequisites in the required order. The option of updating HMC through IBM website is available in both CLI and GUI.
Note: Updating HMC through IBM website options requires outbound connectivity to IBM website. Please refer to HMC Connectivity Security Whitepaper for the details on HMC connectivity to IBM website.
HMC Update through IBM website using command line:
To know the available updates, you can use the new ‘lsupdhmc’ command which lists the updates based on current HMC level. You can see the details like PTF number, type of update, prerequisites (if any), description and release date for each of the updates:
lsupdhmc -t ibmwebsite
ptf=vMF70890, type=ifix, prereq=vMF70729, description=iFix for HMC V10R2M1031 for vHMC for POWER, release_date=2023/4/14
ptf=vMF70729, type=sp, prereq=none, description=Updates your vHMC from V10R2.1030 to V10R2.1031, release_date=2023/3/10
ptf=vMF70632, type=ifix, prereq=none, description=iFix for HMC V10R2M1030 for vHMC for POWER, release_date=2023/1/27
To update HMC with one of the listed updates, you can use ‘updhmc’ command with ‘ibmwebsite’ option:
updhmc -t ibmwebsite --ptf vMF70632
The corrective service file offload was successful. Continuing with HMC service installation...
Verifying Certificate Information
Authenticating Install Packages
Installing Packages...
The corrective service file was successfully applied. A mandatory reboot is required but was not specified on the command syntax.
HMC Update through IBM website using GUI:
IBM website option is added in the HMC Update panel under ‘Service Repository’.
Select ‘IBM Website’ option and click ‘Next’, you can see a table with the details of list of available HMC updates based on the current HMC level.
From the table, you can select one of the updates and proceed to update the HMC.
In summary, wherever you can enable call home connection on the HMC, using the IBM website option for HMC updates simplifies the whole download and update procedure.
Enhancements in V10 R3 M1050:
Before 10.3.1050.0, while updating HMC through IBM website, if an update has any prerequisites, then user needs to install all the prerequisites in the required order. 10.3.1050.0 onwards, user need not worry about the installing the prerequisites. User can choose an update from the available list and proceed to update. Internally HMC will fetch all the prerequisites along with the selected update and install in required order.
Note: HMC might go through multiple reboots internally during the update process.
As part of our continued User Experience focus, new GUI is introduced for updating HMC. Click HMC actions under HMC management page > Update HMC as in below image to launch the update HMC panel.
You need to select a location where the HMC update image file will be fetched from. You can get the image file from the remote SFTP/FTP/NFS server, attached USB/CDDVD/Virtual media or IBM website. Provide the required input details and click on ‘Update HMC’ button to start the HMC update process.
In summary, the new option to perform HMC update using IBM website option along with the new user experience simplifies the user experience and enables more automation capabilities.
Contacting the PowerVM Team
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