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  • 1.  x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Thu April 29, 2021 11:56 AM
    Has anyone successfully manually downgraded new POWER9 systems they have purchased in order to attach them to older HMCs? In particular I'm looking at a system received at VL950 that needs to be downgraded to VL940 to connect to our HMC which are still in support and not EOL. I've tried USB upgrade with power off, booting an OS and using diag to update and it fails, and I can't use an HMC to downgrade.

    Suggestions? Successes?

    It's unfortunate that customers have HMCs like the 7042-CR7 which are still in support, yet they can't connect to recently purchased systems which are ALSO supported.

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    Russell Adams
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  • 2.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?
    Best Answer

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 02:54 AM

    Hello

    Unfortunately, It is not possible to step back to 940 fw level, there is a lock mecanism in FW that prevent this to occur.

    Please notice that downgrading is not a supported action on systems, and it may expose you to unsupport of changes/improvements that may have been implemented in new systems.

    If you have a 7042-CR9 hmc model you can upgrade to v9R2 M950 with the special recovery image that has been created,  available on fixcentral since 3 weeks or so, to support 950 Fw of your new systems.

    For older HMC models, M950 is not supported.

    Best regards,

    Christophe Ducrocq



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    Christophe Ducrocq
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 03:40 AM
    Edited by Bartlomiej Grabowski Fri April 30, 2021 03:42 AM
    I have never done it, so I can't comment that it works or not. But downgrade should be possible from the HMC CLI (check updlic command), if there is some internal lock in 950FW which prevents it (as Christophe stated above) I don't know.

    I would be surprise if this is locked, as far as  I know the new HMC GUI will offer Firmware downgrade directly from the graphic interface.

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    Bartlomiej Grabowski
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 05:39 AM

    Hello

    This is locked at Service processor level. Updlic won't help to force downgrade in this situation nor booting directly on USB device to force fw up/downgrade.

    I have already seen this during early life of P8 . This is mainly done to avoid any risk of exposure to critical problems already solved.

    Lock is also sometimes implemented in certain level for a current release (meaning for some updates), fort the same reason.It is mostly visible on those which are disruptive, when the third set of numbers is changing (last disruptive level) to same value of the second set of number (level). This is usually documented in readme.
    Best Regards,

    Christophe Ducrocq



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    Christophe Ducrocq
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 07:11 AM
    The original problem is it can't be connected to the HMC because the firmware is too new.

    The root cause here is that IBM stopped updating the HMC software for the 7042-CR7 despite it still being supported another 5 months. The result is that to talk to the POWER system recently purchased we now also have to replace the HMC, despite the fact our HMC is still supported and there is a firmware which is available at a matching level. The firmware lock is preventing downgrade.

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    Russell Adams
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 04:25 AM
    It is not exactly the answer to your question, but it seems to be closely related.

    There is MH01857 patch for V9R1 HMCs. On Fix Central it is described as:

    Notice: Upgrade PTF for model 7042-CR9 only. This PTF is required before upgrading to V9R2M950. This prereq fix must be the last PTF installed prior to upgrading to V9R2M950.

    Description file for the PTF itself says:

    PREREQ PTF for upgrading from Version 9 R1 to V9 R2M950
    PTF MH01857 HMC 950 PRE-PTF for HMC V9 R1 - for 7042-CR9 only or vHMC for x86 hypervisors (5765-HMW)
    This package includes an interim fix for the HMC V9 R1 release to be used as a prerequisite before upgrading to HMC V9 R2 M950. You can also reference this package by PTF MH01857 and APAR MB04247.
    For x86 hypervisors: This interim fix can be installed on existing HMC Version 9 Release 1 installation with or without additional service packs or PTFs, and must be the last PTF installed prior to upgrading to V9R2M950.
    For 7042-CR9 only: This interim fix must be the last PTF installed after Service Pack 2 (PTF MH01876).

    So upgrading 7042-CR9 to V9R2 seems to be a possible solution to your problem...

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    Lech Szychowski
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 07:12 AM
    7042-CR7 is still supported another 6 months or so, but cannot be upgraded further. Buying a CR9 would be a bad idea, it's already withdrawn from marketing. We'll get a virtual HMC.

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    Russell Adams
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: x86 HMC reaching EOL at fw 940, new systems at 950, downgrade success?

    Posted Fri April 30, 2021 02:05 PM

    Hello Russell,

    Cristophe is true; but if you haven't any compatible HMC to manage systems P9 with last Fw 950 you can use this method to downgrade the last version Fw 940 for standalone machines :

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power9/9009-42A?topic=gff-installing-firmware-using-usb-port-service-processor-system-that-is-not-managed-by-management-console
    I used it in others scenaries and it's useful. You have in main that downgrade is an excepcionally method only.




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    Manuel Fuentes Pico
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    Original Message