Technical Advisory 892

This Technical Advisory describes an issue which may or may not affect the customer’s product
Intel Technical Advisory TA-0892-2
5200 NE Elam Young Parkway
Hillsboro, OR 97124
January 4, 2008
Intel
®
Remote Management Module 2 Firmware May Impact Hot Swap Controller
Firmware Updates
Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise,
to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in Intel's Terms and Conditions of Sale for such
products, Intel assumes no liability whatsoever, and Intel disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to sale and/or use of
Intel products including liability or warranties relating to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or infringement of any patent,
copyright or other intellectual property right. Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining
applications. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. The Intel Remote
Management Module 2 may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published
specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Products Affected
All Intel
®
Remote Management Module 2 products using firmware 5990:
Product Code MM# PBA#
AXXRMM2 888501 D84579-101 (after firmware update)
AXXRMM2 894383 D84579-103
AXXRMM2BULK 888498 D84579-101 (after firmware update)
AXXRMM2BULK 894385 D84579-103
Description
The latest firmware available for the Intel
®
Remote Management Module 2 (Intel
®
RMM2) is version 5990 and is
provided to add Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) command functionality to the Intel
®
RMM2 LAN. This
version of firmware ships from Intel with all D84579-103 boards and is available as a firmware upgrade on
http://support.intel.com/
for earlier boards.
Root Cause
During normal operations, the Intel
®
RMM2 and the server Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) routinely
exchange management communications. The same bus used for Intel
®
RMM2 to BMC communication is used to
update the Hot Swap Controller (HSC) firmware. Beginning with Intel
®
RMM2 firmware version 5990, the
communication occurring on the path to the BMC will slow the communication to the HSC and may cause the HSC
upgrade to fail. Firmware updates for the BMC are not impacted.
Workaround
Intel recommends stopping communication between the Intel
®
RMM2 and the BMC during HSC firmware updates. This
may be accomplished by using the command line utility “Kiratool” (available for DOS, EFI, WinPE and Linux), to
temporarily stop communication between the Intel
®
RMM2 and the server BMC.
1. Obtain Kiratool from http://support.intel.com/ (under the Intel
®
RMM2 product)
2. To stop communication from the Intel
®
RMM2 type:
(locally) "kiratool -a cfg set ipmi.medium._c_ none"
(Or remotely) "kiratool -a -l <ip#> -u <username> -p<password> cfg set ipmi.medium._c_ none"