Specifications

5102ch04.fm Draft Document for Review May 12, 2014 12:46 pm
132 IBM Power System S822 Technical Overview and Introduction
service contract. During the initial machine warranty period the access key is already installed
in the machine from manufacturing. The key will be valid for the regular warranty period plus
some additional time. The POWER System firmware is being relocated from the public
repository to the access control repository. I/O firmware will remain on the public repository
but server must be entitled for installation. When the lslic command is used to display the
Firmware Levels a new value ‘update_access_key_exp_date’ is added. The HMC GUI as well
as the ASMI menu show the Update access key expiration date.
When the system is no longer entitled the Firmware updates will fail. Some new SRCs are
available:
򐂰 E302FA06: Acquisition entitlement check failed
򐂰 E302FA08: Installation entitlement check failed
Any Firmware release that was made available during the entitled time frame can still be
installed. For example, the entitlement period ends on December 31st 2014 and a new
Firmware release is release prior that entitlement period, then it can still be installed. Even
when that Firmware is downloaded after December 31st 2014, but it still was made available
prior the end of the entitlement period it can be installed. Any newer release requires a new
update access key.
This key will be available on the IBM CoD Home page:
http://www.ibm.com/pod/pod
To access the IBM entitled Software Support page for further details, access:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/ess
Firmware updates
System firmware is delivered as a release level or a service pack. Release levels support the
general availability (GA) of new functions or features, and new machine types or models.
Upgrading to a higher release level is disruptive to customer operations. IBM intends to
introduce no more than two new release levels per year. These release levels will be
supported by service packs. Service packs are intended to contain only firmware fixes and
not to introduce new function. A
service pack is an update to an existing release level.
If the system is managed by a management console, you use the management console for
firmware updates. By using the management console, you can take advantage of the
Concurrent Firmware Maintenance (CFM) option when concurrent service packs are
available. CFM is the IBM term used to describe the IBM Power Systems firmware updates
that can be partially or wholly concurrent or non disruptive. With the introduction of CFM, IBM
is significantly increasing a client’s opportunity to stay on a given release level for longer
periods of time. Clients that want maximum stability can defer until there is a compelling
reason to upgrade, such as the following reasons:
򐂰 A release level is approaching its end-of-service date (that is, it has been available for
about a year, and soon, service will not be supported).
򐂰 Move a system to a more standardized release level when there are multiple systems in
an environment with similar hardware.
򐂰 A new release has new functionality that is needed in the environment.
Note: The update access key expiration date requires a valid entitlement of the system to
perform Firmware updates.