Installing The System Firmware; The Firmware Update Package - IBM QS22 - BladeCenter - 0793 Service Manual

Note: QS22 firmware contains a proprietary implementation of Cell Broadband

Installing the system firmware

System firmware can only be installed after the operating system has booted. If the
operating system is not installed or cannot boot, then no upgrade or recovery is
possible. See the other sections of the manual Chapter 5, "Diagnostics and
troubleshooting," on page 55 for further information about troubleshooting the QS22
blade server.
You can update the system firmware:
v Through IBM Director. See the IBM Director documentation on the IBM Director
v Using the update package available from http://www.ibm.com/support/us/en/. See
v Using the update_flash script available on supported Linux operating systems.
v Updating the firmware manually. See "Installing the firmware manually" on page
For all the above options Linux needs to have a current version of rtas_flash
device driver installed. This is normally installed with the operating system. If it is
not, see the installation guide for the Software Development Kit for Multicore
Acceleration for instructions about how to get this device driver and install it.
Note: You may have to update the BMC before updating the system firmware. See

The firmware update package

You can now update firmware using the update packages available from
http://www.ibm.com/support/us/en/. These can be installed either through IBM
Director or by executing the .sh file contained in the package. This section
describes how to use the update package to install the firmware update or extract
the firmware image for manual installation.
To install the firmware package using IBM Director, see the documentation on the
IBM Director CD.
Note: The blade server must be configured and have a running Linux operating
The update package consists of 4 files:
v A file containing the change history for the QS22 system firmware. This has a
v A file containing the update package. This has an .sh extension.
v A readme file for the update package. This contains specific installation and
v An XML file. This file is for use by IBM Systems Management tools, including
20
BladeCenter QS22 Type 0793: Problem Determination and Service Guide
™
Engine hardware initialization code.
CD for further information.
"Updating the system firmware automatically" on page 21 for further information
on how to perform an update.
This requires the system firmware image file. See "The firmware update
package" for information about how to extract the file.
21 for further information.
the README file that comes with the package.
system before the package can be extracted or installed.
.chg extension.
configuration information.
IBM Director Update Manager, UpdateXpress CD, and UpdateXpress System
Pack Installer.