Appendix C. Firmware Updates; Checking The Current Firmware Levels; Updating System Firmware - IBM RS/6000 44P 270 Service Manual

Appendix C. Firmware Updates

This section provides information and instruction for updating firmware. You may need
to perform these steps if you are installing an option or if your support representative
has instructed you to update your firmware.

Checking the Current Firmware Levels

To check the current levels that are installed on the system, do the following:
1. Log in as root user.
2. Enter the following command:
lscfg -vp | grep alterable
3. Press enter. A report will be produced similar to the following:
ROM Level.(alterable).......sh000221
ROM Level.(alterable).......SPH00056
Notes:
1. In the example above, if the current version of service processor firmware is
sh000221, the last six characters of the ROM Level represent a date in a yymmdd
format, where yy is the last two digits of the year, mm is the month and dd is the day
of the firmware (Julian date).
2. Also in the example above, if the current version of system firmware is SPH00056,
the last five characters of the ROM Level represent a date in a yyddd format, where
yy is the last two digits of the year and ddd is the Gregorian date of the firmware.
Check the RS/6000 support web site at http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/support/micro for the
latest level of downloadable firmware. If the version of system firmware installed on
your system is older than (has an earlier date than) the system firmware shown on the
web site, you should consider downloading and applying the update. If the version of
service processor firmware installed on your system is older than (has an earlier date
than) the service processor firmware shown on the web site, you should consider
downloading and applying the update.

Updating System Firmware

To update the system firmware, perform the following steps:
1. Log in as root user.
2. If the directory /tmp/fwupdate does not exist, create it by issuing the following
command: mkdir /tmp/fwupdate
3. The firmware update file must be written into the /tmp/fwupdate directory on the
Model 270. This can be done by using the ftp command to get the image from an
ftp server, NFS-mounting the directory on the host server, or downloading it from the
web site at http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/support/micro.
After the firmware update file has been written into the /tmp/fwupdate directory,
verify its existence by entering the following command:
<=== service processor F/W level
<=== system F/W level
287