Frequently Asked Questions; Known Issues - HP Integrity Superdome 2 16-socket User Manual

SOAP request from GiCAP Group Manager, HP-SUM
Kernel debugger connection through OA network port
Console access through the OA
Ping, SNMP queries
This is the same as legacy MP or C7000 OA (depending on the protocol) behavior during an
update.

Frequently asked questions:

Some sample questions are included below to aid the operator wishing to perform an online
complex firmware update.
1. Can Oracle use IPMI to reset a partition?
Answer: Not during the online complex firmware update process.
2. Do virtual partition reboots proceed during online complex firmware update?
Answer: HP can not guarantee completion of a reboot during this time, so the operator
should avoid initiating this action while in process. Reboot requests from an OS that occur
during an online complex firmware update will be queued and completed after the
firmware update process finishes.
3. GWLM asks for dynamic resource change (for example, Vparmodify), what happens when
it can not execute for an hour?
Answer: GWLM tries a number of times and gives up, logs an error, will come back and
retry later. Changes won't happen until it eventually tries later when the firmware update
process has completed.
4. How does field support debug if something happened during an online complex firmware
update?
Answer: Kernel memory (dmesg), the OS syslog, and crashdump memory is unaffected,
so this will not inhibit debug for OS-related events. The loss of event logs during the
firmware update process is unavoidable (as it was on legacy sx2000 Superdome systems),
but the SEL will indicate start and finish times for the update process.
5. What happens if Serviceguard or other cluster software tries to TOC during an online complex
firmware update?
Answer: If a node tries to TOC itself from an app running on the partition, the partition
OS will shut down to a point where it is ready to talk to server management. From an
application viewpoint, the system is down. It may or may not automatically restart when
the firmware update process completes. The service processor is unavailable during online
complex firmware update, so a node cannot successfully TOC another node.
6. Will agents that require licensing or UUID find that information available during an online
complex firmware update?
Answer:
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Known issues:

The following observations are included to help the operator understand how the loss of server
management features might be visible from the OS perspective.
See the description under
System firmware services are largely available during online firmware update
Machinfo reports system firmware revision, BMC revision, FPSW revision
"Partition ID" (page 179)
Online complex firmware update on Superdome 2
for details
181