Console; System Firmware Services During Boot, Shutdown, Etc - HP Integrity Superdome 2 16-socket User Manual

Console

When the firmware update is in progress, the OS console cannot be serviced on the server
management side. Since all active sessions to the OA CLI and GUI interfaces are closed at the
beginning of the firmware update process, the OS console cannot be actively viewed during this
process. The OS console is normally a quiet interface with little character traffic; however there
are conditions (OS panics, for example) where the character buffer could potentially fill up during
the firmware update process. If the console character buffer is full during an active online complex
firmware update, new incoming characters will be dropped so the console does not hang on the
OS side. This potential for console character loss does not extend to kernel memory (dmesg) or
impact the OS syslog or crashdump area in any way, so this should not inhibit OS problem
diagnosis in the unlikely event something unexpected occurs at the OS level. The characters captured
in the buffer will be drained once the firmware update process completes, and console operation
will return to normal.

System Firmware Services During Boot, Shutdown, etc.

Certain partition events which occur while the OS is running may not be handled if they occur
while management firmware is unavailable:
OS-requested restart (for example: TOC, shutdown
MCA
HP-UX boot may hang until firmware update completes
In the cases above, the OS shutdown or restart may not complete. The system design does not
make any guarantees about successful handling of OS restart, MCA, or boot that occurs during
the online complex firmware update process, so HP recommends that the operator not attempt to
initiate operations like an OS shutdown, boot/reboot, cold installation, patch update, or a
Serviceguard cluster reconfiguration request during the online complex firmware update process.
Such actions should be performed serially to avoid potential conflict consequences.
All PAL and SAL calls do work during an online complex firmware update, as these commands
execute at the partition level and do not access server management resources. The following
services are not affected by the online complex firmware update process, and will remain
operational:
Get/SET EFI Variables
Calls to get/set EFI variables will work for the OS.
HPET Timer
The HPET timer will not be re-initialized, and this partition resource will remain available throughout
the firmware update process.
EFI_SetTime
System firmware will continue to maintain the correct time during an online firmware update.
Error Records
Error records can be generated as a result of INIT, CMC/CPE, and MCA.
INITs are stored by system firmware in NVRAM, so these records will be available to the OS
after restart. They will be also be available to CLI errdump once the firmware update completes.
Logging of CMC/CPE error records are unaffected by a PDHC or OA restart – errors not
logged before a restart are saved in hardware and will be logged after the restart
MCA logs may be lost during this period, however system firmware will alert server
management that an MCA has occurred once the firmware update completes, and server
management will ensure the partition is reset and data integrity maintained.
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Complex Information: Firmware Management 71