SPARC Enterprise M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 servers should be updated to a minimum of Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1061 for Relaxed Ordering and other Bug Fixes.

Asset ID:	1-73-1018991.1
Update Date:	2011-02-22
Keywords:

Solution Type FAB (standard) Sure

Solution 1018991.1 : SPARC Enterprise M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 servers should be updated to a minimum of Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1061 for Relaxed Ordering and other Bug Fixes.

Impact

Systems not updated to Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1061 will not be able to take advantage of certain platform features, may experience potential performance issues, may experience "disk full" related reboots on their eXtended System Control Facility Unit (XSCF) which can lead to XSCF replacement, and may not benefit from bug fixes included in the newer release of software.

Contributing Factors

Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000, M5000, M8000 and M9000 systems below Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1061 are impacted.

Functionality added to later releases of software may not be backported to earlier versions. This functionality includes features such as DR/Hotplug. The implementation of some performance improvements which are bundled with Solaris 10 08/07 are shipped as many different patches to Solaris 10 11/06 which can lead to confusion and incomplete implementations. This is especially true for the Relaxed Ordering features for IO cards.

Symptoms

. Lack of functionality as described above
. Reduced IO performance
. XSCF replacements due to reboot counter limits being exceeded

Root Cause

Solaris 10 08/07 introduced full support for features such as Dynamic Reconfiguration (DR) and IO Hotplug. It also included built-in support for cards using the nxge driver such as Quad Gigabit and Dual 10-Gigabit Ethernet required for some higher performance network cards along with Relaxed Ordering fixes for improved IO performance from all Sun supported IO cards on the Sun SPARC Enterprise server line. While some fixes (namely for Relaxed Ordering) are available as patches to the older Solaris 10 11/06 OS release, features such as IO Hotplug and full support for Dynamic Reconfiguration are not.

Systems running releases prior to XCP 1061 may experience "disk full" issues. The "disk full" condition can cause the XSCF to reboot multiple times causing the reboot counter to reach it's limit and require XSCF replacement.

Corrective Action

Workaround

There are no workarounds to the reduced DR and IO Hotplug functionality, or to the XSCF "disk full" condition.

For bug fixes and Relaxed Ordering, customers may apply a number of patches to Solaris 10 11/06 to gain some functionality included in Solaris 10 08/07.

Certain drivers, in particular the e1000g driver used on Sun Dual Gigabit Ethernet cards, do not have patches available and require Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1050 or higher in order to enable Relaxed Ordering.

Resolution

Systems should be upgraded to at least Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1061 in order to receive all possible fixes.

   Identification of Affected Parts (how to):

For Solaris, systems with an /etc/release indicating the following are impacted:

    Solaris 10 11/06 s10s_u3wos_10 SPARC

For the XSCF, check version -c xcp output. An example is given below:

         XSCF> version -c xcp
         XSCF#0 (Active )
         XCP0 (Current): 1041
         XCP1 (Reserve): 1041
         XSCF>

If version -c xcp does not return 1061 or higher, the system is affected.

Information on performing an XCP 1061 upgrade can be found in the XCP 1061 product notes available on;

http://www.sun.com/downloads/products.xml?id=46fc425e

The documentation from the download center comes in several parts. The README_1061_en.txt file refers you to the installation instructions.

Reference Chapter 8 in "SPARC Enterprise M4000/M5000/M8000/M9000 Servers XSCF User's Guide". Chapter 8 is "Upgrade of XSCF Firmware and Maintenance".

The file README lists all related bug fixes included in 1061.   It also points out that this minor release does not call for a rewrite of documentation. No new or updated documentation is available to XCP1061 besides this README file.

All documentation released for XCP1060 is still relevant and should be used for this release. Please refer to the on-line documentation web site for all documentation:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/oracle-sparc-ent-servers-189996.html#mseries

Resolution Patches:

Driver                                             Status & Location
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Atlas (nxge)                                    S10U3: Official Patch Available (125670-02)
                                                       S10U4: fix INTEGRATED

Emulex (emlxs) Summit/Pyramid     Official Patch Available (120222-21).
                                                       Fix also in S10U4B11.

Q-Logic (qlc) Summit/Pyramid        Official Patch Available (125166-06). Fix also
                                                       in S10U4B11. pci-x RO fix (for Pyramid cards)
                                                       unavailable. No of Pyramid cards on OPL very
                                                       limited. Not needed when RO enabled in XCP U1.

mpt                                                Already available in S10U3 and later

bge                                                Official Patch Available (120011-14). Also
                                                      available in s10u4_07.

e1000g (Northstar) HSI SAIP IB HBA    Solaris 10 08/07 and XCP 1050 or higher.

Comments

The following is a list of Bugs related to issues covered in this Field Action Bulletin:

6594903 DBS needs to automatically recover from disk full condition
6554138 DB log file became big with dual SCF configuration
6546685 nxge has poor TCP Rx throughput on DC1
6530687 emlxs: implement driver workaround for OPL platforms Relaxed Ordering issue
6565329 qlc: remove OPL platforms related Relaxed Ordering workaround
6570892 qlc: Implement pci-x driver workaround for OPL platforms Relaxed Ordering issue
6552241 qlc: Implement driver workaround for OPL platforms Relaxed Ordering
6424735 bge driver should support relaxed ordering

For information about FAB documents, its release processes, implementation strategies and billing information, go to the following URL:

http://tns.central/fab

For Sun Authorized Service Providers go to:

http://tns.central/SPE/fab/

In addition to the above you may email:

FAB-Manager@sun.com

Internal Contributor/submitter
Ken.Kambic@Sun.COM

Internal Eng Responsible Engineer
Ken.Kambic@Sun.COM

Internal Services Knowledge Engineer
Joe.Davis@Sun.COM

Internal Eng Business Unit Group
SSG ES (Enterprise Systems)

Internal Sun Alert & FAB Admin Info
08-Feb-2008: Initial draft completed and sent to Extended Review.
12-Feb-2008: FAB sent to Publish.

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