Upgrading Certain Sun Fire/Enterprise or Netra Systems to Firmware 6.4.4 Prior to OS Boot May Corrupt the Service Processor

Asset ID:	1-77-1000526.1
Update Date:	2011-02-23
Keywords:

Solution Type Sun Alert Sure

Solution 1000526.1 : Upgrading Certain Sun Fire/Enterprise or Netra Systems to Firmware 6.4.4 Prior to OS Boot May Corrupt the Service Processor

Related Items


Sun Netra CP3060 ATCA Blade Server
 Sun Fire T2000 Server
 Sun Fire T1000 Server
 Sun Netra T2000 Server

Related Categories


GCS>Sun Microsystems>Sun Alert>Criteria Category>Availability
 GCS>Sun Microsystems>Sun Alert>Release Phase>Resolved

PreviouslyPublishedAs
200669

Bug Id
<SUNBUG: 6564792>

Date of Workaround Release
19-JUL-2007

Date of Resolved Release
10-SEP-2007

Impact

Installing firmware version 6.4.4 on new SunFire/Enterprise T1000 and T2000, Netra T2000 and Netra CP3060 servers prior to booting to the OS will cause the service processor to become corrupted. Once the service processor is corrupted, it goes into a continuous boot loop that cannot be broken without replacing the service processor.

Contributing Factors

This issue can occur on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform

Sun Fire/Enterprise T1000 with firmware 6.4.4 (as delivered in patch 126400-01)
Sun Fire/Enterprise T2000 with firmware 6.4.4 (as delivered in patch 126399-01)
Netra T2000 with firmware 6.4.4 (as delivered in patch 126401-01)
Netra CP3060 with firmware 6.4.4 (as delivered in patch 126402-01)

if the upgrade to firmware 6.4.4 has been performed prior to booting to the OS.

Notes:

This issue can only occur if the system has not been booted to the OS prior to upgrading the firmware. (As in brand new systems that have not yet been booted).
This issue is not known to occur on previous versions of firmware for the above mentioned systems.

The series of events leading to this issue are as follows:

A new system with firmware 6.3 or earlier is scheduled for firmware upgrade to 6.4.4
Service processor is powered on
Flashupdate to firmware 6.4.4 is performed
'resetsc' is run

Symptoms

After upgrading/flashupdate to firmware 6.4.4, then running 'resetsc' on the service processor, the system will go into a continuous boot loop. The sequence is as follows:

The firwmare is upgraded to 6.4.4 without first booting to the OS
'resetsc' is run
The service processor resets
ALOM POST runs
VxWorks starts
VxDiag runs, with error message of "ERROR: Serializer:short read"
Service processor resets and repeats above in a continuous loop

Workaround

On a new system, upgrading the firmware directly to 6.4.6 (from 6.3 or earlier) will prevent this issue altogether.

To avoid this issue when upgrading the firmware to 6.4.4 on a new system, make sure the system has first been booted completely to the OS prior to the firmware upgrade. (It is not required to run POST). Then the flashupdate to firmware 6.4.4 may be performed.

Resolution

This issue is addressed on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform

Sun Fire/Enterprise T1000 with firmware 6.4.6 (as delivered in patch 126400-02 or later)
Sun Fire/Enterprise T2000 with firmware 6.4.6 (as delivered in patch 126399-02 or later)
Netra T2000 with firmware 6.4.6 (as delivered in patch 126401-02 or later)
Netra CP3060 with firmware 6.4.8 (as delivered in patch 126402-02 or later)

Modification History
Date: 10-SEP-2007

Updated Contributing Factors and Resolution sections
State: Resolved

Product
Sun Fire T2000 Server
Sun Fire T1000 Server
Sun Netra T2000 Server
Netra CP3060 Board

References

<SUNPATCH: 126399-02>
<SUNPATCH: 126400-02>
<SUNPATCH: 126401-02>
<SUNPATCH: 126402-02>

Previously Published As
103010
Internal Comments

Internal Contributor/submitter
keith.bellew@sun.com

Internal Eng Business Unit Group
SSG SW (Platform Software)

Internal Eng Responsible Engineer
hanh.nguyen@sun.com

Internal Services Knowledge Engineer
david.mariotto@sun.com

Internal Escalation ID
1-21891401, 1-21908506

Internal Resolution Patches
126399-02, 126400-02, 126401-02, 126402-02

Internal Sun Alert Kasp Legacy ID
103010

Internal Sun Alert & FAB Admin Info
Critical Category: Availability ==> Severe, Availability ==> Regression
Significant Change Date: 2007-07-19, 2007-09-10
Avoidance: Patch
Responsible Manager: david.re@sun.com
Original Admin Info: [WF 10-Sep-2007, dave m: patch released, rerelease]
[WF 19-Jul-2007, dave m: review completed, send to publish]
[WF 18-Jul-2007, dave m: draft created, sending for review]

Product_uuid
41b7bc41-2581-11da-99bc-080020a9ed93|Sun Fire T2000 Server
79ad78b9-961d-11d9-9adf-080020a9ed93|Sun Fire T1000 Server
7ba6ed6a-ec35-11da-ac3d-080020a9ed93|Netra T2000 Server
affee54e-2313-11db-a023-080020a9ed93|Netra CP3060 Board

References

SUNPATCH:126399-02
SUNPATCH:126400-02
SUNPATCH:126401-02
SUNPATCH:126402-02

References

SUNPATCH:126399-02
SUNPATCH:126400-02
SUNPATCH:126401-02
SUNPATCH:126402-02

Attachments

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