How to determine the system firmware version on Sun Fire[TM] T1000/T2000 [Video]

Asset ID:	1-71-1012949.1
Update Date:	2011-02-25
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 1012949.1 : How to determine the system firmware version on Sun Fire[TM] T1000/T2000 [Video]

Applies to:

Sun Fire T2000 Server
Sun Fire T1000 Server
All Platforms

Goal

This document describes how to verify the system firmware version on Sun Fire[TM] T1000 and Sun Fire[TM] T2000 in order to determine if the server is at (or beyond) the mandatory level.

Available for this topic, a Video Tutorial; Brief how-to video tutorials that provide step-by-step instructions answering Sun's most frequently asked questions. View the video answer and/or follow the detailed instructions below.

Video - Verifying System Firmware on T1000 or T2000 (05:00)

To discuss this information further with Oracle experts and industry peers, we encourage you to review, join or start a discussion in the Coolthread Servers Community

Solution

1. To verify the mandatory (minimum) firmware level supported for each platform reference the product notes, available at the following links:
Sun Fire T1000 Product Notes

Sun Fire T2000 Product Notes

2. To determine the current System Firmware revision installed on the system, from the System Controller command-line interface (CLI) use the output from the following commands:

From the 'showhost' output, find the version of System Firmware and the versions of the following firmware components:

-Hypervisor

-OBP

-Integrated POST

Example:

sc> showhost
System Firmware 6.2.6 Sun Fire[TM] T2000 2006/10/06 12:36
Host flash versions:
Hypervisor 1.2.3 2006/08/18 12:25
OBP 4.23.4 2006/08/04 20:46
Sun Fire[TM] T2000 POST 4.23.4 2006/08/04 21:15

From the "showsc version -v" output, find the versions of

-Advanced Lights Out Manager CMT (ALOM-CMT)

-vBSC

Example:

sc> showsc version -v
Advanced Lights Out Manager CMT v1.2.6
SC Firmware version: CMT 1.2.5
SC Bootmon version: CMT 1.2.5

VBSC 1.2.4
VBSC firmware built Aug 18 2006, 12:27:38...............................

3. Compare the current System Firmware revision with the latest available revision, which can be obtained from the latest FW patch install.info file. If the 'showhost' command doesn't provide the System Firmware revision (this may happen on some systems), you may need to compare the versions of the separate firmware components, which are also available from the patch install.info file:

System Firmware 6.2.6 Sun Fire[TM] T2000 2006/10/06
ALOM-CMT v1.2.6  Oct  6 2006  12:33:12
VBSC 1.2.4  Aug 18 2006  12:27:38
Hypervisor 1.2.3 2006/08/18 12:25
OBP 4.23.4 2006/08/04 20:46
Sun Fire[TM] T2000 POST 4.23.4 2006/08/04

4. In case your firmware revision is lower that the latest version available, proceed to upgrading the system firmware in order to get the latest fixes and avoid known issues. The firmware versions in step 2 & 3 are only examples, the latest firmware can be found on MOS, Patches & Updates (for example System Firmware 6.7.11, patch 139434-08).

NOTE: When upgrading the firmware make sure that the system is running a compatible OS version, otherwise you may have boot or other problems. Use the patch README to verify what is the supported (compatible) OS for this firmware version, for example (from the REAME file for patch 139434-08, found here)

Upgrading to Sun System Firmware 6.2.4 (or later) requires Solaris[TM] 10 Update 1 (or later) to be installed. The system may experience boot or other problems with earlier version of Solaris.

Product
Sun Fire T1000 Server
Sun Fire T2000 Server

Internal Comments
This document contains normalized content and is managed by the the Domain Lead
(s) of the respective domains. To notify content owners of a knowledge gap
contained in this document, and/or prior to updating this document, please
contact the domain engineers that are managing this document via the "Document
Feedback" alias(es) listed below:
VSP-SPARC-Normalization@sun.com

Information about the new firmware components (hypervisor, vBSC)
and how they interact with ALOM, OBP and Solaris.

Hypervisor:
The software layer
between OS and platform hardware. It is defined by the sun4v
architecture and allows to virtualize the system hardware and
isolate OS from register's level. Hypervisor (HV) is not an OS and
is delivered with the platform (system firmware), not OS
distribution. HV also enables the sun4v error handlers to be
implemented without buit-in knowledge of the underlying
hardware.

vBSC:
Acronym for Virtual Blade
System Controller. It is a piece of software that sits between the
host CPU (UltraSPARC-T1) and the Service Processor. It can be
though of as an extension of Hypervisor running on the Service
Processor. The vBSC functions include: interface to ALOM and
communication with the host (service channel), power/reset control,
host reset sequencing and configuration, host error recovery
(fatal, red state), FMA report generation from raw error data,
ASR.

Here is the poweron/boot sequence:

- At Power On, ALOM boots and starts the vBSC.

- vBSC reads fruprom, asr-db and MD template and generates
MDs.

- vBSC setup PLLs and power on the UltraSPARC-T1

- vBSC runs the reset/config sequence to bringup the
UltraSPARC-T1

- vBSC starts Quick POST (Cache, CPU regs).

- vBSC starts Extended POST if necessary (Memory, IO).

- vBSC kicks off Hypervisor (HV)

- vBSC sends MD (machine descriptions) to HV

- HV starts OBP, OBP starts Solaris.

References:

Platform Specific patches for Sun Fire T1000

Platform Specific patches for Sun Fire T2000

Sun Fire T1000 Product Issues

Sun Fire T2000 Product Issues

normalized, firmware, upgrade, patch, T1000, T2000
Previously Published As
88052

Change History
Date: 2011-02-25
User name: Dencho Kojucharov
Action: Updated
Comments: Currency check, audited by Dencho Kojucharov, Entry-Level SPARC Content Lead

Updates OK to publish.
Version: 5

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