HMC Update to 7.7.8.0
Like before with HMC Update to 7.7.5.0 and HMC Update to 7.7.7.0 SP1, the recent HMC update to v7.7.8.0 was again not installable directly from the ISO images via the HMC GUI. Along with the HMC network installation images which are now mentioned in the release notes, there is now also an official documentation of the update procedure using the HMC network installation images. It's called “HMC network installation” and provides a more remote admin friendly way of performing the update. Since it's only a slightly shortened version of the procedure i already tested and used in HMC Update to 7.7.7.0 SP1, i decided to stick with my own procedure.
Also a turn for the better is, that now the release notes as well as FixCentral clearly point out the dependencies between the fixpacks that are supposed to go on top of the update release and the order they are supposed to be applied in. In case of MH01377 (aka V7R7.8.0.0) these are MH01388 (aka "Required fix for HMC V7R7.8.0 (11-25-2013)") and MH01396 (aka "Fix for HMC V7R7.8.0 (12-10-2013)").
Compared to earlier updates, the restriction to have to shut down or disconnect the second HMC in a dual HMC setup has been weakened to:
When two HMCs manage the same server, both HMCs must be at the same version. Once the server is connected to the higher version of the management console, the partition configuration is migrated to the latest version. Lower management consoles will not be able to understand the data properly. […]
To me this reads “ensure that you don't do any configuration from the second HMC while the first HMC has already been updated”, which still is some kind of restriction, but a far less intrusive and thus a much more manageable one compared to before.
As always, be sure to study the release notes thoroughly before an update attempt. Depending on your environment and HMC hardware there might be a road block in there. Special attention deserves the document “HMC Version 7 Release 7.8.0 Upgrade sizing”, mentioned in the release notes of MH01377.
For me, the good news gathered from the release notes was:
Power Enterprise Pools to share CoD resources among the machines in your environment without the need of a special RPQ (
chcodpool,lscodpoolandmkcodpool). I still dare to dream that some day IBM will allow a fully dynamic sharing, even of non-CoD resources for us mere mortals.LPM evacuation to support the migration of all LPARs off a system within a single command, much like the VMware maintenance mode (
migrlpar […] --all).Regeneration and XML export of the hypervisor runtime configuration (
mkprofdata).Refresh of OS level information on the HMC in case the OS within the LPAR was updated (
lssyscfg -r lpar -m <managed system> --osrefresh).
As already mentioned above, i used the update procedure described earlier in HMC Update to 7.7.7.0 SP1. In my setup this worked well for all HMCs and showed no fatal or noticeable errors. It seems others might not have been so lucky. I did the update on 2014/01/17 and checked back to FixCentral on 2014/01/19. By then the following warning messages have been put up:
So it's probably best to hold off the update for just now, if it hasn't been already done. For reference purposes, here are some example screen shots from a KVM session to the HMC during a – eventually successful – update to MH01377:
After the upgrade to V7R7.8.0.0 is complete, you can apply the additional efixes in the usual way via the HMC GUI. For me the additional efixes showed the following output during the update process:
MH01388:
Management console corrective service installation in progress. Please wait... Corrective service file offload from remote server in progress... The corrective service file offload was successful. Continuing with HMC service installation... Verifying Certificate Information Authenticating Install Packages Installing Packages --- Installing ptf-req .... --- Installing RSCT .... src-3.1.4.9-13275 rsct.core.utils-3.1.4.9-13275 rsct.core-3.1.4.9-13275 rsct.service-3.5.0.0-1 rsct.basic-3.1.4.9-13275 --- Installing CSM .... csm.core-1.7.1.20-1 csm.deploy-1.7.1.20-1 csm_hmc.server-1.7.1.20-1 csm_hmc.hdwr_svr-7.0-3.4.0 csm_hmc.client-1.7.1.20-1 csm.server.hsc-1.7.1.20-1 --- Installing LPARCMD .... hsc.lparcmd-3.3.0.1-1 ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/hmcrbin/lsnodeid': File exists ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/hmcrbin/lsrsrc-api': File exists ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/hmcrbin/mkrsrc-api': File exists ln: creating symbolic link `/usr/hmcrbin/rmrsrc-api': File exists --- Installing InventoryScout .... --- Installing Pegasus .... --- Installing service documentation .... cp: cannot stat `.dev': No such file or directory PreInstalling HMC REST Web Services ... Installing HMC REST Web Services ... pmc.core-7.7.8.0-20131027T1102 pmc.soliddb-7.7.8.0-20131027T1102 pmc.wlp-7.7.8.0-20131027T1102 pmc.wlp.soliddriver-7.7.8.0-20131027T1102 pmc.wlp.log4j-7.7.8.0-20131027T1110 pmc.wlp.guava-7.7.8.0-20131027T1110 pmc.wlp.jaxb2.runtime-7.7.8.0-20131027T1111 pmc.wlp.slf4j.api-7.7.8.0-20131027T1103 pmc.wlp.quartz-7.7.8.0-20131027T1111 pmc.wlp.commons-7.7.8.0-20131027T1103 pmc.war.rest-7.7.8.0-20131027T1103 pmc.soliddb.rest.sql-7.7.8.0-20131027T1110 pmc.soliddb.pcm.sql-7.7.8.0-20131027T1111 pmc.pcm.rest-7.7.8.0-20131027T1110 pmc.ui.developer-7.7.8.0-20131027T1112 Corrective service installation was successful.
MH01396:
Management console corrective service installation in progress. Please wait... Corrective service file offload from remote server in progress... The corrective service file offload was successful. Continuing with HMC service installation... Verifying Certificate Information Authenticating Install Packages Installing Packages --- Installing ptf-req .... PreInstalling HMC REST Web Services ... Installing HMC REST Web Services ... pmc.core-7.7.8.0-20131124T1024 pmc.soliddb-7.7.8.0-20131124T1024 pmc.wlp-7.7.8.0-20131124T1024 pmc.wlp.soliddriver-7.7.8.0-20131124T1024 pmc.wlp.log4j-7.7.8.0-20131124T1038 pmc.wlp.guava-7.7.8.0-20131124T1038 pmc.wlp.jaxb2.runtime-7.7.8.0-20131124T1038 pmc.wlp.slf4j.api-7.7.8.0-20131124T1025 pmc.wlp.quartz-7.7.8.0-20131124T1039 pmc.wlp.commons-7.7.8.0-20131124T1025 pmc.war.rest-7.7.8.0-20131124T1025 pmc.soliddb.rest.sql-7.7.8.0-20131124T1038 pmc.soliddb.pcm.sql-7.7.8.0-20131124T1039 pmc.pcm.rest-7.7.8.0-20131124T1038 pmc.ui.developer-7.7.8.0-20131124T1039 Corrective service installation was successful.
The MH01388 update still shows error messages with regard to symlink creation appearing during the update process, so i guess my DCR MR0809134336 went straight into the circular file. The newly introduced error message “cp: cannot stat `.dev': No such file or directory” probably also originates from the shell script /images/installImages inside the MH01388 installation ISO image:
- /images/installImages
380 cp -p finishUpdate /console/HSC/ 381 cp -p postinstall /console/HSC/ 382 cp -p .VERSION /console/HSC/.VERSION 383 cp -p .dev /console/HSC/.dev 384 385 cp -p -r baseHMC /console/HSC/
which is trying to copy the .dev file which doesn't exist on the MH01388 ISO image:
$ mount -o loop MH01388.iso /mnt $ ls -al /mnt/images/ total 121 dr-xr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Nov 25 17:32 . dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 Nov 22 23:50 .. dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 10240 Nov 25 17:32 baseHMC -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 40644 Nov 5 22:45 finishUpdate -r--r--r-- 1 root root 2035 Nov 25 17:30 IBMhmc.MH01388_d1-7.0-7.8.0.i386.rpm -r--r--r-- 1 root root 9 Oct 29 01:45 .image.updates dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Nov 22 23:47 info -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 15397 Nov 6 18:56 installImages -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 2644 Oct 29 22:05 installK2Payloads.sh -r--r--r-- 1 root root 28 Oct 29 01:45 inventory dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 25 17:30 K2 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Nov 25 17:32 pegasus -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 10805 Apr 16 2013 postinstall -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1520 Nov 7 17:30 preInstallK2Payloads.sh dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 25 17:32 rmc dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Nov 25 17:32 service -r--r--r-- 1 root root 17 Oct 29 01:45 .signature -r--r--r-- 2 root root 37 Nov 25 17:32 .VERSION
So either someone forgot to remove the not necessary copy command from the install script, or the file .dev supposed to be existing was forgotten during creation of the ISO image. Either way lets hope the file .dev doesn't contain any vital information. Aside from that, up to now no issues with the new HMC version.