5137ch04.fm
Draft Document for Review October 14, 2014 10:19 am
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IBM Power Systems E870 and E880 Technical Overview and Introduction
Each IBM Power Systems server has the following levels of server firmware and power
subsystem firmware:
Installed level
This level of server firmware or power subsystem firmware is installed and will be installed
into memory after the managed system is powered off and then powered on. It is installed
on the temporary side of system firmware.
Activated level
This level of server firmware or power subsystem firmware is active and running in
memory.
Accepted level
This level is the backup level of server or power subsystem firmware. You can return to this
level of server or power subsystem firmware if you decide to remove the installed level. It is
installed on the permanent side of system firmware.
Figure 4-8 shows the different levels in the HMC.
Figure 4-8 HMC System Firmware window
IBM provides the CFM function on selected Power Systems. This function supports applying
nondisruptive system firmware service packs to the system concurrently (without requiring a
reboot operation to activate changes). For systems that are not managed by an HMC, the
installation of system firmware is always disruptive.
The concurrent levels of system firmware can, on occasion, contain fixes that are known as
deferred
. These deferred fixes can be installed concurrently but are not activated until the
next IPL. Deferred fixes, if any, are identified in the Firmware Update Descriptions table of the
firmware document. For deferred fixes within a service pack, only the fixes in the service pack
that cannot be concurrently activated are deferred. Table 4-1 shows the file-naming
convention for system firmware.
