The IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20

Chapter 5. Hardware setup 79

5.4 Firmware

You may need to upgrade various firmware components before you install an

operating system on a BladeCenter JS20. The minimum firmware levels required

and the actual firmware levels we used during the development of this book are

listed in Table 5-1.

To check the level of firmware components, use the following two steps:

1. Find the latest firmware levels and update packages distributed on the IBM

support Web site.

a. Go to the IBM support Web site:

http://www.ibm.com/pc/support

b. Under Download, select Driver matrices.

c. On the Personal computing drivers Web page, select Servers.

d. On the Software and device drivers - Servers Web page, select eServer™

BladeCenter.

e. On the “Software and device drivers - IBM eServer BladeCenter (Type

8677)” Web page, you see the firmware levels for the BladeCenter.

f. You can also select IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 - Software and

device drivers to see JS20-specific firmware levels.

2. Identify the current build levels and levels of firmware that are currently

installed by displaying the firmware vital product data (VPD). You can view the

firmware VPD for most firmware components, as shown in Table 5-1, through

the Management Module Web interface. This is illustrated in Figure 5-7.

Table 5-1 BladeCenter and BladeCenter JS20 firmware components

Firmware component Minimum level Level we used

Management Module V1.09 (BRET58A) V1.14 (BRET67I)

4-Port Gigabit Ethernet

Switch Module

V1.04 (ibmrun.081) V1.07 (ibmrun.095)

BladeCenter JS20 BIOS FW04310120 FW04310120

BladeCenter JS20 BSMP V1.00 (BQ8T16A) V1.0 (BQ8T20A)

Note: FW04310120 for the JS20 BIOS is the minimum required supported

level to support AIX 5L releases like V5.2 (ML4).

80 The IBM Eserver BladeCenter JS20

Figure 5-7 Viewing firmware levels on BladeCenter

The following sections explain how to update the various firmware components

associated with the BladeCenter JS20.

5.4.1 Management Module firmware

The easiest way to upgrade the firmware of the Management Module is through

the Management Module Web interface.

1. Download the firmware update package from the IBM support Web site. This

is usually a ZIP file that contains several files with a PKT extension.

Chapter 5. Hardware setup 81

2. Unzip the firmware update package into a directory on the workstation where

you are running the Web browser that you are using to connect the

Management Module Web interface.

3. Update each PKT file to the Management Module as explained in the

following steps.

a. In the navigation panel of the Management Module Web interface

(Figure 5-8), select MM Control → Firmware Update.

b. In the Update MM Firmware pane (right side of Figure 5-8), select the

Browse button and locate the PKT file in the directory where you

unpacked it.

c. Click the Update button to initiate the download of the PKT file to the

Management Module. This step may take some time to complete.

Figure 5-8 Updating the Management Module firmware

d. A window opens that shows you the progress of the download.

e. Click the Continue button when prompted to confirm the firmware update.

This step may also take some time to complete.

f. Another window opens that shows you the progress.