SOFTPAQ NUMBER: SP30733
PART NUMBER: N/A
FILE NAME: SP30733.EXE
TITLE: Systems ROMPaq Firmware Upgrade Diskette for HP ProLiant
BL35p Servers.
VERSION: 4.03A
LANGUAGE: English
CATEGORY: ROMPaqs
DIVISIONS: Systems
PRODUCTS AFFECTED: HP ProLiant BL35p
OPERATING SYSTEM: ALL
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION: N/A
PREREQUISITE: N/A
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 5, 2005
ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION ALLOWED: Yes
SOFTPAQ UTILITY VERSION: 2.X
SUPERSEDES: SP30414
DESCRIPTION: This release provides updated system ROM images
for the latest maintenance releases of HP
BL35p Servers.
New Features -
ProLiant BL35p ROM A03 (06/03/2005)
============================================
IMPORTANT: If using Linux RHEL4, RHEL4 Update 1, SLES9 Service Pack 1,
or SLES9 Service Pack 2, please see the information relating
to Linux in Item 2 below. For these versions of Linux, time
corruption issues may occur if certain steps are not taken.
These issues are related to the PowerNow support available
in these operating systems and are not unique to HP's
ProLiant servers.
1) Added support for dual-core 200-series AMD Opteron processors.
2) Added support for OS control of processor performance
states and HP's Power Regulator feature (using the AMD
PowerNow technology) that allows customers to configure their
server's power usage based on their needs. This server
supports HP Power Regulator - Static Low Power Mode. OS
control of processor performance states is supported if Power
Regulator is Disabled (default).
The features include:
HP Static Low Power Mode: This mode will reduce all installed
processors' frequency (and voltage for certain processors) to
reduce power usage. This mode will reduce performance in
environments with high CPU utilization, but will have little
to no performance affect for other environments. This mode
is useful for customers whose environment has constrained power
availability and need to guarantee a lower overall system power
usage.
Power Regulator Disable (default): When HP Power Regulator
is disabled, Demand Based Switching may be enabled under the
operating system to provide processor performance states.
The operating system will modify the CPU's frequency and
voltage based on CPU Utilization. This feature can be enabled
under Microsoft Windows 2003 Service Pack 1, RedHat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4, RHEL4 Update 1, and SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server (SLES9) Service Pack 1. However, due to
a "clock skew" issue (where system time is not kept correctly)
HP recommends that PowerNow be disabled in RHEL4 (64-bit),
RHEL4 Update 1 (64-bit), and SLES9 Service Pack 1 (64-bit).
These operating systems do not have a work-around for the time
corruption issues. Please see below information for important
details for OS control of processor performance states
including information on how to disable PowerNow.
Note: If using OS processor performance states, also known
as Demand Based Switching, the following may be useful.
This information is critical for customers using certain versions
of Linux. The issues described below are not unique to HP
ProLiant Servers.
Windows 2003 SP1:
- Windows 2003 SP1 supports AMD PowerNow with single-core
AMD Opteron processors. If using dual-core AMD Opteron
processors, a new processor driver is required which does
not ship with Windows 2003 SP1 base media. This driver is
available from AMD.
- IMPORTANT: When using AMD PowerNow, the boot.ini file must be
modified to add /usepmtimer. Although HP has not identified
issues relating to not performing this step, AMD indicates
this is a required step.
- Windows 2003 SP1 does NOT enable processor performance
states by default. Use configuration options under the
Control Panel to enable this feature.
Linux:
- OS control of processor performance states can be utilized
with RHEL4 32-bit, RHEL4 U1 32-bit, and SLES9 SP1 32-bit.
PowerNow support will be enabled by default.
This is an OS policy.
- When using AMD PowerNow with any of the above operating
systems, set clock=pmtmr. This prevents a time corruption
issue. Since PowerNow is defaulted to enabled, this step
must be performed.
- RHEL4 64-bit, RHEL4 U1 64-bit, and SLES9 SP1 64-bit do not
support set clock=pmtmr. Since PowerNow is enabled by default,
the user must disable PowerNow when using these operating
systems to prevent time corruption issues. Disable PowerNow
in the following manner:
In Red Hat, run:
# chkconfig --level 12345 cpuspeed off
and reboot the server.
In SUSE, set:
POWERSAVE_CPUFREQD_MODULE="off" in the
/etc/sysconfig/powersave/common file and reboot the server.
- SLES9 SP1 32-bit will work without issue with single-core
AMD Opteron processors. However, set clock=pmtmr must be used
to prevent time corruption issues.
- RHEL4 32-bit and RHEL4 U1 32-bit require manual update
of configuration files to enable this feature. By default,
PowerNow is NOT enabled due to this issue. If the user wishes
not to utilize PowerNow, they do NOT need to set clock=pmtmr.
If the user does wish to utilize PowerNow, they should set
clock=pmtmr and do the following:
1. Edit the /etc/cpuspeed.conf file and replace:
#DRIVER = "powernow-k7"
with the line:
DRIVER = "powernow-k8"
2. Restart the "cpuspeed" daemon using:
# service cpuspeed restart
- When using dual-core AMD Opteron processors with the current
Linux operating systems supporting PowerNow, an "out of synch"
error may occur. This is an erroneous error which does not
actually cause an issue.
- HP expects RHEL4 U2 and SLES9 SP2 (available in the future)
will address the above issues with AMD PowerNow. It is not
yet known whether it will be required to set clock=pmtmr for
these future operating systems. For the latest information
regarding PowerNow support when using Linux, please visit
the following link:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/powernow-notes.html
3) Added an RBSU Option to enable/disable Page Directory Cache
(PDC). By default PDC is enabled. This option allows working
around an issue in some Linux kernel versions running in 64-bit
mode. PDC should ONLY be disabled if running in 64-bit mode
with RHEL4, RHEL4 Update 1, or SLES9 with errata kernel
earlier than 2.6.5-7.151 or any kernel.org based kernel earlier
than 2.6.12. Disabling PDC with these versions of Linux
prevents a possible but rare possibility of a Machine Check
Error. Newer versions of the Linux kernel will not require
that PDC be disabled.
Problems Fixed -
ProLiant BL35p ROM A03 (06/03/2005)
============================================
1) Updated embedded PXE Option ROM to version 7.7.8. This
Option ROM addresses an issue where the NIC could assert
a spurious interrupt during PXE boots. If using a Smart
Array 64X or Smart Array 6i controller with a firmware
version prior to 2.36 and the previous PXE Option ROM,
a lock-up or continuous reboot could occur when
performing a PXE Remote Installation Services (RIS)
installation of Windows.
2) Resolved issue where the Broadcom PXE Option ROM did not
use the proper Universal Unique ID. This will not result in
any issues unless a specific UUID is required. If the PXE
server is configured to only download images to servers
with specific UUIDs, then the PXE installation will not work
properly if the UUID the PXE Option ROM is using does not
match the one configured on the PXE server.
HOW TO USE:
1. Obtain a formatted 1.44 MB diskette.
2. Download the SoftPaq to a directory on your hard drive and change to that directory.
The file that is downloaded is SP30733.EXE.
3. From that drive and directory, execute the SoftPaq file:
SP30733 [ENTER]
You will be prompted to place the formatted 1.44 MB diskette into a diskette drive to
create diskette.
4. After the diskette is created, you may delete the downloaded file
SP30733.EXE if you wish.
Copyright 2005, Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved.
Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective companies