Manual Firmware Flash¶
The sequence of events that must happen to flash OpenBMC firmware is the following:
- Power off the Host
- Upload and Activate BMC
- Reboot the BMC (applies BMC)
- Upload and Activate Host
- Power on the Host (applies Host)
Upload and Activate BMC Firmware¶
Use the rflash command to upload and activate the Host firmware:
rflash <noderange> -a /path/to/obmc-phosphor-image-witherspoon.ubi.mtd.tar
If running rflash
in Hierarchy, the firmware files must be accessible on the Service Nodes.
Note: If a .tar file is provided, the -a
option does an upload and activate in one step. If an ID is provided, the -a
option just does activate the specified firmware. After firmware is activated, use the rflash <noderange> -l
to view. The rflash
command shows (*)
as the active firmware and (+)
on the firmware that requires reboot to become effective.
Reboot the BMC¶
Use the rpower
command to reboot the BMC:
rpower <noderange> bmcreboot
The BMC will take 2-5 minutes to reboot, check the status using: rpower <noderange> bmcstate
and wait for BMCReady
to be returned.
Known Issue: On reboot, the first call to the BMC after reboot, xCAT will return Error: BMC did not respond within 10 seconds, retry the command.
. Please retry.
Upload and Activate Host Firmware¶
Use the rflash command to upload and activate the Host firmware:
rflash <noderange> -a /path/to/witherspoon.pnor.squashfs.tar
If running rflash
in Hierarchy, the firmware files must be accessible on the Service Nodes.
Note: The -a
option does an upload and activate in one step, after firmware is activated, use the rflash <noderange> -l
to view. The rflash
command shows (*)
as the active firmware and (+)
on the firmware that requires reboot to become effective.
Validation¶
Use one of the following commands to validate firmware levels are in sync:
Use the
rinv
command to validate firmware level:rinv <noderange> firm -V | grep -i ibm | grep "\*" | xcoll
Use the
rflash
command to validate the firmware level:rflash <noderange> -l | grep "\*" | xcoll