Concurrent vs Disruptive Firmware Update and Upgrade on POWER Systems

Steps

Use the following examples as a reference to determine whether your installation will be concurrent or disruptive.

For systems that are NOT managed by an HMC, the installation of system firmware is always disruptive.
Upgrades are always disruptive.

Note: The concurrent levels of system firmware may, on occasion, contain fixes that are known as Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred. Deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until the next IPL. Partition-Deferred fixes can be installed concurrently, but will not be activated until a partition reactivate is performed. Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred fixes, if any, will be identified in the readme file of the firmware level. For these types of fixes (Deferred and/or Partition-Deferred) within a service pack, only the fixes in the service pack which cannot be concurrently activated are deferred.

Note: The file names and service pack levels used in the following examples are for clarification only, and are not necessarily levels that have been, or will be released.

System firmware file naming convention:

01MLxxxx_yyy_zzz

• xxx is the release level
• yyy is the service pack level
• zzz is the last disruptive service pack level

NOTE: Values of service pack and last disruptive service pack level (yyy and zzz) are only unique within a release level (xxx). For example, 01ML1010_040_040 and 01ML1020_040_040 are different service packs.

An installation is disruptive if:

• The release levels (xxx) are different.     

            Example: Currently installed release is 01ML1010_040_040, new release is 01ML1020_050_050.

• The service pack level (yyy) and the last disruptive service pack level (zzz) are the same.     

            Example: ML1020_040_040 is disruptive, no matter what level of ML1020 is currently installed on the system.

• The service pack level (yyy) currently installed on the system is lower than the last disruptive service pack level (zzz) of the service pack to be installed.

            Example: Currently installed service pack is ML1010_040_040 and new service pack is ML1020_050_045.

An installation is concurrent if:

The release level (xxx) is the same, and
The service pack level (yyy) currently installed on the system is the same or higher than the last disruptive service pack level (zzz) of the service pack to be installed.

Example: Currently installed service pack is ML1010_040_040, new service pack is ML1010_041_040.

In order to check if an update will be concurrent or disruptive you can also use the HMC command line.

You can use the commands lslic and updlic to check the concurrency of an update.
Let's start with some additional information about the flag -r which is used for repository.

The repository from which to retrieve the LIC updates. Valid values are ibmwebsite for the IBM service website, ftp for a remote FTP site, sftp for a remote secure FTP (SFTP) site, dvd for the DVD drive on the HMC, disk for the internal hard disk drive on the HMC, mountpoint for the specified mount point on the internal hard disk drive on the HMC, or usb for a USB flash memory device. Briefly the repositories where you can check a specific firmware level are the following:
ibmwebsite | ftp | sftp | dvd | disk | mountpoint

You can use the following HMC commands in order to check the concurrency of a specific firmware level (be sure to select the right repository as discussed above):

updlic -m <MT-M*S> -o a -t sys -l <level> -r ibmwebsite –q –v

Examples:
updlic -m 9105-42A*1234567 -o a -t sys -l 085 -r ibmwebsite -q -v
10:23:25 UTC: 9105-42A*1234567: Retrieving updates.
10:23:25 UTC: 9105-42A*1234567: BMC - Update complete
mtms=9105-42A*1234567,ecnumber=01ML1020,level=085,concurrency=All can be concurrently activated.

updlic -m 9080-HEX*1234567-o a -t sys -l 146 -r ibmwebsite –q –v
mtms=9080-HEX*1234567,ecnumber=01MH1010,level=146,concurrency=All can be concurrently activated.

lslic -m <MT-M*S> -r ibmwebsite -l update

Examples:
lslic -m 9105-42A*1234567 -r ibmwebsite -l update
lic_type=Managed System,ecnumber=01ML1020,level=085,concurrency=Concurrent
lic_type=Managed System,ecnumber=01ML1020,level=079,concurrency=Disruptive

lslic -m 9080-HEX*1234567 -r ibmwebsite -l update
lic_type=Power Subsystem,ecnumber=01MH1010,level=146,spname=FW1010.40,concurrency=Concurrent
lic_type=Power Subsystem,ecnumber=01MH1010,level=140,spname=FW1010.34,concurrency=Disruptive

For more information and examples with the commands lslic and updlic please check the following man page documentation.

lslic

updlic