Important: Some LPARs Hang With New TRs – IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 50

December 16, 2019 Doug Bidwell

Listen up, folks. This one is serious. A few weeks ago, there were some bad patches on the Db2 for i database for IBM i 7.3, as we detailed here, and as last week was coming to a close, we found out that LPARs are hanging on machines that have the latest Technology Refreshes applied to IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 in cases where the Hardware Management Console (HMC) is not managing the partitions.

The details of the issue with the Technology Refreshes are outlined in APAR MA48101, which is essentially a bug report that warns customers of an issue with the software stack and oftentimes gives hints about when and how it will be fixed. Here is the issue in a nutshell: IPL-SRCC6003962-WAIT Hang with IBM i 7.3 with TR7 or IBM i 7.4 with TR1. Translating this, what it means is that a guest partition created with Virtual Partition Manager (VPM) inside SST or Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) will hang on IPL after the apply of the TRs. More on this as soon as announced, or call Support on the above APAR for details. The point is: do not put the new TRs on a guest partition on IBM i 7.3 or IBM i 7.4 unless it is HMC managed, and for that matter do not put the latest Cume or groups on a guest partition unless it is HMC managed. Whatever the issue is, it only affected IBM i and not AIX or Linux running atop PowerVM. We will update this story when we know more.

In further PTF and related news, the developerWorks Connections Sunset is bugging people, and there is a FAQ at this link about it. There is also updated microcode (firmware) for Machine-Type Model: 9008-22L; 9009-22A; 9009-41A; 9009-42A; 9223-22H; 9223-42H. There is also a new MQ for IBM i PTF group for v9.0.0/v9.1.0 for IBM i 7.2, IBM 7.3, and IBM i 7.4.

New (or Updated) Links this week:

System: Server Firmware for stand-alone IBM i systems
HMC: Recommended Fixes – HMC Code Upgrades
ASNA: ASNA Connection (Newsletter)

And now, two tips for the price of one. First, QMGTOOLS is loaded via PTF these days, do a RSTLIB SAVLIB(QMGTOOLS) DEV(*SAVF) SAVF(QESMGTSAVF). And two, Open ACS, Navigator for i, log in, File Systems>All Tasks>Integrated File system>display Dynamic Mount Information.

The Guide at a glance: There are new defectives this week (12/14/19). Here is the defective PTF rundown, which is the last defective for each release:

	Defect		Defective	APAR	Fixing
	Date		PTF			PTF
	--------	--------	-------	-------
7.4	12/09/19	SI70924		SE72609	SI71719 (available!)

Note that PTF SI71719 is a distribution requisite of the latest Technology Refresh (TR) PTF. If you have applied the latest TR PTF to your system, you should apply the fixing PTF SI71719 for i 7.4.

7.3	12/09/19	SI70923		SE72609	SI71718 (available!)

Note that PTF SI71718 is a distribution requisite of the latest Technology Refresh (TR) PTF. If you have applied the latest TR PTF to your system, you should apply the fixing PTF SI71718 for i 7.3.

Important: Some LPARs Hang With New TRs – IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 50

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