Many AIX and Power System administrators use Microcode Discovery Services to regularly check the versions of adapter firmware and system firmware. The following steps are usually necessary:
– Download the current catalog file catalog.mic.
– Run Inventory Scout to generate the microcode upload file.
– Upload the microcode upload file to IBM http://www14.software.ibm.com/support/customercare/mds/mds
In many cases, the upload is carried out via a browser. The report is shown in the form of an HTML output. Alternatively, you can also upload e.g. with the help of curl and request the data in JSON format.
$ curl -F "mdsData=@ms01-vio1.mup;type=multipart/form" -F "format=json" -H "Expect:" http://www14.software.ibm.com/support/customercare/mds/mds -o ms01-vio1.mup
The returned JSON file contains all information that is otherwise displayed in the browser.
With a small script, the JSON file can be displayed relatively easily in readable ASCII form. We have created the script mds_report for this purpose and made it available in our download area (https://powercampus.de/download). The script expects a microcode upload file as an argument, here is a sample output:
$ mds_report ms01-vio1.mup ms01-vio1.mup upload microcode upload file to IBM ... uploaded Microcode by Host ms01-vio1 IP Addr: X.X.X.X Model: 8205-E6D Serial: XXXXXX Microcode catalog: 2020.07.30 DEVICES INSTALLED LATEST RECOMMEND PKGNAME system AL770_126 AL770_126 None 8231-E1D; 8231-E2D; 8246-L1D; 8246-L1T; 8246-L2D; 8246-L2T; 8202-E4D; 8205-E6D; 8268-E1D; 8493-SV6 HV16 System Firmware sissas0 0422003f 0422003f None PCI Express x8 Ext Dual-x4 3Gb SAS RAID Adapter (CCIN: 574E) ent0,1,2,3 10080180 10240310 Update 4-Port Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express Adapter ent4,5,6,7 0400401800007 0400401800009 Update PCIe2 2-Port 10GbE SFP+Copper or 10GbE SR Adapter fcs0,1,2,3 210301 210313 Update PCIe2 4-Port 8Gb Fibre Channel Adapter, FC 5729 fcs4,5,6,7 0320080270 0325080271 Update 8Gb PCIe2 Low Profile 4-Port FC Adapter hdisk0,1 37343138 37343139 Update Savvio 15K.3 146/300GB SAS Disk Drive cd0 RA65 RA65 None SATA DVD-RAM Drive RMBO0140512 Microcode by Type IMPACT SEVERITY RELDATE LATEST PKGNAME Security SPE 2018.05.27 AL770_126 8231-E1D; 8231-E2D; 8246-L1D; 8246-L1T; 8246-L2D; 8246-L2T; 8202-E4D; 8205-E6D; 8268-E1D; 8493-SV6 HV16 System Firmware Usability ATT 2013.06.06 0422003f PCI Express x8 Ext Dual-x4 3Gb SAS RAID Adapter (CCIN: 574E) Usability ATT 2019.06.20 10240310 4-Port Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express Adapter Usability ATT 2016.11.14 0400401800009 PCIe2 2-Port 10GbE SFP+Copper or 10GbE SR Adapter Usability ATT 2019.06.17 210313 PCIe2 4-Port 8Gb Fibre Channel Adapter, FC 5729 Usability ATT 2020.01.28 0325080271 8Gb PCIe2 Low Profile 4-Port FC Adapter Function ATT 2019.04.30 37343139 Savvio 15K.3 146/300GB SAS Disk Drive New NEW 2014.10.24 RA65 SATA DVD-RAM Drive RMBO0140512 $
The output is very similar to the output in the browser. In the first section “Microcode by Host” the update recommendations for the system firmware and adapter firmware are given. In the second section “Microcode by Type” Impact and Severity, as well as the release date of the last available firmware version are shown.
If access to the Internet is only possible via a proxy, the proxy can be specified using the -x argument, as shown in the following example:
$ mds_report -x http://10.0.0.217:1234 ms07-vio1.mup ms07-vio1.mup upload microcode upload file to IBM ... uploaded Microcode by Host ms07-vio1 IP Addr: X.X.X.X Model: 8408-44E Serial: XXXXXXX Microcode catalog: 2020.07.30 DEVICES INSTALLED LATEST RECOMMEND PKGNAME system SV860_138 SV860_215 Update 8247-21L, 8247-22L, 8247-42L, 8284-21A, 8284-22A, 8286-41A, 8286-42A, 8408-44E, 8408-E8E, 5148-21L, 5148-22L - system-v860.60 sissas0 15511800 19512900 Update PCIe3 RAID SAS Adapter Quad-port 6Gb x8... ses0,1,2,3 1D0B 1D0B None SAS Enclosure Services for Power 8 4U High Function DASD backplane 8408-E8E pdisk0,1 37363135 37363142 Update BP5XX15KHDD 15KRPM 73/146/300/600GB SAS Disk Drive fcs0,1 00010000020025201919 00012000040025700015 Update PCIe2 2-Port 16Gb FC Adapter fcs2,3,4,5 0320080270 0325080271 Update 8Gb PCIe2 Low Profile 4-Port FC Adapter Microcode by Type IMPACT SEVERITY RELDATE LATEST PKGNAME Security HIPER 2020.03.04 SV860_215 8247-21L, 8247-22L, 8247-42L, 8284-21A, 8284-22A, 8286-41A, 8286-42A, 8408-44E, 8408-E8E, 5148-21L, 5148-22L - system-v860.60 Availability ATT 2020.02.25 19512900 PCIe3 RAID SAS Adapter Quad-port 6Gb x8... New NEW 2015.06.03 1D0B SAS Enclosure Services for Power 8 4U High Function DASD backplane 8408-E8E Function ATT 2020.04.16 37363142 BP5XX15KHDD 15KRPM 73/146/300/600GB SAS Disk Drive Usability ATT 2020.02.18 00012000040025700015 PCIe2 2-Port 16Gb FC Adapter Usability ATT 2020.01.28 0325080271 8Gb PCIe2 Low Profile 4-Port FC Adapter $
If you want to use the script more often, you should enter the proxy in the script itself, for this there is the PROXY variable, which can be set as follows:
$ grep ^PROXY mds_report PROXY="http://10.0.0.217:1234" $
(Where 10.0.0.217:1234 is just an example, you have to supply your own values here.)
It is then no longer necessary to specify a proxy using the -x option.
If the script is executed as root on an AIX system, the proxy configuration is automatically adopted from ESA (Electronic Service Agent).
If you need the URLs to download the firmware, you should use the option -u (show download URLs). The links for the firmware versions are then displayed at the end of the output, here is an example:
$ mds_report -u ms03-vio1.mup /appdata/daten/fk450/aix/mds/virt-aix23-vio1.mup upload microcode upload file to IBM ... uploaded Microcode by Host ms03-vio1 IP Addr: X.X.X.X Model: 9009-22A Serial: XXXXXXX Microcode catalog: 2020.07.30 DEVICES INSTALLED LATEST RECOMMEND PKGNAME system VL910_144 VL940_050 Update 9008-22L; 9009-22A; 9009-41A; 9009-42A; 9223-22H; and 9223-42H-system sissas0 19511400 19512900 Update PCIe3 RAID SAS Adapter Quad-port 6Gb x8... pdisk0 36383035 36383035 None AL14SE 600/1200/1800 GB 4K Hard Disk Drive pdisk1,2 41374B30 41374B30 None Ultrastar C15K600-5xx fcs0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 00011000040041500005 00012000040025700015 Update PCIe3 4-Port 16Gb FC Adapter Microcode by Type IMPACT SEVERITY RELDATE LATEST PKGNAME Availability SPE 2020.05.21 VL940_050 9008-22L; 9009-22A; 9009-41A; 9009-42A; 9223-22H; and 9223-42H-system Availability ATT 2020.02.25 19512900 PCIe3 RAID SAS Adapter Quad-port 6Gb x8... Data HIPER 2016.12.01 36383035 AL14SE 600/1200/1800 GB 4K Hard Disk Drive Function ATT 2015.08.18 41374B30 Ultrastar C15K600-5xx Usability ATT 2020.02.18 00012000040025700015 PCIe3 4-Port 16Gb FC Adapter Downloads http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm/power/900922A&release=all&platform=all&function=fixId&includeSupersedes=0&source=fc&fixids=01VL940_050_027 http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm/io&release=all&platform=all&function=fixId&includeSupersedes=0&source=fc&fixids=40145679_20200224110413_GRP http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm/io&release=all&platform=all&function=fixId&includeSupersedes=0&source=fc&fixids=1354333840_20161130155709_GRP http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm/io&release=all&platform=all&function=fixId&includeSupersedes=0&source=fc&fixids=1448849004_20150813164908_GRP http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/quickorder?product=ibm/io&release=all&platform=all&function=fixId&includeSupersedes=0&source=fc&fixids=427029183_20200213134040_GRP $
The script generally takes less than 1 second to run!
We tested the script on AIX, Linux, and MacOS. Under MacOS there is usually no ksh93. But the installed ksh supports all the necessary features that are required by the mds_report script. If you change the interpreter in the first line of the script to ksh, the script will also run on a Mac.
A good description of Inventory Scout and MDS can be found here: http://gibsonnet.net/blog/cgaix/html/MDS%20reports.html (Chris Gibson)
You can find out how to automate Inventory Scout in our article Automating Inventory Scout