HSCF0180E Operation failed for

When trying to update the system firmware of a managed system via the HMC Command Line, we encountered the following error message:

hmc01:~> updlic -o a -t all -l latest -m ms26 -r sftp -h X.X.X.X -u XXXXXXXX --passwd XXXXXXXX -d /firmware/system/01VL940_071_027
HSCF0180E Operation failed for ms26 (9009-22A*XXXXXXX).
Could not unpack the firmware update package.
Check the health and available disk space of the file system.
hmc01:~>

The error message that was displayed suggested checking the available space in the HMC file systems:

hmc01:~> lshmcfs
filesystem=/var,filesystem_size=7935,filesystem_avail=4955,temp_files_start_time=11/22/2018 12:59:00,temp_files_size=2011
filesystem=/dump,filesystem_size=60347,filesystem_avail=55935,temp_files_start_time=02/15/2021 10:21:00,temp_files_size=0
filesystem=/extra,filesystem_size=20030,filesystem_avail=15939,temp_files_start_time=none,temp_files_size=0
filesystem=/,filesystem_size=15615,filesystem_avail=4369,temp_files_start_time=02/15/2021 06:05:00,temp_files_size=4
hmc01:~>

Actually, the available space should be sufficient, but to be on the safe side, we’ve cleaned up a bit with the temporary files:

hmc01:~> chhmcfs -o f -d 5
hmc01:~>

The updlic command was unimpressed and returned the same error message.

The removal of some old firmware versions from the HMC‘s local disk repository was also unsuccessful:

hmc01:~> updlic -o p --ecnumber 01AL740
hmc01:~> updlic -o p --ecnumber 01AL770
hmc01:~> updlic -o p --ecnumber 01AM740
hmc01:~>

The error message was still the same. Obviously, contrary to the information in the error message, the problem had nothing to do with the available space on the HMC!

We then took a closer look at the downloaded firmware. We downloaded the firmware as an ISO file H75557812_01VL940_071_027.iso from the IBM website and then mounted it on our NIM server using the loopmount command:

aixnim:/root> loopmount -i /tmp/H75557812_01VL940_071_027.iso -o "-o ro -V cdrfs" -m /mnt
aixnim:/root> ls -l /mnt
total 528296
-rw-r--r--    1 102010979 213            1860 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940071_special_instructs.xml.special.note.xml
-rw-r-----    1 102010979 210            7290 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940_071_027.dd.xml
-rw-r--r--    1 102010979 213           95687 Feb 04 09:07 01VL940_071_027.html
-rw-r-----    1 102010979 210            2971 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940_071_027.pd.sdd
-rw-r-----    1 102010979 210           67338 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940_071_027.readme.txt
-rw-r-----    1 102010979 210       134969022 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940_071_027.rpm
-rw-r-----    1 102010979 210       135328848 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940_071_027.tar.gz
-rw-r-----    1 102010979 210            9442 Feb 04 09:08 01VL940_071_027.xml
aixnim:/root>

What we didn’t notice when copying the files was the lack of read permissions on other for most files.

After we had assigned read permissions for all files, the next update attempt was successful:

hmc01:~> updlic -o a -t all -l latest -m ms26 -r sftp -h X.X.X.X -u XXXXXX --passwd XXXXXXXX -d /firmware/system/01VL940_071_027 
HSCF0179W Operation was partially successful for ms26 (9009-22A*XXXXXXX).
The following deferred fixes are present in the fix pack.  Deferred fixes will be activated after the next IPL of the system.
An immediate IPL is not required, unless you want to activate one of the fixes below now.
..
hmc01:~>