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Hi, I’m Kevin Depew with HP's industry Standards Server Division
thanks for joining me for this session of coffee coaching
i managed the team that develops the System ROM and other firmware
For all of HP entry standard ProLiant servers
i've been with HP for twenty years
And HP ProLiant generation 8 product launch
is one of the most exciting i've been involved with due to the innovation and
quality of these products. Firmware plays a huge role in making a ProLiant a ProLiant
It provides the foundation and support for many of HP’s most exciting and
useful technologies
it plays a critical part in the quality of our products
the firmware working together with the HP software stack, creates the ProLiant
experience
One of the big improvements for Gen8 ProLiant servers is consistency across the entire
product line
All Gen8 ProLiant servers will use a common, HP-developed code base for the System ROM
and iLO
There will no longer be a unique software/firmware stack for
100-series ProLiant servers.
This ensures consistent functionality, a consistent look, and a consistent
customer experience
for all Gen8 ProLiant servers
ranging from entry level servers to the most advanced ProLiants.
There will be one consistent ProLiant experience.
This is a huge benefit for HP customers in terms of ease of use and improved
quality across the entire product line.
Now let’s talk about quality, enhancing Quality was a major focus during the design
and development of the Gen8 ProLiant servers.
HP strove to enhance quality in two very distinct areas. First, HP sought to
educe server failures by increasing the amount and quality of validation
We also greatly enhanced the validation process
In addition, HP designed testability into the servers themselves. Second, and just
as important, HP designed numerous technologies into our Gen8 products to
enhance serviceability
When something does go wrong, whether that be a hardware failure, firmware
software issue, or user error
HP products and services are designed to allow root causing issues quickly
and get customers back up and running as quickly as possible
The System ROM includes numerous new technologies and functionality
to enhance the serviceability of Gen8 ProLiant servers
one of those technologies is HP Advanced Error Detection Technology
HP products have supported Memory Pre-failure Alert for many generations
This technology is designed to notify users when a DIMM is at increased risk of
receiving an uncorrectable memory error, which will bring the system down
The idea is to proactively notify customers so that downtime can be scheduled to
replace a degraded DIMM
rather than having a DIMM fail and result in unplanned downtime.
With Gen8 servers, the algorithm for detecting when a DIMM is at increased risk
of receiving an uncorrectable memory
error has been greatly enhanced
This algorithm was developed based on rigorous analysis of DIMM architectures
and DIMM failures.
The result is that customer downtime is reduced because DIMMs are only replaced
when truly at higher risk of receiving an uncorrectable memory error
another feature which will improve service ability is early video progress
indicators
HP firmware engineers, working with HP hardware engineers, have
designed in the ability to display video within a second of when the power button
is pressed
This is in contrast to previous generation servers which could take one
or more minutes to receive video
This has several major benefits. It provides immediate feedback that the
server is booting when the power button is pressed. Most importantly, it
provides an indication of where the server is in the boot process
If the server were to hang, there will be information displayed on the screen
which will be useful isolating the failure
With previous generation servers, there would just be a “black screen”.
a related technology is Early Fault Detection Messaging is enabled by early
video support
Whereas previous generation servers had limited ability to provide user feedback
for errors
which prevented boot progress before video was available
typically a “black screen” with some LEDs possibly illuminated
Gen8 servers can provide detailed messages and HP Integrated Management Log
entries for these issues
Some examples of conditions that will prevent booting and would have resulted
in a “black screen” on previous servers include
mixing processors with different core counts
mixing UDIMMs and RDIMMs, installing Quad-Rank DIMMs in the
incorrect slots, DIMM failures, and installing DIMMs into the incorrect slots for the
installed processor
In all of these cases
detailed and easy-to-understand messages will be displayed and logged to the IML
We believe this functionality will result in a huge decrease in service
issues
allow users to diagnose configuration errors themselves, and allow faster
resolution of hardware failures by HP service
HP Gen8 servers also Enhanced Logging for Failure Data to DIMMs
The HP System ROM logs information into the DIMMs themselves on DIMM failures or
degradations.
This information is useful for HP service in interrogating DIMMs to
determine the nature of the failure
It also allows HP service to see “trends” in DIMM issues and take proactive
steps to remediate issues
Examples of data logged to the DIMMs on failure include the system type
the error type, the DIMM socket, the memory speed and voltage
and detailed memory controller status registers.
an important enhancement for DIMM is Active Health Systems Log Support
The HP System ROM participates, along with numerous other HP firmware
and software deliverables, in logging information to the Active Health System
called AHS log.
The goal of AHS is to log information before any failure occurred
that may be useful in the event of a server failure
When provided to HP service, the AHS log assists HP in resolving issues much faster.
Examples of the information logged to the AHS log by the System ROM includes: detailed
hardware configuration, including DIMM types, processors, and PCI-e devices
system configuration settings
information on the DIMM training/configuration process, and processor and
chipset status registers
With Gen8 ProLiant servers, the System ROM and iLO work together to log detailed
information about failures even if HP drivers and agents aren’t loaded.
With previous generation ProLiant servers, certain error types were not logged to the IML if
HP management drivers and agents were not loaded.
there are other technology supported by the system ROM including improve
system ROM security
The Gen8 System ROM has been hardened to prevent accidental or malicious
corruption of the System ROM.
All modifications to the System ROM must be authenticated
and HP System ROM images are digitally signed
HP ProLiant Gen8 servers will meet future government specifications for BIOS
security
The last techonology that I will talk about is HP SmartMemory
HP performs rigorous validation on HP supported memory to ensure it meets
our stringent requirements.
All Gen8 HP DIMMs will be able to be validated as HP SmartMemory by the System ROM.
This allows the System ROM to enable certain additional functionality if
DIMMs are verified as HP SmartMemory
An example of this is allowing DIMMs to run
automatically at higher than
industry level frequencies for certain DIMM configurations.
together all these technologies are designed to enhance the proliant
experience
they will prove usability quality and service ability of Gen8 servers
thanks for joining me on this session of coffee coaching