This is how you update your HMC form version 7.9.0 to service pack 3 and all necessary fixes. At the time of writing, service pack 3 is the latest available service pack, and there are 2 fixes available for V7 R7.9.0 SP3, called MH01587 and MH01605. So the following procedure assumes that your HMC is currently at the base level of version 7.9.0, without any additional fixes or service packs installed.

This procedure is completely command line based. For this to work, you need to be able to ssh into the HMC using the hscroot user. For example, if your HMC is called yourhmc, you should be able to do this:

# ssh -l hscroot yourhmc

We also need to make sure we have some backups. Start with saving some output:

# lshmc -v
# lshmc -V
# lshmc -n
# lshmc -r  

The information outputted by the lshmc command is useful to determine what is currently installed on the HMC.

Next, take a console data backup of the HMC:

# bkconsdata -r nfs -h 10.11.12.13 -l /mksysb/HMC -d backupfile

The bkconsdata command above will backup the console data of the HMC via NFS to host 10.11.12.13 (replace with your own server name of IP address), and will store it in /mksysb/HMC/backupfile (replace /mksysb/HMC and backupfile in the bkconsdata command above to represent the correct location to back up to on your NFS server).

Mext, make a backup of the profiles for each managed server:

# bkprofdata -m  -f  --force 

The bkprofdata command above requires the name of each managed system. A good way to know the names of the managed systems configured on the HMC, is by running the following command:

# lssysconn -r all

Now that we have all the necessary backups, it's time to perform the actual update.

Let's start with the update to Service Pack 3:

# updhmc -t s -h ftp.software.ibm.com -u anonymous -p ftp -f /software/server/hmc/updates/HMC_Update_V7R790_SP3.iso -r

This will download the service pack from the IBM site to the HMC via FTP and update the HMC, and reboot it. This may take a while. The updhmc command may return a prompt after the download is completed, but that does not mean the update has occurred already. Please allow it to install and reboot. A message will be shown on the screen *The system is shutting down for reboot now". After the reboot, run the "lshmc -V" command again. It may take some time for the lshmc command will respond with proper output. Again, give it some time. As soon as the lshmc command shows that the service pack is installed, then you can move forward to the next step.

The next step is installing the fixes:

# updhmc -t s -h ftp.software.ibm.com -u anonymous -p ftp -f /software/server/hmc/fixes/MH01587.iso -r

And...

# updhmc -t s -h ftp.software.ibm.com -u anonymous -p ftp -f /software/server/hmc/fixes/MH01605.iso -r

After each fix is installed, the HMC will reboot, and you'll have to check with "lshmc -V" if the fix is installed.

And that concludes the update. If any new service packs and or fixes are released by IBM you can install them in a similar fashion.



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