Two Flash Alerts for DS8870

Well, life goes on, and this week I saw two flash alerts passing by on DS8870. You can find them here and here. They're not that long, so I'm just taking over both of their contents.

DS8870 Global Mirror suspend caused by a Track Format Descriptor mismatch

Abstract

Global Mirror suspends caused by a microcode logic error introduced in R7.4 that results in a Track Format Descriptor mismatch. 

Content
Global Mirror suspends caused by a microcode logic error introduced in R7.4 that results in a Track Format Descriptor mismatch. Microcode is improperly setting a flag in a PPRC control block. This problem is pervasive in Global Mirror environments. R7.4 code levels below 87.41.44.0 and R7.5 levels below 87.51.23.4 are exposed to this issue.
Recommendation:
A mandatory ECA 712 is being released to the field, we recommend upgrade to code bundle R7.5 87.51.23.4

High Performance Flash Enclosure drive failures can cause loss of access

Abstract

IBM released microcode with improved error handling for DS8870 High Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE) flash drive errors. 

Content

IBM has developed microcode enhancements for error handling in HPFE. DS8870 (R7.5 SP2.3 ) 87.51.23.4 microcode levels contain the changes to improve the reliability and availability of High Performance Flash Enclosures. This enhancement streamlines error detection and isolation when a failing Flash Drive exhibits excessive errors.

This change is designed to be concurrently installable on DS8870 presently running the R7.x families of microcode.

Recommendation:
A mandatory ECA 737 is being released to the field, we recommend upgrade to code bundle R7.5 SP2.3 87.51.23.4 as soon as possible.

ID: 312723 312369 313417