Hp Integrity BL860c i2 firmware

[ar_a]

Hi STH

Does anyone have the latest firmware bundle for BL860c i2 blades? As far as i can see these were EOL'd in 2020/21.

Bundle 26.36 (from 2013) is publicly available on HP's website, but the last bundle (Bundle Version: 2020.08 (firmware version 30.00)) is locked.

Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[cy384]

bump? also messing with one of these and don't have access

 

[pulla]

I didnt find even that 26.36 one from 2013. If i remember right, mine firmware was even older but cant check right now.

Seems to be difficult to find indeed.

 

[ar_a]

I didnt find even that 26.36 one from 2013. If i remember right, mine firmware was even older but cant check right now.

Seems to be difficult to find indeed.

I haven't been able to play around with this pretty much since this post but if i remember correctly it's this link.

I extracted and played around with the SFW binary, then flashed with a hardware flasher.

Glad to see someone else with one of these. I have a soft spot for the tragicomedy that is itanium

 

[pulla]

Thanks @ar_a

I need someday connect cables and powering up my blade chassis and check firmware version.

If i remember right, ILO3 (yes its integrity-itanium version, not normal) was somehow buggy-problematic, but cant anymore remember exact problem and i was hoping / reading that newer firmware could fix it.

HP-UX itself was running and working but installation process was quite painful...

When Linus annnounced that Itanium is dead, somehow i really wanted one for myself but havent been playing with it lately. C7000 bladechassis is not very homelab friendly.

 

[cy384]

I ended up not trying very hard to update any firmware, they're pretty old/buggy/obsolete anyway, and I'm not using it for anything serious. It is possible to boot them outside of a chassis, but then you only have USB, and heat is an issue of course.

 

[pulla]

ILO version was 1.30 and now it's 1.55.2. Also system firmware is updated.

Still very old but atleast something. If i remember correctly i had some serious problem with console access or/and USB boot.
Might be that it was also problem with HP-UX, have to try burn something else. Virtualmedia is horrible slow, Gentoo was booting for ages.

Not sure if Integrity can survive outside of a chassis but seems that Proliants can. Definitely networking could be problematic with USB only and HP-UX.

Currently chassis taking around 300 watts with 10 fans, 2 PSU, 2 switches, 2 OA and currently only one blade connected (Itanium) which is powered off, so indeed im not going run anything serious with it either. Just for fun.

 

[ar_a]

Definitely can survive outside. @cy384 and I both worked on this some time ago (see attached). I had it connected to an ATX supply, booting into Debian and PCIE working via an MXM-PCIE adapter.

I had grand plans to build it into a case with proper power setup, but had to shelve the project temporarily. As a proof of concept though it worked great.

These blades go for pennies where I'm located vs the thousands asking price for the RX 2800 series servers.

 

[pulla]

Intresting project! I didnt know that there are MXM-PCIE adapters. I was trying looking something like that but probably didnt just know what to search.

Probably it wont be impossible also find somewhere PCIe ethernet card with HP-UX support. Mainly i would like run HP-UX but of course would like nice test also Linux and Windows or maybe even OpenVMS but that its not mandatory.

Need order couple adapters and try out.

 

[ar_a]

If you go down this road make sure you get the mezz cards in the screenshot below.

These are the only ones which are MXM3 (confusingly Generation 2). The other MXM mezz cards are an earlier pinout and there are no off the shelf PCIE adapters that I could find.

 

[pulla]

Its looks like that there is HP MEZZANINE graphics adpter card and is that black one is ADT MXM to PCIe adapter? which seems to be quite expensive. Over 100 euros + posts. Oh hoh! I wonder if it's somehow difficult make or just very rare.

Not really having need for GPU (atleast now), i 'only' would like get some HP-UX compatible network card.

there is intresting video how get ILO access outside chassis, just makes me think would it somehow possible use also ethernet similar way or using with switch from chassis without chassis. Need think and trying figure out something.

Didnt find any evidences that it could be possible, everyone using just USB networking.

 

[ar_a]

Not ADT-Link but another Chinese brand - markings are JHHMXM. I bought 3 and they were MUCH cheaper than 100 euros per adapter! It was probably marginally over that for 3.

I don't think they're all that difficult to make or complex. Considering these are normally used for egpu purposes I suspect the prices are a combination of egpu tax + limited supply/demand for this particular conversion.

 

[pulla]

There are tons of options for PCI-E to MXM but another way no. Only mad expensive ADT-link. Cheaper are sold out.

Supply chain outages also hits badly on my itanium hobbyism, pity!

Thanks anyway, i need keep continue doing my research.