supermicro bios - upgrade

[phier]

hello
is it safe to do that on supermicro board? as they have following statement
WARNING!
Please do not download / upgrade the BIOS/Firmware UNLESS your system has a BIOS/Firmware-related issue. Flashing the wrong BIOS/Firmware can cause irreparable damage to the system.

thanks

 

[phier]

any idea here? thanks!

 

[awasb]

Do you have any issues?

 

[phier]

@awasb no issues, but i thought its still good idea to keep firmware up to date if possible.

 

[awasb]

Why? Are there any critical fixes? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[phier]

i think / thought its something like best practise/ in security ... update to the latest... new functionally, fixed old bugs maybe... dunno.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

The BIOS is not in charge in any way after the system is booted. So as long as the system boots into TrueNAS there is no real need.

I do update my BIOS and IPMI firmware, but I am on the one hand experienced and on the other hand willing to take the risk. My home lab is sort of a test bed for my professional data centre at work. I even buy the extra IPMI license for all my systems that lets me perform BIOS updates via the IPMI web interface. Some 20-30 bucks/euro/pounds per system.

Supermicro is just making clear that they take no responsibility if you accidentally fry your mainboard. That's really all there is to that warning. You could experience a power outage while the update is running. You could flash the BIOS for a different mainboard by accident. In both cases you will end up with an expensive paper weight.

It's up to you to ponder risk vs. benefit here ...

HTH,
Patrick

Edit: I kinda lied about the BIOS not being in charge at all ... true for the BIOS, false for the management (IPMI) firmware. But with the experience I have after literal decades of running this stuff - the management thingies in servers are buggy as hell. So while in theory "security updates" sound nice - please just don't ever put them on a public network, period. Keep them isolated and enjoy the convenience they bring.

 

[Ericloewe]

All that said, sometimes firmware matters. Like the old firmware version that fried the power rails on a pair of servers at work within a month or so of each other, and would've killed the others - probably - if we hadn't updated them all. IBM/Lenovo x3550 m5s are not a fun experience.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

All that said, sometimes firmware matters. Like the old firmware version that fried the power rails on a pair of servers at work within a month or so of each other, and would've killed the others - probably - if we hadn't updated them all. IBM/Lenovo x3550 m5s are not a fun experience.

Of course. But even Supermicro say so: "... UNLESS your system has a BIOS/Firmware-related issue."

 

[phier]

that's strange ...
well a power outage while the update is running - you can mitigate that one using backup ups
to flash a wrong file - well one has to triplecheck.

assuming no other risks?

 

[rvassar]

Some of the Supermicro X9's pickup features with the BIOS update. The X9SCL/SCM I believe pick up DDR3 1600Mhz, and possibly some CPU support.

 

[phier]

that one is x11 model

 

[phier]

also i was wondering if u flash wrong firmware (bios) u cant re-flash lets say using some technique with some "service cable", i mean something similar if one brick flashing router firmware.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

also i was wondering if u flash wrong firmware (bios) u cant re-flash lets say using some technique with some "service cable", i mean something similar if one brick flashing router firmware.

There is no out-of-band access to the BIOS flash area. Some boards may have a fixed ROM that can be enabled as a recovery mechanism. Or two areas that are flashed alternatingly. You would have to check your board manual for something like that. I am not familiar with all Supermicro boards in existence

Also, if you have a Supermicro server board with IPMI and you do buy the separate "BIOS update via web UI" license, you might be able to re-flash in case anything went wrong. I do not know for sure if the IPMI interface works completely independent from the BIOS or not, but I assume it does.

In the general case you need to boot into a DOS or EFI shell environment for updates, so with a bricked BIOS no boot, no recovery.

 

[rvassar]

also i was wondering if u flash wrong firmware (bios) u cant re-flash lets say using some technique with some "service cable", i mean something similar if one brick flashing router firmware.

There's virtually always a i2c / jtag header of some sort that allows diagnostic access / programming etc... But they are virtually always turned off when a product hits release. In many cases the connector is depopulated from the part placement automation and the boards hit the soldering machine without them in place. All you see is a silkscreen and set of solder plugged contacts on the board. If you know enough, you can add them back, but then you're up against the manufacturer's code signing and UEFI implementation, getting the correct payload out of their distribution wrapper, correct steps to program without clobbering their certs, possible need for bridge code, etc...

 

[Jailer]

In the good ol days with socketed BIOS chips you could bring back a bricked board by hot flashing in a running system. Doable but not for the faint of heart. But with todays boards and their BIOS chips being soldered to the board I you'd likely have to send it to the manufacturer to have them un brick it if you had a flash go wrong.

 

[Ericloewe]

Some of those parts aren't that terrible to solder. And some weird boards still have socketed EEPROMs, too. My workstation has two redundant, selectable EEPROMs and they're socketed, too! Great for firmware tinkerers and the crazy overclocks crowd.

 

[phier]

In the good ol days with socketed BIOS chips you could bring back a bricked board by hot flashing in a running system. Doable but not for the faint of heart. But with todays boards and their BIOS chips being soldered to the board I you'd likely have to send it to the manufacturer to have them un brick it if you had a flash go wrong.

ah okay so once you brick it - the manufacturer is able to reflash and it will work again? thx

 

[Ericloewe]

Or a moderately-enterprising end-user, really. It's fiddly, but not rocket science.

 

[phier]

okay bc it was mentioned that once u mess up .. u should trash the board...