On 8/12/2015 4:38 AM, Jan Beulich wrote:
On 11.08.15 at 21:11, <aravind.gopalakrish...@amd.com> wrote:
Some of older[Fam10h] systems require that certain number of
applied microcode patch levels should not be overwritten by
the microcode loader. Otherwise, system hangs are known to occur.
The 'final_levels' of patch ids have been obtained empirically.
Refer bug https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=913996
for details of the issue.
The short version is that people have predominantly noticed
system hang issues when trying to update microcode levels
beyond the patch IDs below.
[0x01000098, 0x0100009f, 0x010000af]
From internal discussions, we gathered that OS/hypervisor
cannot reliably perform microcode updates beyond these levels
due to hardware issues. Therefore, we need to abort microcode
update process if we hit any of these levels.
While the patch itself looks fine now, I'm still hesitant to take this
(even more so after having read through the bugzilla entry
linked to above): The list being established empirically - will it be
ever growing?
No, although the list is established empirically, it is not going to
continue to grow..
(see below..)
Did you internally gain understanding of what it
actually is that goes wrong (and hence can perhaps narrow
down the conditions for the hangs to occur)? Have there been
any checks whether indeed _all_ systems at the listed ucode
levels are affected?
Yeah, HW architects mentioned they are aware of the problem and that
it's relevant only on Fam10h (which is why the list would not grow).
And they verified that it affects all the systems at the listed
microcode levels.
Also that's leaving aside the question of what unfixed CPU issues
people now being prevented from doing the ucode update are
going to run into.
Right. So, the problem is that the user may have a perfectly normal
working system at the listed microcode levels, but the hang occurs
*only* when you try to update the patch level. Hence the recommendation
from HW architects to hold down the microcode level from
OS/hypervisor POV and not go ahead with the update process.
If the user has to update the microcode levels beyond these levels, then
BIOS updates are an option.
HTH,
Thanks,
-Aravind.
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