Release Notes for Cisco UCS Rack Server Software, Release ...

Release Notes for Cisco UCS Rack ServerSoftware, Release 3.1(3)

First Published: 2018-03-21

Last Modified: 2020-09-22

Cisco UCS C-Series ServersCisco UCS C-Series Servers deliver unified computing in an industry-standard form factor to reduce totalcost of ownership and increase agility. Each product addresses varying workload challenges through a balanceof processing, memory, I/O, and internal storage resources.

About the Release Notes

This document describes the new features, system requirements, open caveats and known behaviors forC-Series software release 3.1(3) including Cisco Integrated Management Controller software and any relatedBIOS, firmware, or drivers. Use this document in conjunction with the documents listed in the RelatedDocumentation section.

We sometimes update the documentation after original publication. Therefore, you should also refer to thedocumentation on Cisco.com for any updates.

Note

Revision History

DescriptionDateRevision

Following changes were made:

• Updated Supported Featuressection.

• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3k). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

September 22, 2020J0

Release Notes for Cisco UCS Rack Server Software, Release 3.1(3)1

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-integrated-management-controller/products-release-notes-list.html






• Updated the Resolved Caveatssection.

• Updated the Security Fixessection.

• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3j). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

September 17, 2019I0




• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3i). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

November 05, 2018H0


Revision History












• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3h). Firmware for thefollowing hardware wasupdated:

• Intel® SSD DC S4500and DC S4600 SeriesSATA

• Micron 5100 SATA SSD(M.2 and U.2)

• Intel® SSD DC P4500and P4600 Series NVMe

The firmware files in CiscoHost Upgrade Utility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

September 10, 2018G0



• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3g). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

July 20, 2018F0


Revision History











• Updated the Resolved Caveatssection for Release 3.1(3d).

• Updated the Open Caveatssection for Release 3.1(3d).

• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3d). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

June 25, 2018E0


• Updated theKnownBehaviorssection for Release 3.1(3c).

• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3c). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

May 30, 2018D0


• Added the Software Advisoryfor CSCvj32984.

• Updated the Open Caveatssections for 3.1(3a) and3.1(3b) releases.

May 15, 2018C0


Revision History











• A manufacturing issue wasaddressed in this release.

• Updated the SupportedHardware section.

• Updated the HUU versions to3.1(3b). The firmware files inCiscoHost UpgradeUtility forindividual releases areavailable at: Cisco UCSC-Series IntegratedManagement ControllerFirmware Files, Release 3.1

May 10, 2018B0

Created release notes for 3.1(3a).March 21, 2018A0

Supported Platforms and Release Compatibility Matrix

Supported Platforms

The following servers are supported in this release:

• UCS-C220 M5

• UCS-C240 M5

• UCS-C480 M5

• UCS-S3260 M5

For information about these servers, see Overview of Servers

Cisco IMC and Cisco UCS Manager Release Compatibility Matrix

Cisco UCS C-Series and S-Series Rack-Mount Servers are managed by built-in standalone software— CiscoIntegratedManagement Controller (Cisco IMC). However, when a C-Series or a S-Series Rack-Mount Serveris integrated with Cisco UCS Manager, the Cisco IMC does not manage the server anymore.

The following table lists the C-Series software standalone and Cisco UCS Manager releases for C-Series andS-Series Rack-Mount Servers:

Table 1: Cisco C-Series and UCS Manager Software Releases for C-Series Servers

C-Series ServersCisco UCS Manager ReleaseC-Series Standalone Release

Cisco UCS C480 M5, C220 M5,C240 M5, and S3260 M5 servers

3.2(3p)3.1(3k)


Supported Platforms and Release Compatibility Matrix





http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/datasheet-listing.html



No Support

We support discoveryand upgrade ordowngrade functionswith Cisco UCSManager.

Note

3.1(3j)


3.2(3i)3.1(3i)


3.2(3h)3.1(3h)


3.2(3g)3.1(3g)


3.2(3e)3.1(3d)


3.2(3d)3.1(3c)

Cisco UCS C480 M5, C220 M5, andC240 M5 servers

3.2(3b)3.1(3b)


3.2(3a)3.1(3a)


3.2(2d)3.1(2d)


3.2(2c)3.1(2c)


3.2(2b)3.1(2b)

Cisco UCS C220 M5 and C240 M5servers

3.2(1d)3.1(1d)


3.1(3a)3.0(3a)


No Support


Note

3.0(2b)




All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 serversexcept C420 M3

No Support


Note

3.0(1d)


3.1(2b)2.0(13e)


3.1(1g)2.0(10b)

All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 servers3.1(1e)2.0(9c)


2.2(7b)2.0(9f)


2.2(7b)2.0(10b)

Cisco UCS C420 M3, C260 M2, andC460 M2

2.2(7b)1.5(9d)

Cisco UCS C420 M3, C260 M2, andC460 M2

2.2(8f)1.5(9d)

All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 servers2.2(8f)2.0(9c)


2.2(8f)2.0(10b)

Cisco UCS C460 M4 server2.2(8f)2.0(12b)


2.2(6g)1.5(8a)

All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 servers2.2(6c)2.0(8d)


2.2(5b)1.5(7f)

All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 servers2.2(5a)2.0(6d)

Cisco UCS C420 M3, C260 M2,C460 M2 servers

2.2(4b)1.5(7a)2

All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 servers2.2(4b)2.0(4c)


2.2(3b)1.5(7c)1




All Cisco UCS M3 and M4 servers2.2(3a)2.0(3d)1

System RequirementsThe management client must meet or exceed the following minimum system requirements:

• Sun JRE 1.8.0_92 or later (Till 1.8.0_121)

• HTML based interfaces are supported on:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 10.0 or 11

• Mozilla Firefox 30 or higher

• Google Chrome 38 or higher

• Safari 7 or higher

If the management client is launched using an unsupported browser, check thehelp information from the For best results use supportedbrowsers option available in the login window for the supported browserversions.

Note

• For Classic View - all browsers must have Adobe Flash Player 11 plug-in or higher. Supported browsersare:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or higher

• Mozilla Firefox 54 or higher

• Google Chrome 61 or higher

• Safari 11 or higher

• MicrosoftWindows 7,MicrosoftWindowsXP,MicrosoftWindowsVista,MicrosoftWindows 10, AppleMac OS X v10.6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 or higher operating systems

• Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2.

Hardware and Software InteroperabilityFor detailed information about storage switch, operating system and adapter, see the Hardware and SoftwareInteroperability Matrix for your release located at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10477/prod_technical_reference_list.html

Connectivity is tested between the server and the first connected device. Further connections, such as to storagearrays after a switch are not listed in the Cisco UCS Hardware Compatibility List though they may behighlighted in the vendor support matrix for those devices.

Note


System Requirements

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10477/prod_technical_reference_list.html

For details about transceivers and cables that are supported on VIC cards, see the Transceiver ModulesCompatibility Matrix

You can also see the VIC data sheets for more compatibility information: Cisco UCS Virtual Interface CardData Sheets

Upgrade Paths for Release 3.1(x)The section provides information on the upgrade paths to release 3.1(x). Refer to the table for upgrade pathsfor various Cisco UCS C-series IMC versions.

Table 2: Upgrade Paths to Release 3.1(x)

Recommended Upgrade PathUpgrade To ReleaseUpgrade FromRelease

Follow below upgrade path:

• You can use Interactive HUU orNon-Interactive HUU (NIHHU) script toupdate the server.

• While updating the firmware using theNon-Interactive HUU (NIHUU) tool, use thePython scripts that are released with version3.1(2b).

• Use OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips on the client side(where theNIHUUpython scripts are running).

• Download HUU iso from here.

• Download NIHUU script from here.

3.1(x)For all M5 Servers

Firmware Upgrade Details

Firmware Files

The C-Series software release 3.1(3) includes the following software files:

CommentFile name(s)CCO Software Type

Host Upgrade Utilityucs-c240m5-huu-3.1.3.iso

ucs-c220m5-huu-3.1.3.iso

ucs-c480m5-huu-3.1.3.iso

ucs-s3260-huu-3.1.3.iso

For release specific ISO versions,see Cisco UCS C-Series IntegratedManagement Controller FirmwareFiles, Release 3.1

Unified Computing System (UCS)Server Firmware


Upgrade Paths for Release 3.1(x)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/interfaces-modules/transceiver-modules/products-device-support-tables-list.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/interfaces-modules/transceiver-modules/products-device-support-tables-list.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/unified-computing-system-adapters/datasheet-listing.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/unified-computing-system-adapters/datasheet-listing.html

https://software.cisco.com/download/home/283612685

https://community.cisco.com/t5/unified-computing-system/cisco-standalone-c-series-huu-utilities/ta-p/3638543

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/firmware_files/3_1/b_UCS_C-Series_Firmware_Files_3_1.html



Driversucs-cxxx-drivers.3.1.3.isoUnified Computing System (UCS)Drivers

Utilitiesucs-cxxx-utils-efi.3.1.3.iso

ucs-cxxx-utils-linux.3.1.3.iso

ucs-cxxx-utils-vmware.3.1.3.iso

ucs-cxxx-utils-windows.3.1.3.iso

Unified Computing System (UCS)Utilities

Always upgrade the BIOS, the Cisco IMC andCMC from theHUU ISO. Do not upgrade individual components(only BIOS or only Cisco IMC), since this could lead to unexpected behavior. If you choose to upgrade BIOS,and the Cisco IMC individually and not from the HUU ISO, make sure to upgrade both Cisco IMC, and BIOSto the same container release. If the BIOS and the Cisco IMC versions are from different container releases,it could result in unexpected behavior. Cisco recommends that you use the Update All option from the HostUpgrade Utility to update the firmware versions of Cisco IMC, BIOS, and all other server components (VIC,RAID Controllers, PCI devices, and LOM) together.

Note

Host Upgrade Utility

The Cisco Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) is a tool that upgrades the Cisco UCS C-Series firmware.

The image file for the firmware is embedded in the ISO. The utility displays a menu that allows you to choosewhich firmware components to upgrade. For more information on this utility see:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10493/products_user_guide_list.html

For details of firmware files in Cisco Host Upgrade Utility for individual releases, see Cisco UCS C-SeriesIntegrated Management Controller Firmware Files, Release 3.1

Updating the Firmware

Use the Host Upgrade Utility to upgrade the C-Series firmware. Host Upgrade Utility can upgrade the followingsoftware components:

• BIOS

• Cisco IMC

• CMC

• Cisco VIC Adapters

• LSI Adapters

• LAN on Motherboard

• PCIe adapter firmware

• HDD firmware

• SAS Expander firmware

All firmware should be upgraded together to ensure proper operation of your server.


Host Upgrade Utility




We recommend that you use the Update All option from the Host Upgrade Utility to update the firmwareversions of Cisco IMC, BIOS and all other server components (VIC, RAID Controllers, PCI devices, andLOM) together. Click Exit once you deploy the firmware.

Note

For more information on how to upgrade the firmware using the utility, see:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/products-user-guide-list.html

Supported Features

Supported Features

Release 3.1(3k)

Following BIOS tokens are supported from release 3.1(3k) onwards:

DescriptionBIOS Token

When this option is Enabled:

The Memory training will not happen in every bootbut the BIOS will use the saved memory trainingresult in every re-boot.

Some exceptions when memory training happens inevery boot are:

BIOS update, CMOS reset, CPU or Memoryconfiguration change, SPD or run-time uncorrectableerror or the last boot has occurred more than 24 hoursbefore.

When this option is Disabled, the Memory traininghappens in every boot.

Default value: Enabled.

To disable the Fast Boot option, you mustset the following tokens as mentionedbelow:

Note

• Adaptive Memory Training todisabled

• BIOS Techlog level to Normal

• OptionROMLaunch Optimization todisabled.

Adaptive Memory Training


Supported Features



DescriptionBIOS Token

When this option is Enabled, the OptionROMs onlyfor the controllers present in the boot order policy willbe launched.

Some controllers such as Onboard storagecontrollers, Emulex FC adapters, and GPUcontrollers though not listed in the bootorder policy will have the OptionROMlaunched.

Note

When this option is Disabled, all the OptionROMs islaunched.

Default value: Enabled

OptionROM Launch Optimization

This option denotes the type of messages in BIOStech log file.

The log file can be one of the following types:

• Normal - Includes debug errors only.

• Minimum - Includes debug errors, warnings andloading messages.

• Maximum - Includes debug errors, warnings,loading messages and debug info.

Default value: Minimum.

BIOS Techlog Level

Following BIOS tokens are no longer supported:

• BORNumRetry

• BORCoolDown

• BootOptionRetry

Release 3.1(3a)

The following new software features are supported in Release 3.1(3a):

• FIPS 140-2 Compliance on Cisco IMC—Added option to enable Security Configuration to achieveFIPS 140-2 compliance on Cisco IMC.

• NVMe Updates—Grouped the direct connected (U.2), NVMe HHHL and MSwitch connected NVMecontrollers seperately on the Cisco IMC web UI under the Storage tab.

• Intersight Management—Added option to enable Read-only mode.

• Copyback Operation—Added option to perform copyback operation from source to the chosen destinationdrive is added.

• Power Redundancy Updates—Added option to select one of the following Power Redundancy Policiesis:


Supported Features

• Non-Redundant

• N+1

• Grid

• Assigning a Server to a Physical Drive Updates—On the S3260 M5 servers, added option to choosethe controller and SAS expander path while assigning a server to a physical drive.

New Hardware in Release 3.1(3)

Release 3.1(3a)

M5 Servers

• Support for S3260 M5 rack-mount servers

• Support for the following NVMe-optimized servers:

• UCSC-C220-M5SN—The PCIe MSwitch is placed in the dedicated MRAID slot for UCS C220M5 servers. This set up supports up to 10 NVMe drives. The first two drives are direct-attachedthrough the riser. The rest of the 8 drives are connected and managed by the MSwitch. This set updoes not support any SAS/SATA drive combinations.

• UCSC-C240-M5SN—The PCIeMSwitch is placed in the riser-2 at slot-4 for UCS C240M5 server.The servers support up to 24 drives. Slots 1-8 are the NVMe drives connected and managed by theMSwitch. The servers also support up to 2 NVMe drives in the rear and are direct-attached throughthe riser. This set up supports SAS/SATA combination with the SAS/SATA drives from slots 9-24.These drives are managed by the SAS controller placed in the dedicated MRAID PCIe slot.

• UCS-C480-M5—UCSC480M5 servers support up to three front NVMe drive cages, each supportingup to 8 NVMe drives. Each cage has an interposer card, which contains the MSwitch. Each servercan support up to 41 NVMe drives (32 U.2 and 9 HHHL). The servers also support a rear PCIe Auxdrive cage, which can contain up to 8 NVMe drives managed by anMSwitch placed in PCIe slot-10.

This set up does not support:

• combination of NVMe drive cages and HDD drive cages

• combination of Cisco 12G 9460-8i RAID controller and NVMe drive cages, irrespective ofrear Aux drive cage.

UCS C480 M5 PID remains same as in earlier release.Note

Peripherals

• Support for the Cisco 12G 9460-8i RAID controller with 2GB cache (UCSC-SAS9460-8I) for UCSC480 M5 rack-mount servers

Support for UCS C480 M5 (UCSC-C480-8AUX) Auxiliary Drive Modules for the Cisco 12G 9460-8iRAID controller

• Support for the following new NVMe SSD drives UCS S3260 M5 servers:



• UCS S3260 500G NVMefor M5 Server Node/SIOC (UCS-S3260-NVG25)

• UCS S3260 1T NVMe for M5 Server Node/SIOC (UCS-S3260-NVG210)

• UCS S3260 2T NVMe for M5 Server Node/SIOC (UCS-S3260-NVG220)

• Support for the following new NVMe SSD drives on all M5 servers:

• HGST SN200 1.6TB 2.5 in SSD (UCSC-NVMEHW-H1600)



• HGST SN200 7.7TB 2.5 in SSD KNCCD101 (UCSC-NVMEHW-H7680)

• HGST SN200 800GB 2.5 in SSD (UCSC-NVMEHW-H800)

• Support for the following new NVMe SSD drives on NVMe-optimized M5 servers:

• Cisco 2.5" 750GB Intel Xpoint BRANDNVMeExtreme Perf. (UCSC-NVMEXP-I750) - Supportedonly on C220 M5

• Cisco 2.5" 375GB Intel Xpoint BRANDNVMeExtreme Perf (UCSC-NVMEXP-I375 ) - Supportedonly on C220 M5

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 1.6TB Intel P4600 NVMe High Perf High Endurance (UCSC-NVMEHW-I1600)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 2TB Intel P4600 NVMe High Perf High Endurance (UCSC-NVMEHW-I2000)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 3.2TB Intel P4600 NVMe High Perf High Endurance (UCSC-NVMEHW-I3200)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 1TB Intel P4500 NVMe High Perf Value Endurance (UCSC-NVMEHW-I1000)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 2TB Intel P4500 NVMe High Perf Value Endurance (UCSC-NVMEHW-I2TBV)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 4TB Intel P4500 NVMe High Perf Value Endurance (UCSC-NVMEHW-I4000)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 500GB Intel P4501 NVMe Med. Perf. Value Endurance (UCSC-NVMELW-I500)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 1TB Intel P4501 NVMe Med. Perf. Value Endurance (UCSC-NVMELW-I1000)

• Cisco 2.5" U.2 2TB Intel P4501 NVMe Med. Perf. Value Endurance (UCSC-NVMELW-I2000)

• Support for the following PCIe cards on the IOE for a server node with UCS S3260 M5 servers:

• Intel X550 dual-port 10GBase-T (UCSC-PCIE-ID10GC)

• Qlogic QLE2692 dual-port 16G Fiber Channel HBA (UCSC-PCIE-QD16GF

• Support for the following MSwitch card in NVMe optimized M5 servers:

• UCS-C480-M5 HDD Ext NVMe Card (UCSC-C480-8NVME) - Front NVMe drive cage with anattached interposer card containing the PCIeMSwitch. Each server supports up to three front NVMedrive cages and each cage supports up to 8 NVMe drives. Each server can support up to 24 NVMedrives (3 NVMe drive cages x 8 NVMe drives).

• UCS-C480-M5 PCIe NVMe Switch Card (UCSC-NVME-SC) - PCIe MSwitch card to support theupto 8 NVMe NVMe drives in the rear aux drive cage inserted in slot PCIe 10.



The C480 M5 servers support a maximum of 32 NVMe drives (24NVMe drivesin the front + 8 NVMe drives on the rear aux drive cage)

Note

• UCSC-C220-M5SN and UCSC-C240-M5SN do not have separate MSwitch PIDs. MSwitch cardsfor these servers are part of the corresponding NVMe optimized server.

• Support for the following NVIDIA GPUs:

• P4 GPUs with C220 M5 and C240 M5 servers

• V100 GPUs with C240 M5, C480 M5 servers

• Support for the following Intel adapter with UCS M5 servers:

• Intel XL710 adapter (UCSC-PCIE-ID40GF) (not supported on S3260 M5)

• Intel XXV710-DA2 adapter (XXV710-DA2) (not supported on S3260 M5)

• Intel X710-DA4 adapter (UCSC-PCIE-IQ10GF) (not supported on S3260 M5)

• Intel X710-DA2 adapter (UCSC-PCIE-ID10GF) (not supported on S3260 M5)

• Intel X710-T4 adapter (X710-T4)

• Intel X550-T2 adapter (UCSC-PCIE-ID10GC)

• Intel X520 dual port adapter (N2XX-AIPCI01)

• Support for the following storage controllers:

• UCS S3260 Dual Pass Through (UCS-S3260-DHBA)

• UCS S3260 Dual RAID (UCS-S3260-DRAID)

Release 3.1(3b)

• Intel ® SSD DC S4500 Series 480GB (UCS-SD480GBIS6-EV)

• Intel ® SSD DC S4500 Series 960GB (UCS-SD960GBIS6-EV)

• Intel ® SSD DC S4500 Series 3.8TB (CS-SD38TBIS6-EV)

Software Utilities

The following standard utilities are available:

• Host Update Utility (HUU)

• BIOS and Cisco IMC Firmware Update utilities

• Server Configuration Utility (SCU)

• Server Diagnostic Utility (SDU)

The utilities features are as follows:


Software Utilities

• Availability of HUU, SCU on the USB as bootable images. The USB also contains driver ISO, and canbe accessed from the host operating system.

SNMP

The supported MIB definition for this release and later releases can be found at the following link:

ftp://ftp.cisco.com/pub/mibs/supportlists/ucs/ucs-C-supportlist.html

The above link is incompatible with IE 9.0.Note

Security Fixes

Security Fixes in Release 3.1(3j)

The following Security Fixes were added in Release 3.1(3j):


SNMP

ftp://ftp.cisco.com/pub/mibs/supportlists/ucs/ucs-C-supportlist.html

SymptomCVEDefect IDRelease

Cisco UCS M5 servers are based on Intel® Xeon®Scalable processors that are vulnerable to variantsof exploits that useMicroarchitectural Data Sampling(MDS) to gain access to data being processed in theCPU by other applications.

• CVE-2018-12126 (Microarchitectural StoreBuffer Data Sampling) affects store buffers inthe CPU, and is addressed by applying theupdated microcode included in the UCS CiscoIMC release as well as the relevant OperatingSystem and Hypervisor patches from theappropriate vendors.

• CVE-2018-12127 (Microarchitectural LoadPort Data Sampling) affects load buffers in theCPU, and is addressed by applying the updatedmicrocode included in the UCS Cisco IMCrelease as well as the relevant Operating Systemand Hypervisor patches from the appropriatevendors.

• CVE-2018-12130 (Microarchitectural FillBuffer Data Sampling) affects line fill buffersin the CPU, and is addressed by applying theupdated microcode included in the UCS CiscoIMC release as well as the relevant OperatingSystem and Hypervisor patches from theappropriate vendors.

• CVE-2019-11091 (MicroarchitecturalUncacheable Data Sampling) affects theuncacheable memory buffers in the CPU, andis addressed by applying the updatedmicrocodeincluded in the UCS Cisco IMC release as wellas the relevant Operating System andHypervisor patches from the appropriatevendors.

This release includes BIOS revisions for Cisco UCSM5 generation servers. These BIOS revisions includethe updated microcode that is a required part of themitigation for these vulnerabilities.

• CVE-2018-12126

• CVE-2018-12127

• CVE-2018-12130

• CVE-2019-11091

CSCvp348063.1(3j)

Security Fixes in Release 3.1(3i)

The following Security Fixes were added in Release 3.1(3i):


Security Fixes

DescriptionCVEDefect IDRelease

Cisco UCS C-Series servers include a version ofthe Intel® Converged Security ManagementEngine that maybe affected by the vulnerabilitiesidentified by the following CommonVulnerabilityand Exposures (CVE): CVE-2018-3655. Thisvulnerability was addressed in this release.

CVE-2018-3655CSCvm350673.1(3i)

Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CiscoIMC) of the Cisco UCS C-Series M5 serversinclude a version of the Linux kernel that isaffected by the IP Fragment Reassembly Denialof Service Vulnerability identified by the followingCommon Vulnerability and Exposures (CVE) ID:CVE-2018-5391. This vulnerability was addressedin this release.

CVE-2018-5391CSCvm154663.1(3i)

Security Fixes in Release 3.1(3g)

The following Security Fixes were added in Release 3.1(3g):


Cisco UCS C-Servers M5 servers are based onIntel® processors that are vulnerable to variantsof an exploit that uses CPU speculative processingand data cache timing to efficiently leakinformation, known as Spectre.

CVE-2018-3639 (Spectre/Variant #4) andCVE-2018-3640 (Spectre/Variant #3a) areaddressed by applying the updated processormicrocode from Intel included in the serverfirmware bundle, and the relevant OperatingSystem and Hypervisor patches from theappropriate vendors.

This release includes BIOS revisions for CiscoUCSM5 generation servers. These BIOS revisionsinclude the updated processor microcode that is arequired part of themitigation for CVE-2018-3639(Spectre/Variant #4) and CVE-2018-3640(Spectre/Variant #3a).

• CVE-2018-3639

• CVE-2018-3640

CSCvj593313.1(3g)

Security Fixes in Release 3.1(3a)

The following security issues are resolved:


Security Fixes


Cisco C-Series M5 servers are based on Intel®Xeon® Scalable Processors (Skylake) that arevulnerable to exploits that use CPU speculativeprocessing and data cache timing to potentiallyidentify privileged information. These exploits arecollectively known as Spectre and Meltdown.

• CVE-2017-5753 (Spectre/Variant 1) isaddressed by applying relevant OperatingSystem and Hypervisor patches from theappropriate vendors.

• CVE-2017-5715 (Spectre/Variant 2) isaddressed by applying the updatedmicrocodeincluded in the UCS C-Series servers as wellas the relevant Operating System andHypervisor patches from the appropriatevendors.

• CVE-2017-5754 (Meltdown) is addressed byapplying the relevant Operating Systempatches from the appropriate vendors.

This release includes BIOS revisions for CiscoUCSC-SeriesM5 generation servers. These BIOSrevisions include the updated microcode that is arequired part of themitigation for CVE-2017-5715(Spectre/Variant 2).

• CVE-2017-5753

• CVE-2017-5715

• CVE-2017-5754

CSCvg979823.1(3a)

Resolved CaveatsThe following section lists resolved caveats.

Resolved Caveats in Release 3.1(3)

Release 3.1(3j)

The following defects are resolved in release 3.1(3j):

Table 3: BIOS

Resolved in ReleaseFirst AffectedRelease

SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3j)3.1(3a)Board controller activation fails forC240-M5SX and C220-M5SX servers dueto PSU1 update failure. This happens whenyou upgrade the firmware to 4.0(x)versions and then downgrade it back to 3.xversions.

CSCvj81831


Resolved Caveats

Table 4: External Controllers


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3j)3.1(3a)Numerous command timeouts and resetsare seen in a short amount of time whichcould potentially lead to performancedegradation with SSD/HDDs while usinga SAS-RAID controller in JBOD mode.This can happen at any time in a vSANenvironment using the lsi-mr3-7.703.18.00or lsi-mr3-7.703.19.00 driver.

CSCvp19814

Release 3.1(3i)

The following defects are resolved in release 3.1(3i):

Table 5: BIOS


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3i)3.1(3e)System Event Log (SEL) reports "UPICorrectable "Rx / Tx DataLane 0 is dropped / down"" errormessages on the UCS C480 M5 servers.These UPI error messages are reportedonly on the UPI Port 2 for each processorpresent on the system.

CSCvj22869



SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3i)3.1(3a)On the C220 and 240 M5 servers with3.1(3a) firmware versions, file transfer onVMware host results in Rx packet dropsand CRC errors with Qlogic 25G card(QL41212H) running on driver version8.21.x.

CSCvm83587

Release 3.1(3h)

The following defects are resolved in release 3.1(3h):



Table 7: BMC


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3h)3.1(3a)Cisco IMC reboots due to Out of memory(OOM) onM5 servers running on firmwareversion 3.1(3a). After recovery of the CiscoIMC, the following entry is found in thelogs:kernel:-:<0>[out_of_memory]:663:Outof memory (oom-killer):Stopping strobe of WDTmonitoring BMC. Reset coming!

CSCvj74285

3.1(3h)3.0(4i)On the S3260 servers, when you useSLAAC to launch the KVM or Cisco IMCweb UI, the BMC SLAAC IP isunresponsive to pings.

CSCvk52168

Release 3.1(3d)

The following defects are resolved in release 3.1(3d):

Table 8: BMC


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3d)3.1(2g)C220 M5 and C240 M5 servers that havea single CPU installed may report thefollowing informational level fault:"P2_PRESENT: Processor 2missing: Please reseat orreplace Processor 2"

CSCvj22846

Table 9: BIOS


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3d)2.0(8g)UCS boots into UEFI Shell when no UEFIboot option is found. Hence OS cannotboot up until users re-configure BootOption in BIOS.

CSCuz63541



Table 10: Web Management


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3d)3.0(3a)Unable to launch the KVM window whenyou use the IPv6 address and the IPv4address is not set or set to 0.0.0.0.

CSCvj42923

Table 11: XML API


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3d)3.1(3a)On the S3260 servers, you cannot setBMC2 Interface using the XMLAPI whenonly one compute node is present.

CSCvj75669

Table 12: Harware


SymptomDefect ID

3.1(3d)3.1(3b)Under specific lowwrite and long idle timeworkloads, the following SATA SSDs nolonger show read errors:

• UCS-M2-240GB

• HX-M2-240GB

CSCvj83780

Release 3.1(3a)

The following defects are resolved in release 3.1(3a):

Table 13: BMC

Resolved inRelease

First Affected ReleaseSymptomDefect ID

3.1(3a)3.1(2b)POWER_USAGE sensor will exceed theUpper Critical (UC) threshold in a maxconfigured system (5+ GPUs) and 2+2 PSUredundancy is lost (without any indication).

CSCvf41430



Table 14: BIOS

Resolved inRelease

First Affected ReleaseSymptomDefect ID

3.1(3a)3.1(2b)On the UCSC240M5 servers, boot protocolsetting in the BIOS setup does not work forSlot 4 in the legacy mode.

CSCvf28096

3.1(3a)3.1(2b)In-deterministic core count issue occurswhile setting "Cores Enabled" setting toanything other than All in certain CPU SKUof Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors series(SKUs 8158 and 6134).

CSCvf51157

Open CaveatsThe following section lists open caveats.

Open Caveats in Release 3.1(3)

Release 3.1(3d)

The following defect is open in Release 3.1(3d):

Table 15: Hardware

FirstAffectedRelease

WorkaroundSymptomDefect ID

3.1(2b)Upgrade Cisco IMC to 3.1(3d) or later releases.Under specific low write andlong idle time workloads, thefollowing SATA SSDs mayshow read errors:

• UCS-M2-240GB

• HX-SD38TBM1K9

• HX-SD38TBE1NK9

• HX-SD960GBM1K9

• HX-SD960GBE1NK9

• HX-M2-240GB

CSCvj83780


Open Caveats

Table 16: Software Advisory



3.1(3a)Downgrade the firmware to arelease prior to Release 3.1(3a)

For more information, see theCisco Software Advisory athttps://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/SA/SW_Advisory_CSCvj32984.html

Operating System logs have a large amountof persistent SCSI abort commands for FCID0xffffffff.

Operating Systems utilizing remote FC /FCoE storage may hang.

This happens when there is significant FibreChannel (FC)/Fibre Channel over Ethernet(FCoE) traffic, and affects the following VICadapters:

• Cisco UCS VIC 1340 modular LOM(UCSB-MLOM-40G-031)

• Cisco UCS VIC 1380 mezzanineadapter (UCS-VIC-M83-8P)

• Cisco UCS VIC 1385 Dual Port 40GbQSFP+ CAN (UCSC-PCIE-C40Q-03)

• Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Dual Port 40GbQSFP CNA MLOM(UCSC-MLOM-C40Q-03)

CSCvj32984

Release 3.1(3a)

The following defects are open in Release 3.1(3a):



https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/SA/SW_Advisory_CSCvj32984.html




Table 17: Software Advisory



3.1(3a)Downgrade the firmware to arelease prior to Release 3.1(3a)

For more information, see theCisco Software Advisory athttps://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/SA/SW_Advisory_CSCvj32984.html

Operating System logs have a large amountof persistent SCSI abort commands for FCID0xffffffff.

Operating Systems utilizing remote FC /FCoE storage may hang.

This happens when there is significant FibreChannel (FC)/Fibre Channel over Ethernet(FCoE) traffic, and affects the following VICadapters:

• Cisco UCS VIC 1340 modular LOM(UCSB-MLOM-40G-031)

• Cisco UCS VIC 1380 mezzanineadapter (UCS-VIC-M83-8P)

• Cisco UCS VIC 1385 Dual Port 40GbQSFP+ CAN (UCSC-PCIE-C40Q-03)

• Cisco UCS VIC 1387 Dual Port 40GbQSFP CNA MLOM(UCSC-MLOM-C40Q-03)

CSCvj32984

Table 18: BMC



3.1(3a)None.On the C3260 servers, powercharacterization does not work as expectedfor custom and thermal profiles.

CSCvi03086

3.1(3a)Power On the server or nodesbefore triggering the Powercharacterization run.

Power characterization status is reported asnot Run when the server or nodes arepowered off and power characterizationtriggered.

CSCvi48698

3.1(3a)Reset the remote sys-log bydisabling and then enabling it.

In the Cisco IMC logs, fault history does notdisplay the set time zone. This happens whenthe default time zone is modified.

CSCvi52975









3.1(3a)Use CLI to set the time zone.On the S3260 M5 and S3260 M4 servers,Time Zone configuration page on the CiscoIMC web UI displays a blank screen. Henceyou cannot configure time zone using theCisco IMC web UI.

CSCvi53766

Table 19: BIOS



3.1(3a)Temporary workaround is todisable VT-d direct IO tokenfromBIOS setup, or Cisco IMCWeb UI or CLI. If your setupis running operating systemwith virtualization support, werecommend you to replace theCPU pair.

"DMAR: VT-d detected invaliddescriptor: low=<nnn>,high=<nnn>" message appers during theLinux kernel loading and initialization phase.This happens with a single CPU sample, withIO cards like NVMe or PCIe cards on PCIeport 1A or 1B.

CSCvg61868

3.1(3a)Ignore the SEL reported duringruntime. Cold reboot the hostand wait for the POST tocomplete, check the failedDIMM SEL message oridentify the failed DIMM inmemory inventory in the setupor Cisco IMC web UI or CLI.

Uncorrectable memory error injection usingIntel ITP probe & CScript always reportserror on CPU1 A1 DIMM with Silver CPU4114.

This issue occurs only with theSilver CPU 4114 CPUs, the otherCPUs work as expected.

Note

CSCvg97305

3.1(3a)None.Option ROM for theNVMeSSDs populatedin the front slots: 7,8 and 23 will not beloaded. Hence cannot be seen listed in theAdvance page of the setup.

The Firmware revisions for these drives willnot be populated in the SMBIOS 202 andPCIe inventory of the Cisco IMC. Thesedrives cannot be used as Boot drives.

CSCvg65199






3.1(3a)Enable write back cache onRAID 1 drive group.

Windows 2016 OS crashes resulting in aBSOD and the host reboots. This happenswhen high stress IO with IO transaction onRAID 1 volume run for a long period fortime.

CSCvh31592

3.1(3a)None.When you insert an NVMe drives into a slot,failed or degraded status is reportedmomentarily. This issue occurs with alldrives irrespective of whether they are director mswitch attached.

CSCvh06510


Release 3.1(2b)

The following defects are open in Release 3.1(2b):

Table 21: BIOS



3.1(2b)None.Cisco IMCBIOS configuration screen allowsyou to set COM1 on a C480 M5 server eventhough the server does not have a COM1port. If you try to set the COM1 post, thesettings are configured on the COM0 portthat is available.

CSCvf51428

Table 22: Utilities



3.1(2b)Disable the UEFI Secure BootOption using the Cisco IMCweb UI and reboot the HUU.

Some components or adapters are not beingdiscovered by HUU when booted in theUEFI secure boot enabled mode.

CSCvd34396

Open Caveats in Release 3.1(1d)

The following defects are open in release 3.1(1d):



Table 23: BMC



3.1(1d)Do not set the one time bootorder after triggering the delayfirmware update usingUCSCFG.

Delay firmware update using the UCSCFGfails to start. This happens when you trystarting a firmware update from theUCSCFG and then set the one time bootorder using the KVMor Cisco IMCWebUI.

CSCve78250

3.1(1d)Restart the HTML5 KVMclient and activate only oneVirtual Media client at a time.

WhenVirtualMedia is enabled on a HTML5KVM client and if you attempt to activate iton a second HTML5 KVM client, thefollowing twomessagesmay repeatedly popup even after selecting OK on eachmessage:

Virtual Media has terminatedas a result of Unknownproblem.

Virtual Media redirection isalready in use by anotheruser.

CSCvd85269

Table 24: BIOS



3.1(1d)Switch to UEFI mode.Precision boot order does not list the thirdparty network adapters in legacy mode.

CSCve46673

3.1(1d)Select allow throttling option,if you want to set a lowerpower capping value.

When you select power capping withoutenabling the allow throttling option, andselect a capping value towards the lower endof the allowed capping range, power cappingmay not be successful achieved.

CSCve35219




3.1(1d)None.

This does not have anyfunctional impact and can beignored.

Random Critical SEL aboutHDDX_STATUS drive faults are assertedduring reboots. However, no failure of anyspecific drive slots detected on reboot.

CSCvf03966


Open Caveats in Release 3.1(1d)

Table 26: Utilities



3.1(1d)Disable the UEFI secure bootusing the Cisco IMC web UIand reboot the HUU.

Some components or adapters are not visibleon HUU when it boots in the UEFI secureboot mode.

CSCvd34396

Known BehaviorsThe following section lists known behaviors.

Known Behaviors in Release 3.1(3)

Release 3.1(3c)

The following is the known behavior in Release 3.1(3c):

Table 27: BMC



3.1(3b)If you want to change the fanpolicy to a different powerpolicy, you must manuallychange it.

You can set the fan policy usingone of the following methods:

• Using the Cisco IMC webUI - Compute -> PowerPolicies -> ConfigureFan Policy.

• Using the CLI - Scopechassis -> Scopefan-policy- set Fan policy

Upgrading Cisco IMC to version 3.1(3c) setsthe default fan policy to low power profile.

CSCvj64919

Release 3.1(3a)

The following are the known behaviors in Release 3.1(3a):


Known Behaviors

Table 28: BIOS



3.1(2b)None.The Cisco IMC Processor Inventory screenof the Cisco UCS C-series M5 serversdisplays user configured number of coresinstead of total available cores.

CSCve90425

3.1(1d)None.The values of effective memory andredundant memory (in the mirroring mode)are incorrect on the Cisco IMC Web UI.

CSCvd79734




3.1(3a)None.On LSA (LSI Storage Authority) installedon RHEL 7.3, SBMezz controller IDs aremapped incorrectly as: Controller ID0 -SBMezz2, Controller ID1 - SBMezz1.However, Cisco IMC web UI and CLIdisplay the IDs correctly.

CSCve75610

Table 30: Utilities



3.1(2b)Use LSISWRAID mode whileperforming the HDD firmwareupdate.

HDD firmware activation fails after an HDDfirmware update is done and the firmwaredisplays the older HDD firmware version.This happens when you choose south bridgeas RSTE (which is the AHCI mode) in theBIOS Advance settings.

CSCvc25435

Known Behaviors in Release 3.1(2b)

The following are the known behaviors in Release 3.1(2b):



Table 31: BMC



3.1(2b)Reset the card configuration.After upgrading to version 3.1(2) from3.1(1), Flexutil controller status displays thefollowing message: "Invalidpartition, reset required"

CSCvf93319

Table 32: BIOS



3.1(2b)Boot the system BIOS to Setupwhile system is at version3.1(1), go to the Security pageand clear the system password.Now upgrade the server toversion 3.1(2) and enter theBIOS setup to set the passwordof your choice.

On the C220 M5 or C240 M5 servers, BIOSpassword authentication fails after upgradingthe server firmware from version 3.1(1) to3.1(2), and you cannot enter theBIOS Setupscreen.

CSCvf64564




3.1(2b)None.When you place a vNIC on the Intel X520network adapter with user defined MAC,association succeeds but theWebUI and CLIdoes not display the vNIC path.

CSCva82566





3.1(2b)None.NVMe U.2 and HHHL drives are supportedonly on the following specific slots in thesingle CMOD configuration:

• For SFF (U.2) NVMe—supported onlyin slot 1 and slot 17

• For HHHL NVMe—supported only inslots 1,2,5,8,9 and 10.

For the use of NVMe devices, the above slotsare supported in a single CMODconfiguration.

However, if you plug the NVMe devices inthe other supported slots that work on thedual CMOD configuration, the NVMedevices are displayed under the StorageManagement tab and can be managed. Butthese devices are not accessible in the BIOSas well as Inventory and cannot be used atthe OS level.

CSCvf47015

3.1(2b)None.The performance of sn200 is low on theHDDEXT1_SLOT2 andHDDEXT3_slot2slots, the performance is as expected on theothers slots. There is a 17-19% performancedrop on the above two slots on random orsequential read. However, on the others slotsthere only a 2-3% drop which meetsstandards.

CSCvf29989

Known Behaviors in Release 3.1(1d)

The following are the known behaviors in Release 3.1(1d):

Table 34: BMC



3.1(1d)Reset the controller again andreconnect the VD to the host.

Flexflash Virtual Drives disconnects fromthe host when you performmultiple flexflashresets. This happens due to the controller notbeing able to detect the installed SD cards.

CSCve82042


Known Behaviors in Release 3.1(1d)



3.1(1d)No workaround.When the platform or CPU domain powerlimit is set to an absolute minimum powervalue (characterized minimum value) andthe correction time to 1 second, sometimesit may take more than 1 second (correctiontime) to limit power to the set value.

CSCvd00773

3.1(1d)Configure a higher power capvalue.

When power cap limit for a platform domainis set close to a minimum power limit value,following critical SELmessages may appearduring system boot:

Node Manager: Thermal StatusSensor for CPU 1, PROCHOTasserted

Node Manager: Thermal StatusSensor for CPU 2, PROCHOTasserted

These messages get de-asserted during theboot process. These messages are seen as thesystem tries to retain the power consumptionduring system boot within the configuredpower cap value.

CSCvf48086

Table 35: BIOS



3.1(1d)Clear the CMOS to reset theVGA priority to use onboardVGA as the primary videoconsole.

The SEL "System Software event:Post sensor, UnrecoverableVideo Controller Failure[0xFF09] was asserted." is loggedand there is no display on the Offboard VGAconsole. This happens when you have anoffboard VGA card that does not have UEFIoprom support and the server is in the UEFIboot mode (default mode).

CSCvd52950

Recommended Best Practices

Upgrading BIOS and Cisco IMC Firmware

Cisco provides the Cisco Host Upgrade Utility to assist you in upgrading the BIOS, Cisco IMC, CMC LOM,LSI storage controller, and Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Cards firmware to compatible levels. On the C220


Recommended Best Practices

M3, C240 M3, C22 M3, and C24 M3 servers, we recommend that you reboot Cisco IMC before performingthe Cisco IMC and BIOS firmware update using NIHUU, HUU, web UI, CLI, or XML API.

When upgrading the Cisco IMC firmware for the UCS C-series platforms, ensure that you update using thefull image (for example upd-pkg-cXXX-mx-Cisco IMC.full.*.bin).

Note

The correct and compatible firmware levels for your server model are embedded in the utility ISO.

To use this utility, use the Cisco Host Upgrade Utility User Guide which includes the instructions fordownloading and using the utility ISO. Select the guide from this URL:


Related Documentation


For configuration information for this release, refer to the following:

• Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller CLI Configuration Guide

• Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller GUI Configuration Guide

• Cisco UCS Rack-Mount Servers Cisco IMC API Programmer's Guide

For information about installation of the C-Series servers, refer to the following:

• Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers Install and Upgrade Guides

The following related documentation is available for the Cisco Unified Computing System:

• Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap

• Cisco UCS Site Preparation Guide

• Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information for Cisco UCS

• For information about supported firmware versions and supported UCS Manager versions for the rackservers that are integrated with the UCSManager for management, refer to Release Bundle Contents forCisco UCS Software.

Refer to the release notes for Cisco UCS Manager software and the Cisco UCS C Series Server Integrationwith Cisco UCS Manager Guide at the following locations:

• Cisco UCS Manager Release Notes

• Cisco UCS C Series Server Integration with Cisco UCS Manager Guides




http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-integrated-management-controller/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-integrated-management-controller/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-integrated-management-controller/products-programming-reference-guides-list.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/products-installation-guides-list.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/overview/guide/UCS_rack_roadmap.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/site-prep-guide/ucs_site_prep.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/regulatory/compliance/ucs_regulatory_compliance_Information.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/products-release-notes-list.html



http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-mount-ucs-managed-server-software/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html

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