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BIOS Intel® Server Board SE7501WV2 TPS
Revision 1.0
Intel reference number C25653-001
94
1. Turn off the system power.
2. Move the BIOS recovery jumper to the recovery state.
3. Insert a bootable BIOS recovery diskette containing the new BIOS image files.
4. Turn on the system power.
The recovery BIOS boots from the DOS-bootable recovery diskette and emits one beep when it
passes control to DOS. DOS then executes a special AUTOEXEC.BAT that contains “iFLASH”
on the first line. If it is determined that the system is in recovery mode, iFLASH will start the
flash update without user intervention. iFLASH reads the flash image and programs the
necessary blocks. It emits one beep to indicate the beginning of the flash operation. After a
period of time, the BIOS emits two beeps to indicate that the flash procedure was completed
successfully. If the flash procedure fails, the BIOS emits a continuous series of beeps.
When the flash update completes:
1. Turn off the system power.
2. Remove the recovery diskette.
3. Restore the jumper to its original position.
4. Turn on the system power.
5. Re-flash any custom blocks, such as user binary or language blocks.
The system should now boot normally using the updated system BIOS.
6.19.5 Rolling BIOS and On-line updates
The online update nomenclature refers to the ability to update the BIOS while the server is
online, in operation, as opposed to having to put the server out of operation while doing a BIOS
update. The rolling BIOS nomenclature refers to the capability for having two copies of BIOS:
the one in use, and the second to which an updated BIOS version can be written. When ready,
the system can roll forward to the new BIOS. In case of a failure with the new version, the
system can roll back to the previous version.
In addition to the set of binaries that are used by iFLASH application, the on-line update
application relies on a capsule file with a .cit extension, which is generated by the BIOS build
process. The usage model is explained in the document titled “Update Application – EPS, On-
line FW and BIOS Updates, Rev 1.0”.
While the exact nature of hardware changes for the support of on-line update/rolling BIOS
changes are out of scope of this document, BIOS relies on changes to BMC and additional flash
space for this. Flash is divided into two partitions, primary and secondary. The active partition
from which the system boots shall be referred to as the primary partition. There is a change in
iFLASH/On-line updates, in that they continue to preserve the existing BIOS image on the
primary partition. Instead, BIOS updates are diverted to the secondary partition. After the
update, a notification flag will be set. During the subsequent boot following the BIOS update,
the system will continue to boot from the primary BIOS partition. On determining that a BIOS
update occurred during the previous boot, the system will request the Baseboard Management
Controller (BMC) to switch to the new BIOS image that is on the secondary partition and reset
the system. If the boot from the new BIOS is successful, the BIOS will register with the BMC
that the change to a new partition is permanent, thus affecting a “Roll Forward” as mentioned
above. The secondary partition is now the primary partition and will be used to boot from until