Release Note for systems built with IBM Spectrum Virtualize

This is the release note for the 8.1.1 release and details the issues resolved in all Program Temporary Fixes (PTFs) between 8.1.1.0 and 8.1.1.2. This document will be updated with additional information whenever a PTF is released.

This document was last updated on 10 September 2021.

  1. New Features
  2. Known Issues and Restrictions
  3. Issues Resolved
    1. Security Issues Resolved
    2. APARs Resolved
  4. Useful Links
Note. Detailed build version numbers are included in the Update Matrices in the Useful Links section

1. New Features

The following new features have been introduced in the 8.1.1 release: The following new feature has been introduced in the 8.1.1.1 release:

2. Known Issues and Restrictions

Note: For clarity, the term "node" will be used to refer to a SAN Volume Controller node or Storwize system node canister.
Details Introduced
During upgrade node failover does not bring up the normal alert message requiring a refresh of the GUI. Customers will need to manually refresh the GUI upon upgrade to v8.1.1.2.

This is a temporary restriction that will be lifted in a future PTF.

 8.1.1.2
Customers with FlashSystem V840 systems with Flash code v1.1 on the backend enclosure should not upgrade to v8.1.1.1 or later.

This is a temporary restriction that will be lifted in a future PTF.

 8.1.1.1
Customers using AE1 and AE2 enclosures, with FlashSystem code v1.5.x, behind SVC or V840 systems should not upgrade to v8.1.1.0. In this circumstance please upgrade to v8.1.1.1 or later. 8.1.1.0

Systems running v8.1.0 or earlier, with more than 1000 volumes, cannot be upgraded to 8.1.1.0 or later.

This is a temporary restriction that will be lifted, by APAR HU01804, in a future PTF. In the interim IBM Support can provide an ifix to allow upgrade.

 8.1.1.0

When configuring Remote Support Assistance, the connection test will report a fault and opening a connection will report Connected, followed shortly by Connection failed.

Even though it states "Connection Failed", a connection may still be successfully opened.

This issue will be resolved in a future release

 8.1.0.1

Customers upgrading systems with more than 64GB of RAM to v8.1 or later will need to run chnodehw to enable access to the extra memory above 64GB.

Under some circumstances it may also be necessary to remove and re-add each node in turn.

 8.1.0.0

RSA is not supported with IPv6 service IP addresses.

This is a temporary restriction that will be lifted in a future PTF.

 8.1.0.0

AIX operating systems will not be able to get full benefit from the hot spare node feature unless they have the dynamic tracking feature enabled (dyntrk).

 8.1.0.0

There is a known issue with 8-node systems and IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager 3.0 that can cause the status of key server end points, on the system, to occasionally report as degraded or offline. The issue intermittently occurs when the system attempts to validate the key server but the server response times out to some of the nodes. When the issue occurs Error Code 1785 (A problem occurred with the Key Server) will be visible in the system event log.

This issue will not cause any loss of access to encrypted data.

 7.8.0.0

There is an extremely small possibility that, on a system using both Encryption and Transparent Cloud Tiering, the system can enter a state where an encryption re-key operation is stuck in 'prepared' or 'prepare_failed' state, and a cloud account is stuck in 'offline' state.

The user will be unable to cancel or commit the encryption rekey, because the cloud account is offline. The user will be unable to remove the cloud account because an encryption rekey is in progress.

The system can only be recovered from this state using a T4 Recovery procedure.

It is also possible that SAS-attached storage arrays go offline.

 7.8.0.0

Spectrum Virtualize as Software customers should not enable the Transparent Cloud Tiering function.

This restriction will be removed under APAR HU01495.

 7.8.0.0

Some configuration information will be incorrect in Spectrum Control.

This does not have any functional impact and will be resolved in a future release of Spectrum control.

 7.8.0.0

Priority Flow Control for iSCSI is only supported on Brocade VDX 10GbE switches.

 7.7.0.0

It is not possible to replace the mid-plane in a SVC 12F SAS expansion enclosure.

If a SVC 12F mid-plane must be replaced then a new enclosure will be provided.

 7.7.0.0

Systems, with NPIV enabled, presenting storage to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) hosts running the ibmvfc driver on IBM Power can experience path loss or read-only file system events.

This is cause by issues within the ibmvfc driver and VIOS code.

Refer to this troubleshooting page for more information.

 n/a
Host Disconnects Using VMware vSphere 5.5.0 Update 2 and vSphere 6.0

Refer to this flash for more information

 n/a
If an update stalls or fails then contact IBM Support for further assistance n/a
The following restrictions were valid but have now been lifted

Customers with Storwize V7000 Gen 2 Model 500 systems should not upgrade to v8.1.1.0 or later.

This issue has been resolved in PTF v8.1.1.2.

 8.1.1.0

FlashSystem 840 systems running with an array created on firmware prior to v1.2.x.x do not support SCSI UNMAP or WRITE SAME with Unmap commands. Support for these commands was recently added in v8.1.0.2. However this PTF does not correctly identify 840 arrays created on these earlier firmware versions. Customers, with FlashSystem 840 backends, should not upgrade their SVC systems to v8.1.1.0 until the proper checks are complete.

The issue can be avoided by disabling unmap and ask IBM Remote Technical Support for an action plan to make new arrays that support unmap.

 8.1.0.2

Customers with attached hosts running zLinux should not upgrade to v8.1.

This was a temporary restriction that has been lifted.

 8.1.0.0

3. Issues Resolved

This release contains all of the fixes included in the 8.1.0.2 release, plus the following additional fixes.

A release may contain fixes for security issues, fixes for APARs or both. Consult both tables below to understand the complete set of fixes included in the release.

3.1 Security Issues Resolved

Security issues are documented using a reference number provided by "Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures" (CVE).
CVE Identifier Link for additional Information Resolved in
CVE-2016-10708 ibm10717661 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-10142 ibm10717931 8.1.1.2
CVE-2017-11176 ibm10717931 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1433 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1434 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1438 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1461 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1462 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1463 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1464 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1465 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2018-1466 ssg1S1012263 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6210 ssg1S1012276 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6515 ssg1S1012276 8.1.1.2
CVE-2013-4312 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8374 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8543 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8746 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8812 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8844 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8845 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2015-8956 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-2053 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-2069 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-2384 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-2847 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-3070 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-3156 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-3699 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-4569 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-4578 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-4581 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-4794 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-5412 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-5828 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-5829 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6136 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6198 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6327 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6480 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-6828 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-7117 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-10229 ssg1S1012277 8.1.1.2
CVE-2016-0634 ssg1S1012278 8.1.1.2

3.2 APARs Resolved

Show details for all APARs
APAR Affected Products Severity Description Resolved in Feature Tags
HU01720 All HIPER An issue in the handling of compressed volume shrink operations, in the presence of EasyTier migrations, can cause DRAID MDisk timeouts leading to an offline MDisk group (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment Systems running v8.1 or later using EasyTier with compressed volumes
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.2 Compression, EasyTier
HU01792 All HIPER When a DRAID array has multiple drive failures and the number of failed drives is greater than the number of rebuild areas in the array it is possible that the storage pool will be taken offline during the copyback phase of a rebuild. For more details refer to this Flash (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment Systems using DRAID
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.2 Distributed RAID
HU01767 All Critical Reads of 4K/8K from an array can under exceptional circumstances return invalid data. For more details refer to this Flash (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment Systems running v7.8.0 or earlier
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.2 RAID, Thin Provisioning
HU01769 All Critical Systems with DRAID arrays, with more than 131,072 extents, may experience multiple warmstarts due to a backend SCSI UNMAP issue (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment Systems running v8.1.1 or later
Trigger Create a DRAID array with >131,072 extents on SSDs
Workaround Disable UNMAP at a system level by issuing a "svctask chsystem -unmap off" command
8.1.1.2 Distributed RAID
HU01771 SVC, V7000 High Importance An issue with the CMOS battery in a node can cause an unexpectedly large log file to be generated by the BMC. At log collection the node may be taken offline (show details)
Symptom Loss of Redundancy
Environment SVC & V7000 systems running v7.8 or later
Trigger Node CMOS battery issue
Workaround None
8.1.1.2 System Monitoring
HU01619 All Suggested A misreading of the PSU register can lead to failure events being logged incorrectly (show details)
Symptom None
Environment Systems running v7.6 or later
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.2 System Monitoring
HU01664 All Suggested A timing window issue during an upgrade can cause the node restarting to warmstart stalling the upgrade (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Systems running v7.8 or later
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.2 System Update
HU01740 All Suggested The timeout setting for key server commands may be too brief, when the server is busy, causing those commands to fail (show details)
Symptom None
Environment Systems running v7.8 or later using encryption
Trigger Enter mkkeyserver command
Workaround Retry command
8.1.1.2 Encryption
HU01756 V7000 Suggested A scheduling issue may cause a config node warmstart (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Storwize V7000 Gen 2 systems running v7.8 or later
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.2
HU00247 All Critical A rare deadlock condition can lead to a RAID5 or RAID6 array rebuild stalling at 99% (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment Systems using RAID5/6
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.1 Distributed RAID, RAID
IT19192 All Critical An issue in the handling of GUI certificates may cause warmstarts leading to a Tier 2 recovery (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment All systems
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.1 Graphical User Interface, Reliability Availability Serviceability
IT23747 All High Importance For large drive sizes the DRAID rebuild process can consume significant CPU resource adversely impacting system performance (show details)
Symptom Performance
Environment Systems running v7.6 or later using DRAID
Trigger High write workloads during a DRAID rebuild
Workaround Reduce write workload during rebuild or use a volume/pool level throttle
8.1.1.1 Distributed RAID
HU01655 All Suggested The algorithm used to calculate an SSDs replacement date can sometimes produce incorrect results leading to a premature End-of-Life error being reported (show details)
Symptom None
Environment Systems using SSDs
Trigger None
Workaround Ignore error if SSD write endurance (in lsdrive CLI output) shows less than 80
8.1.1.1 Drives
HU01730 SVC Suggested When running the DMP for a 1046 error the picture may not indicate the correct position of the failed adapter (show details)
Symptom None
Environment DH8 systems
Trigger Run DMP for 1046 error
Workaround Be aware of which adapter is failed and do not use the picture in the GUI
8.1.1.1 GUI Fix Procedure
HU01763 SVC Suggested A single node warmstart may occur on a DH8 config node when inventory email is created. The issue only occurs if this coincides with a very high rate of CLI commands and high I/O workload on the config node (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment DH8 systems running v7.7.1 or later
Trigger High CLI workload and I/O workload at same time as inventory email
Workaround None
8.1.1.1 Command Line Interface, System Monitoring
HU01726 All HIPER A slow raid member drive in an MDisk may cause node warmstarts and the MDisk to go offline for a short time (show details)
Symptom Offline Volumes
Environment Systems using DRAID
Trigger Failing drives
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Distributed RAID
HU01618 All Critical When using the charraymember CLI command if a member id is entered that is greater than the maximum number of members in a TRAID array then a T2 recovery will be initiated (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment All systems
Trigger Enter a charraymember command with a member id greater than the maximum value for the related RAID type
Workaround Ensure member id is less than or equal to maximum number of possible members in the array
8.1.1.0 RAID
HU01620 All Critical Configuration changes can slow critical processes and, if this coincides with cloud account statistical data being adjusted, a Tier 2 recovery may occur (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment Systems running v7.8 or later that support TCT
Trigger Configuration changes around midnight
Workaround Avoid making large numbers of configuration changes around midnight
8.1.1.0 Transparent Cloud Tiering
HU01671 All Critical Metadata between two nodes in an I/O group can become out of step leaving one node unaware of work scheduled on its partner. This can lead to stuck array synchronisation and false 1691 events (show details)
Symptom Offline Volumes
Environment All systems
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 RAID
HU01678 All Critical Entering an invalid parameter in the addvdiskaccess command may initiate a Tier 2 recovery (show details)
Symptom Loss of Access to Data
Environment All systems
Trigger Include an invalid argument in an addvdiskaccess command
Workaround Use care when entering addvdiskaccess CLI commands
8.1.1.0 Command Line Interface
HU01701 SVC Critical Following loss of all logins to an external controller, that is providing quorum, when the controller next logs in it will not be automatically used for quorum (show details)
Symptom Offline Volumes
Environment SVC systems
Trigger Loss of all logins to a controller providing quorum
Workaround Set allow_quorum with TRUE to all controllers
8.1.1.0 HyperSwap
HU01420 All High Importance An issue in DRAID can cause repeated node warmstarts in the circumstances of a degraded copyback operation to a drive (show details)
Symptom Multiple Node Warmstarts
Environment Systems using DRAID
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Distributed RAID
HU01525 All High Importance During an upgrade a resource locking issue in the compression component can cause a node to warmstart multiple times and become unavailable (show details)
Symptom Loss of Redundancy
Environment Systems running v7.6 or earlier using compressed volumes
Trigger Upgrade to v7.7 or later
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Compression, System Update
HU01632 All High Importance A congested fabric causes the Fibre Channel adapter firmware to abort I/O resulting in node warmstarts (show details)
Symptom Multiple Node Warmstarts
Environment All systems
Trigger Congested fabric
Workaround Avoid fabric congestion
8.1.1.0 Reliability Availability Serviceability
HU01190 All Suggested Where a controller, which has been assigned to a specific site, has some logins intentionally removed then the system can continue to display the controller as degraded even when the DMP has been followed and errors fixed (show details)
Symptom None
Environment Systems with site ids assigned (e.g. stretched clusters)
Trigger Logins removed
Workaround The degraded issue can be cleared by clearing the event log.
8.1.1.0 Backend Storage
HU01462 V7000, V5000 Suggested Environmental factors can trigger a protection mechanism, that causes the SAS chip to freeze, resulting in a single node warmstart (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Storwize systems
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Drives
HU01512 All Suggested During a DRAID MDisk copy-back operation a miscalculation of the remaining work may cause a node warmstart (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Systems using DRAID
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Distributed RAID
HU01602 All Suggested When security scanners send garbage data to SVC/Storwize iSCSI target addresses a node warmstart may occur (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment All systems
Trigger Security scanning SVC/Storwize iSCSI target addresses with random data
Workaround If security probes are required ensure they are not issued within 30 minutes of each other to both nodes in an I/O group
8.1.1.0 iSCSI
HU01633 All Suggested Even though synchronisation has completed a RAID array may still show progress to be at 99% (show details)
Symptom None
Environment All systems
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 RAID
HU01654 SVC, V7000, V5000 Suggested There may be a node warmstart when a switch of direction, in a HyperSwap relationship, fails to complete properly (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Systems running v7.8 or later using HyperSwap
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 HyperSwap
HU01688 SVC Suggested Unexpected used_virtualization figure in lslicense output after upgrade (show details)
Symptom None
Environment SVC systems running v7.8.1 or earlier with A9000 backend controllers
Trigger Upgrade to v8.1 or later with the amount of mapped logical capacity, from an A9000 controller, being greater than the amount of mapped physical capacity
Workaround Use chmdisk to ensure correct tiering
8.1.1.0 Command Line Interface
HU01698 All Suggested A node warmstart may occur when deleting a compressed volume if a host has written to the volume minutes before the volume is deleted (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Systems with compressed volumes
Trigger Write I/O received by compression code for a volume that has been deleted
Workaround Remove volume host mappings and leave an interval of time (90mins) before removing the volume
8.1.1.0 Compression
HU01747 All Suggested The incorrect detection of a cache issue can lead to a node warmstart (show details)
Symptom Single Node Warmstart
Environment Systems running v7.8 or later
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Cache
IT20586 All Suggested Due to an issue in Lancer G5 firmware after a node reboot the LED of the 10GBE port may remain amber even though the port is working normally (show details)
Symptom None
Environment Systems with Lancer G5 HBAs
Trigger None
Workaround None
8.1.1.0 Reliability Availability Serviceability

4. Useful Links

Description Link
Support Websites
Update Matrices, including detailed build version
Support Information pages providing links to the following information:
  • Interoperability information
  • Product documentation
  • Limitations and restrictions, including maximum configuration limits
Supported Drive Types and Firmware Levels
SAN Volume Controller and Storwize Family Inter-cluster Metro Mirror and Global Mirror Compatibility Cross Reference
Software Upgrade Test Utility
Software Upgrade Planning