BIOS Upgrade on Sun Ultra 20 and Sun Fire X2100 may cause ECC to be Disabled on Initial Reboot

---

BIOS Upgrade on Sun Ultra 20 and Sun Fire X2100 may cause ECC to be Disabled on Initial Reboot

1. Impact

Upgrading the system BIOS to v1.1.7/v2.2.9 (or earlier) on Sun Fire X2100 and Sun Ultra 20 systems may temporarily disable Memory Error Correction Code (ECC), whereby data integrity may be compromised (Note: ECC errors are extremely rare in memory).

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur on the following platforms:

x86 Platform

• Sun Ultra 20 Workstation with BIOS version 2.2.9 or earlier
• Sun Fire X2100 Server with BIOS version 1.1.7 or earlier

3. Symptoms

On the first reboot of the system after upgrading the BIOS to 1.1.7/2.2.9 (or previous versions from the Sun Fire X2100 Server/Sun Ultra 20 Workstation Supplemental CD), ECC is disabled.

4. Workaround

To work around this issue until a BIOS upgrade to 1.1.8 /2.3.0 can be performed, reboot the system a second time to re-enable ECC.

5. Resolution

This issue is addressed on the following platforms:

x86 Platform

• Sun Ultra 20 Workstation with BIOS version 2.3.0 or later
• Sun Fire X2100 Server with BIOS version 1.1.8 or later

(the Supplemental 1.8 ISO image contains the correction, and ECC will be enabled on the first reboot of the system).

BIOS version 1.1.8/2.3.0 can be obtained from the following download sites:

Ultra 20 Workstation (2.3.0):


Sun Fire X2100 Server (1.1.8):

This Sun Alert notification is being provided to you on an "AS IS" basis. This Sun Alert notification may contain information provided by third parties. The issues described in this Sun Alert notification may or may not impact your system(s). Sun makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees as to the information contained herein. ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. BY ACCESSING THIS DOCUMENT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SUN SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT ARISE OUT OF YOUR USE OR FAILURE TO USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. This Sun Alert notification contains Sun proprietary and confidential information. It is being provided to you pursuant to the provisions of your agreement to purchase services from Sun, or, if you do not have such an agreement, the Sun.com Terms of Use. This Sun Alert notification may only be used for the purposes contemplated by these agreements.

Copyright 2000-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Modification History

17-Jul-2008: Updated Impact, Contributing Factors and Resolution sections

Attachments

This solution has no attachment