SUMMARY: Small mistery in OSF/1 3.2 Release notes and Installation guide

From: Marcel A. Bernards <bernards_at_ECN.NL>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 10:44:20 +0100

Hello Alpha OSF/1 managers,

This small mistery has been more or less solved now.
A lot of fellow admins reported they made upgrades
with firmware installation before _and_ after the operating
system update without problems.

So it makes no difference as long as you have a near
recent Firmware release loaded on most Alpha boxes.
I usually install a firmware update before the OS update without
any problems. They are all 3000-{3,4,6}00 series boxes

A friendly person from DEC replied:

----
From: "Paul E. Rockwell" <rockwell_at_rch.dec.COM>
The release notes are correct.
You must do the update installation before doing the firmware
update if you choose to in-place upgrade DEC OSF/1 V3.x to V3.2.
You upgrade the firmware first if you're doing a FULL installation of
DEC OSF/1 V3.2.
-----
Here is another reply which is good to include to warn others.
-----
From: luchini_at_siberia.ups-tlse.fr (Marco Luchini)
Yes and no.  I haven't been through 3.2 yet so this is not that useful.
However, for the 3.0 update one had to do the firmware first and then
the OS on all Alphas EXCEPT for the 2100/MP500 where one had to do the
OS first and then the firmware.  There was a similar contradictory
indication between the guide and the notes.  On that architecture,
failure to do the OS first and the firmware last caused the boot to
fail and one had to reverse the firmware to be able to get the machine
up again.
As I said above, this may not be relevant to 3.2 and to your
architecture but maybe being aware that it has happened before will help
you make the right decision ... ;-)
----
Thank you all Alpha managers who replied.
Too many replies to credit all names ! , or am I just lazy ? :-)
Marcel Bernards, UNIX & Net sysadm Netherlands Energy Research Foundation ECN
(and SURFnet IC/ICP), Phone: (+31 /0)2246 4579 Fax: (+31 /0)2246 1864
E-Mail: Bernards_at_ECN.NL, SnailMail: P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten 
SCREAMNet : AAAAAARGHH!HUH?? : Disclaimer: "The AntiChrist is the Computer !" 

Received on Mon Mar 13 1995 - 05:31:58 NZDT