Keysight Technologies M9037A General instructions

BMC Update Guide
Keysight M9037A
BMC Update Utility

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Description
The Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) provides the “intelligence” in the Intelligent Platform
Management Interface (IPMI) on a PC. Specifically, it manages the interface between the system
management software and the platform hardware. Different types of sensors in the PC report various
parameters to the BMC such as temperature, power status, OS status, etc. The BMC monitors these
sensors and can send alerts to the system administrator if these parameters do not stay within bounds.
This update utility and documentation is for use with BMC updates versions BMC1v8a and later.
There are three primary steps to updating the M9037A PCIe Embedded Controller BMC:
1. Create a bootable USB flash drive
2. Use the USB flash drive to update your M9037A
3. Verify the update
Step 2 contains a 20 second window of vulnerability while the update is in
progress. If you remove power or pull the USB
flash drive during this 20 second
window,
your M9037A will most likely lock-up and will not boot. To get your
M9037A working again you must send it to Keysight for repair.
The following instructions use the Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer (IE) browser on a Keysight
M9037A Embedded Controller. If you use a different browser or PC, the screens may look different from
the pictures below.

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Step 1: Create a bootable USB flash drive
The following instructions are one possible method for creating a bootable USB flash drive. If you
already have a bootable USB flash drive, you can skip this step. However, not all bootable USB flash
drives provide the correct application environment for the Keysight BMC update utility. For example,
booting to a Windows 7 System Recovery Disk and going to the command prompt won’t work.
The following instructions use a 3rd party tool called Rufus. The open source license allows you to use it
freely. The Rufus 2.1 default settings create a USB flash drive that boots into a DOS-compatible
operating system called FreeDOS1. This works well with our BMC update utility.
1. Insert an empty USB flash drive into a USB port on the M9037A. A 128MB flash drive or larger
should be used.
2. Run IE browser and go to this website: https://rufus.akeo.ie/. This opens the following window:
1For more information about FreeDOS, see: http://www.freedos.org

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3. Scroll down to the “Download” section and click on the “Rufus” link.
4. IE browser opens the following prompt. Click Run.
5. The Rufus utility downloads and runs. Click No when prompted about the Rufus update policy.

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6. Verify that the Device and drive shown are correct. In this example there is a 32GB Kingston
flash drive.
7. Click on Start.
8. When prompted with the following warning, click OK to continue.

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9. In less than 20 seconds the screen should look like this. Click Close.
10. You have created a bootable USB flash drive that boots into a DOS-compatible operating system
called FreeDOS. You are ready for Step 2.

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Step 2: Use the USB flash drive to update your M9037A
In this step you will update your M9037A to the new version of BMC.
1. Using the zip file you have received for this update, unzip it to your desktop.
2. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to your USB flash drive. The screen should look
something like this:

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3. Drag and drop the folder you just placed on your desktop to the USB flash drive. The screen
should now look like this.
4. With the USB flash drive plugged into the M9037A, reboot and press F7 during the boot up
screen. Scroll down to your flash drive and press Enter.
Note: Your flash drive
may appear different.

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5. Within three seconds you will be booted to FreeDOS and have a command prompt.
6. Change to the folder that contains the BMC bits. In this example type “cd bmc1v8a” and press
Enter.
The next step starts the 20 second window of vulnerability. If you remove power or
pull the USB flash drive during this 20 second window, your M9037A will most
likely lock
-up and will not boot. To get your M9037A working again you must send
it to Keysight for repair.
7. Type “upbmc” and press Enter to start the update progress.
8. The update takes approximately 20 seconds. When the update is complete, the M9037A
automatically powers-down. You are done with Step 2 and ready for Step 3.