# [OmniOS-discuss] Supermicro BIOS updates

Paul B. Henson henson at acm.org
Tue Jul 9 02:21:59 UTC 2013

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    Sorry for two potentially OT supermicro posts in a row :), I just know
    they are really popular for illumos servers and there's such a wealth of
    knowledge on these mailing lists.

    I usually update firmware/BIOS on a fairly regular basis on my servers,
    but supermicro has a fairly scary warning on their download page:

    ------
    WARNING!
    Please do not download / upgrade the BIOS/Firmware UNLESS your system
    has a BIOS/firmware-related issue. Flashing the wrong BIOS/firmware can
    cause irreparable damage to the system.

    In no event shall Supermicro be liable for direct, indirect, special,
    incidental, or consequential damages arising from a BIOS/firmware update.
    ------

    Where it seems they pretty much do not want you to ever update unless
    you know of a specific issue the update will solve. Of course, they also
    don't post changelogs with their bios updates, so it's kind of hard to
    know 8-/. I can't remember the last time I had a box die due to a
    corrupted bios update (most of the ones I've worked with won't even let
    you try to flash the wrong firmware), I was wondering if that's a
    problem with supermicro boards to the point where they actively
    discourage updates?

    Their technical support sent me a changelog for the motherboard I'm
    working with upon request (seems like it would be a timesaver for them
    to just post it in the first place), and I think I do want to go ahead
    and update the bios. I haven't had to boot DOS for a bios update in a
    *long* time, my workstations for years have supported just sticking in a
    USB flash drive with the image on it and updating from the bios itself,
    and the servers I've been using supported bios updates via the IPMI web
    interface or CLI. What's the preferred way to generate a bootable DOS
    image with the bios update utility and image on it nowadays? I was
    thinking of just downloading a freeDOS floppy image, loopback mounting
    it to copy on the additional files, and then booting it via the IPMI
    remote media option. Is there an easier way?

    Thanks much…

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