Chapter 6. BIOS, firmware, and hardware policies
Chapter 6. BIOS, firmware, and hardware policies 6.1. Production level BIOS, Firmware, and Hardware versions are required to be production-level (e.g. feature complete without major changes pending and/or upgraded to production equivalent) during testing. Changes subsequent to testing are required to meet the Changes criteria below. The tested or a later revision is required to be available to and without customer interactions in the Instance Type by the posting date of the certification. 6.2. Changes BIOS, Firmware, and Hardware changes that enable or disable features necessitate recertification. Re-certification is not required for changes to correct small flaws and minor bugs and/or alter superficial items like splash screens and silkscreens. Partners are expected to have internal testing of these changes to verify they do not adversely affect customers, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or the certification status. The results of this testing is not required to be submitted to Red Hat. 6.3. Settings Any required BIOS/Firmware configuration information must be provided in a comment in the certification request. Providing suggested and/or default configuration data is encouraged but not required. Vendor provided configuration information may be provided in the certification listing using an associated Red Hat Knowledge Base Solution. Validating alternate configuration settings do not expose data corruption issues or unexpectedly disrupt functionality is the responsibility of the hardware vendor. Important User configurable BIOS settings that enable/disable hardware features and/or functions must be set such that the feature or function is enabled during testing. 6.4. Configuration limits CCSP Instances available in configurations beyond the Red Hat product limits may still be eligible for certification. Testing will need to be performed demonstrating functionality within the limits and the partner will need to decide if they also want to pursue the features beyond the limits. Like all Red Hat Enterprise Linux feature requests, the required time lines, development, and testing efforts are determined on a case-by-case basis and are considered outside of the certification process. A Red Hat Knowledge Base article can be added to the certification listing for clarity. Important Vendors are encouraged to work with their Hardware Partner Manager and Partner Technical Account Managers (TAMs) on feature requests to raise the relevant Red Hat Enterprise Linux product limits prior to the certification effort. Additional resources For more information about the current supported limits for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits . 6.5. Performance limits In general, Red Hat places the responsibility of performance testing on the Partner; however, major performance issues that are deemed to have significant customer impact may delay certification until a resolution is determined.