For some Oracle SPARC systems, such as the T series and M series, Oracle Solaris FMA might report a fault after the update of an Intel network controller using the fwupdate command. If you use FMA commands to list faults, you might see:

# fmadm list-fault
--------------- ------------------------------------ --------------
---------
TIME EVENT-ID MSG-ID SEVERITY
--------------- ------------------------------------ --------------
---------
Jun 06 10:57:09 36153b84-0650-4751-8092-c7eb4c936c71 NIC-8000-1C Critical

Problem Status : open
Diag Engine : eft / 1.16
System Manufacturer : Oracle Corporation
Name : SPARC M7-8
Part_Number : 7325712
Serial_Number : AK00383556
Host_ID : 8647c249

----------------------------------------
Suspect 1 of 2 :
Problem class : defect.io.nic.config
Certainty : 95%
Affects : mod:///mod-name=i40e/
Status : faulted but still in service

FRU
Status : faulty
FMRI :
"pkg://solaris/driver/network/ethernet/i40e@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.20.0.2.0:20170

422T000939Z
"
----------------------------------------
Suspect 2 of 2 :
Problem class : fault.io.nic.config
Certainty : 5%
Affects : dev:////pci@31e/pci@1/network@0
Status : ok and in service

FRU
Status : repaired
Location : "/SYS/CMIOU6/PCIE2"
Manufacturer : unknown
Name : unknown
Part_Number : unknown
Revision : unknown
Serial_Number : unknown
Chassis
Manufacturer : Oracle Corporation
Name : SPARC M7-8
Part_Number : 7325712
Serial_Number : AK00383556

Description : The network device failed to configure a feature. A(n)
invalid_state error has been detected during driver's runtime
context causing a(n) config service impact.

Firmware: FW 5.1.42098 API 1.5 eetrack 0x80002559 NVM 0x1

Response : One or more device instances may be disabled.

Impact : Loss of services provided by the device instances associated
with this fault.

Action : Use 'fmadm faulty' to provide a more detailed view of this
event.
Please refer to the associated reference document at
http://support.oracle.com/msg/NIC-8000-1C for the latest
service procedures and policies regarding this diagnosis.

There is currently no workaround for this issue. Despite the fault, the update process should still complete. A system power cycle is required to use the new firmware.