Archive for November, 2012

UCS: After installing or replacing DIMMs shown as disabled in UCS Manager(invalid FRU)


29 Nov

Here is a problem that you can see when replacing or installing new DIMMs in UCS Blades.
Although the blade will boot but the newly installed DIMMs might show as disabled with invalid FRU error:
Error codes F0844 and F0502 are logged:

When you check inventory of the blade and go into Memoery you’ll see that Capacity and Clock are Unspecified.

SSH into UCSM IP.
Type:
scope server x/y  (where x is your chassis id and y is server id of the server that is having problems.)
show memory  (this list memory information of the blade)
Server 1/1:
Array 1:
DIMM Location Presence Overall Status Type Capacity (MB) Clock

—- ———- —————- ———————— ———— ————- —– (more…)

UCS: Blade is stuck on discovery after UCS firmware upgrade (unidentified FRU)


12 Nov

Here is pretty common problem in UCS 2.0 release.
At any stage of UCS upgrade  one or more blades go into discovery mode and never finishes it. Depending on the version they can get stuck at any percentage but usually between 4% and 40%.
Most of the time a corruption occurs in SEEPROM of  M81kr CNA card because of this corruption checksum fails and UCS cannot recognize the mezzanine card any longer and this prevent Discovery from finishing.
You can see the following errors when this happens:
Configuration Error: adaptor-inoperable. Discovery State: Insufficiently Equipped.
Adapter 1 in server 1/1 has unidentified FRU 

There are multiple Cisco bugs for this issue CSCub16754, CSCty34034, CSCub48862, CSCub99354 and I’ve seen it happening on 2.0(1q), 2.0(2r), 2.0(3a) releases.
Unfortunately the issue is not fixed and there is no workaround. The good thing is that if this occurs the fix is pretty simple and quick and no hardware replacement is needed but only Cisco TAC can fix this or whoever has access to their internal resources.

To verify if corruption occurred you can do the following:

  1. SSH to UCSM IP
  2. Enter connect cimc x/y (Chassis/Blade)
  3. Enter mezz1fru on the versions starting from 2.0(3a) you need to enter fru
    If corruption has occurred the last line of the output will show something like
    ‘Checksum Failed For: Board Area!’

The other method to check is to look at the logs. (more…)

UCS: How to update Capability Catalog in UCS Manager


09 Nov

Here is a guide how to update the Capability Catalog in UCS Manager. Capability Catalog is updated every time you upgrade UCS firmware but you might need to update it separately when a new hardware is added to UCS infrastructure and upgrading the whole UCS is not possible.

1. Login into UCS manager
2. Select Admin tab and change the Filter to Capability Catalog

3. Verify the version of Capability Catalog that is currently installed

(more…)

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