For all of you who are using Cisco UCS C220 M3 server and Flexible Flash controller with SD card beware that there is a bug in firmware prior to 1.5(3a)
The problem shows up as timeout error for FlexFlash controller. The interesting part is even though there is a problem with the FlexFlash, CIMC still is showing that overall Server Status as good:
Once you log-in into CIMC you will not see that there is a problem:
No Errors
but once you click on Storage tab you’ll get error message:
Error: Unable to communicate with Flexible Flash controller: operation ffCardsGet, status ERROR_TIMEOUT
In the logs you’ll see:
BMC:FlexFlash:-: flex.c:1090:ffFirmwareInfoGet: ERROR_TIMEOUT BMC:FlexFlash:-: flex.c:2343:Failed to collect card details ERROR_TIMEOUT
The problem was first noticed not in CIMC but on ESXi host as it lost connectivity to the datastore:
Lost connectivity to the device mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0 backing the boot filesystem
This is a bug on C series servers: CSCuh33982
To fix the issue you need to upgrade the firmware to 1.5(3a) or above.
The workaround is to reset FelxFlash controller but as I found out that only worked for couple weeks. So the best thing is to upgrade.
Tags: Cisco, CSCuh33982, FlexFlash, timeout, UCS
