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After upgrading Nexus 1000V VSM to version 4.2(1)SV2(2.1a) you start recieving ‘%VMS-1-CONN_SSL_NOAUTH1: SSL AUTHENTICATION failure.‘ message in the console every couple minutes:

N1Kv# 2014 Jun 1 18:34:48 N1Kv %VMS-1-CONN_SSL_NOAUTH: SSL AUTHENTICATION failure.
2014 Jun 1 18:37:48 N1Kv %VMS-1-CONN_SSL_NOAUTH1: SSL AUTHENTICATION failure.
2014 Jun 1 18:40:48 N1Kv %VMS-1-CONN_SSL_NOAUTH: SSL AUTHENTICATION failure.
2014 Jun 1 18:43:47 N1Kv %VMS-1-CONN_SSL_NOAUTH1: SSL AUTHENTICATION failure.
2014 Jun 1 18:46:47 N1Kv %VMS-1-CONN_SSL_NOAUTH: SSL AUTHENTICATION failure.

This is expected behavior because of a new feature that was added in Nexus 1000v 4.2(1)SV2(2.1a) version:
vCenter Server Certificate Validation
The Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM can validate the certificate presented by vCenter Server to authenticate it. The certificate may be self-signed or signed by a Certificate Authority (CA). The validation is done each time the VSM connects to the vCenter Server. If the certificate authentication fails, a warning is generated but the connection is not impaired. This is an optional feature.

To get rid of the warning please generate a valid SSL certificate for vCenter server.

While trying to upgrade Nexus 5000 series switch I ran into following issue:

Pre-upgrade check failed. Return code 0x40930062 (free space in the filesystem is below threshold).

Switch has enough free:

Enough free space

Look at install logs to identify where the problem is by typing:
show system internal log install details | include space

show system internal log install details | include space

As you can see the problem is because /var/tmp is bellow the threshold.
To identify what is  taking space in /var/tmp type:
show system internal dir /var/tmp (continue reading…)

Cisco has release a field notice FN – 63812 on 4th of June for their servers that are using Seagate hard drives.
According to Cisco some Seagate drives with specific level of firmware might not respond to requests.
There is a list of drives and instructions how to identify these drives. Unfortunately if you have C220 M2 server with integrated controller like LSI 1064E the instruction are not going to work as the drives are not visible in CIMC.

In CIMC there is nothing listed under Storage tab

CIMC/Storage

In CLI you cannot scope to storage adapter as non exists

show storageadapter

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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: (continue reading…)

After trying to decommission chassis the task never finishes. It gets stuck at Erasing chassis identity task:

FSM is stuck at 8% with error 403, Error Leaving fabric port-channel for port 1/16 (the port can be different)

Trying to Acknowledge or Remove Chassis is not successful.
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UCS Server Configuration Utility (SCU) allows user to configure the server and also run diagnostics tests.

Do the following to run SCU diagnostics tests:

1. Download SCU from Cisco.com
2. Login to CIMC of the server and map the SCU ISO image

3. Restart the server and wait until it boots to SCU

4. Accept the License Agreement

5. In SCU expand Diagnostic Tools, select Quick Tasks and choose the test you want to run Quick or Comprehensive.

6. Confirm

7. You can see the status of the tests under Tests Summary and the results under Test log Summary.

8. Once finished click on Reboot button

After upgrading B230 M1 blade it gets stuck in discovery at 4% and is showing following errors:

no connection to MC endpoint

Error retrieving Server Params-MC Error(-6): Connection is closing

No DIMMs present

The errors can be rotating but it is stuck at 4%.

1. Check Firmware versions and see if all are as expected.

2. Reset CIMC and after this is done Reacknowledge the server.
3. Check the firmware versions of the blade again. The Running Board Controller version is set to 00000000

4. Activate the Board Controller with correct version and wait until activation is finished.

5. Reacknowledge the server

UCSPE 2.2(1bPE1) is out. Get it here.

After associating service profile to a blade it gets stuck in EFI Shell and association can not complete.
The KVM is showing EFI Shell

FSM status is stuck on Configure Apply Config

The problem could be because the service profile does not have all the required configuration. Have a look at Status under General tab to see what is the error.

In this case there were no MACs or WWPNs defined. CNA cards must have these defined as they do not have them burned in.

Cisco has released Cisco UCS Blade Server Diagnostics.
It’s an ISO file that you boot your blade from and there you can run a series of test to find out if there are any problems with hardware.

To run UCS diagnostics do the following:

• Download ISO file from cisco.com you’ll need login first. At the time of writing the only version available is 1.0.1a
• Login to UCS Manager and open the KVM console on the blade that you want to test(the blade must be associated with service profile and CD-ROM must be present in Boot Order at the top of it)
• Select Virtual Media tab, click on Add Image button, locate and select Cisco UCS Blade Server Diagnostic ISO file that you downloaded. Make sure that Mapped box is ticket next to ISO file.
  
• Restart the server. The server should start booting form ISO file
• You’ll be prompted to choose from 3 options(GUI, CLI, memtest86+) if you do not choose in 10sec the blade will into GUI
  
  GUI and CLI are self explanatory. memtest86+ is RAM testing utility.

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