topic fcms Error in Operating System - HP-UX

fcms Error

Uday_S_Ankolekar — Tue, 17 Jul 2001 16:37:50 GMT

I've four Fiber Channel cards are on one of my N-Class box(HP-UX 11.00). One of them shows millions of 'Bad Rx char Count' when I run fcmsutil. This number is increasing every time I run fcmsutil.
I've replaced everything related to this device (Fiber channel card,Controller, cables ) But the problem remains. I'm not finding any disk problems. What could be the reason..?

Re: fcms Error

Erik Tong — Tue, 17 Jul 2001 22:34:52 GMT

Bad Character counts are typically hardware problems, usually a failure with the optic components. Most fibre HBAs have replacable optic modules called GBIC or GLM, depending on the type of card you have. FC switches also use GBIC optics. (The HP FC hub does not have modules to swap out, so if they fail, I guess you are out of luck.)
Have you tried swapping any of the optics out? There is a chance that the "new" replacements are bad as well. You might try to exchange them into working ports to see if the errors follow the hardware.

Also, the bad characters are thrown out at the FC adapter, so you won't see data errors. You will see I/O retries in the form of slower I/O.

Re: fcms Error

Michael Tully — Tue, 17 Jul 2001 22:50:43 GMT

Hi Uday,

What is plugged into the other end?
Straight into a switch or SAN? Try
changing the port with another F/C
card and see if the problem remains or
goes to the other card.

Michael

Re: fcms Error

Uday_S_Ankolekar — Wed, 18 Jul 2001 15:24:26 GMT

Hi,

It could be a hardware problem. I tried swaping all the components related to this device but not getting any success.

The Fiber runs directly between Server and FC1010.
Infact when we changed the fiber card Server started behaving iratically. Server was not ready to come up and then it was unable to recoginize some of the disks and so on.
Any documentation or case studies would be a great help

Re: fcms Error

G.Kumar — Wed, 18 Jul 2001 15:46:47 GMT

Hi

I have faced one problem like this.NOt exaclty same.One of my fibre card gave some hardware problems.But ultimately it was the PCI slot which was faulty.HP person has replaced that module .It started working.

Good luck