topic /etc/messages entries: ipmi_si(SI_CHECK_BMC) in Operating System - Linux

/etc/messages entries: ipmi_si(SI_CHECK_BMC)

Ralf Seefeldt — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:53:57 GMT

Hi all,

I have a RedHat LINUX Server HP ProLiant DL380 G5. The kernel is 2.6.18-53.el5.
Installed are - besides others -

hpasm-8.0.0-173.rhel5.src.rpm and
hp-OpenIPMI-8.0.0-113.rhel5.src.rpm.

I get the following messages entry one to two times a week:
kernel: ipmi_si(SI_CHECK_BMC): Failed to get Global Enables 0xc6.
This ocures normaly at weekends or at night / at evening, when the server is not so busy.
As far as I know, there are no problems with the stability of this server.
hplog does not list any entries after 2010
I found some info according this message, but all relates to IMPI and hpasm versions between 7.90 and 7.92.

How can I figure out, what the reason for those messages are? Is there a known bug or do I have to expect a real problem on the server?

As I am not as fit in LINUX as in HP-UX, any suggestions are welcome.

Bye
Ralf

Re: /etc/messages entries: ipmi_si(SI_CHECK_BMC)

Ralf Seefeldt — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:09:04 GMT

ipmi is switched of in chkconfig:
ipmi 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

Re: /etc/messages entries: ipmi_si(SI_CHECK_BMC)

Matti_Kurkela — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 19:53:38 GMT

You've probably seen this HP Customer Advisory, then:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01330219

But this newer document seems to imply that the problem is known to exist to at leastHP management agent version 8.10 and possibly beyond:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01833268

In both cases, the workaround seems to be to remove the hp-OpenIPMI driver and use the RHEL native OpenIPMI instead. If you do this, you probably should use the most up-to-date version of the RHEL OpenIPMI RPM you can.

(From the kernel version number, I can see that you're woefully out of date regarding RedHat updates. I suppose there is a good reason for that...)

The Customer Advisory seems to indicate that this error message is related to iLO2 and/or miscommunication between it and the OpenIPMI driver. That communication path probably includes the IPMI hardware subsystem and possibly server BIOS firmware. So checking your iLO2 and BIOS firmware levels probably would not hurt either: read the release notes of the firmware updates to see if any of the firmware versions between your current firmware and the latest one contain any fixes that would seem important.

Re: /etc/messages entries: ipmi_si(SI_CHECK_BMC)

Ralf Seefeldt — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:48:10 GMT

Hi Matti,
Thank you for your reply. Now, this issue is solved for me.
Yes, I have a (good?) reason for the outdated patchlevel. I basically drills down to the fact, thatour rule is not to touche productive systems. ...