topic Powerproblems Blade cClass in BladeSystem - General

Powerproblems Blade cClass

marcoba — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:17:34 GMT

Since last friday we are having problems with two of 8 Cclass enclosures. We noticed the problem because we could't start an ESX-blade. We were unable to start due to lack of power.

OA show power shows:
OAS3L> show power
Power Mode: Redundant
Dynamic Power: Enabled
Set Power Limit: Not Set

Power Capacity: 20670 Watts DC
Power Available: 0 Watts DC
Power Allocated: 20670 Watts DC
Present Power: 2805 Watts AC
Power Limit: 25135 Watts AC

Strange we have the maxumium allocated and we are only using 2800 watts.

In the maillog we see this 'error':

EVENT (04 Jan 15:22): Power Subsystem is Redundant (N+N) - Failed.
Enclosure, "S3", has detected a change in the power subsystem redundancy from Redundant (N+N) - OK to Redundant (N+N) - Failed.

This is not true as we can see all powersupplies online and ok status

We are running the lates OA's and server firmware versions.

We tried to switch powermode, exchaning powersupplies, enable standby OA, but all with no results.

Anyone an idea on what to do?

Re: Powerproblems Blade cClass

Cederberg — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:05:16 GMT

Have you tried another c-class blade in that slot where the server is not started.. just to rule out server failure..

Re: Powerproblems Blade cClass

marcoba — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:37:02 GMT

It seems to be a server FW issue. Two of the 16 blades show 8500watts power consumption. These servers are Xeon Quad Cores with somewhat older FW (25-6-08). The OA (2.32) and ILO (1.70) FW are up to date.

We think the older server FW is causing the problems.

Re: Powerproblems Blade cClass

Cederberg — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:03:34 GMT

Yes i would say it's the bios. With OA FW 2.32 and ILO2 1.70 HP introduced a new way to limit the power and therefore the BIOS needs an update to support that new feature.

Re: Powerproblems Blade cClass

marcoba — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:11:23 GMT

Just tested it!

The new server-FW solved this problem.