BL 25 Smart Array Accelerator Battery issues

[Greg Bates]

We recently rolled out over 200 new BL25s and have noticed an issue with the Smart Array Accelerator batteries. We have had at least 15 failures or low battery warnings in these servers. We are running on firmware version 2.58. In one case I upgraded the FW to see if it would clear the issue, but it did not.

I am not able to upgrade the FW on every server unless I have a really good reason. Has anyone else come across a similar issue were it might be a problem that a firmware upgrade might fix?

Sometimes the alert, via SIM BTW, will disappear after a reboot and not surface again until the server is rebooted again.

Let me know if you have had a similar issue, I have 2 servers with this alert right now and am getting sick of calling them into HP.

Thanks.

[Scott A. Fog]

FW 2.68 (current version) fixed this problem for me.

If you find that it fixes the problem you should use HP SIM to upgrade the blades, it's much easier. If you don't have SIM running with that many blades you should. Managing from SIM makes many tasks easier, like flashing 200 servers at once. ;^)

[Greg Bates]

I have opened a case with HP. This issue was supposed to be fixed with FW 2.58.

If anyone else has had some issues, let me know. I'd like to have more info when working on this. Thanks.

[Oleg Koroz]

Apply latest firmware 2.68, restart server, and access ACU after restart, access 2nd time in 24 hours for status.

Batteries by design take 72 hours for full charge, where warning should stop once it reach 75%. Unless server new and less than 40 - 55 hours in production with BBWC installed, you should not experience problem with 2.58 as it seen with 2.32.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/revision/8924.html

[Terry Hutchings]

The firmware upgrade is designed to fix a problem with the controller overcharging, undercharging, or deep discharging the battery.
All of these things would cause premature battery failures.

I would say if you rebooted the server and after another 24 hours the problem continues, then it's likely you have a real failure of the battery.