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Re: Strange - ML370 G5 Comm Ports keeps blowing?

 
Steve Salmon
New Member

Strange - ML370 G5 Comm Ports keeps blowing?

Hi there.

I have a customer who recently bought a ML370 G5 from us. The server was bought to replace an old server which monitored weights over several large production lines via something called a TIWAY unilink host adapter (it's some kind of protocol converter) which was connected via comm1. This server (the old one) ran perfectly for nine years without any issues. I'm not sure of the model number but it was a Compaq product, maybe a ML370 G1.

After we installed the new server comm1 blew/failed after 2 hours of being connected to this TIWAY host adapter (very bad news - massive production line was brought down). We moved the adapter to comm2 and it ran fine for 2 weeks whilst we waited for the replacement motherboard to arrive.

Yesterday I replaced the motherboard on the Server (Still under warranty) and the adapter was moved back to comm1. Lo and behold.. exactly 4 hours later... comm1 failed. :(

The TIWAY adapter has been moved back to comm2 and is running ok again.

Now this is not very satifactory as this only leaves them with one comm port working and if this was to fail also.. well disaster would strike.

I am assuming that yes the TIWAY may well be causing comm1 to blow, but why does comm2 seem to be able to handle it? This Adapter ran fine on an old Compaq server for years without any issues.

Has anyone else has any issues with the comm ports on these servers? I know that comm ports are rarely used these days but this piece of equipment is vital to the day to day operation of a large production plant.

Any advice or pointers on what to do would be greatly appreciated as this is a serious situation.

Thanks
Steve

2 REPLIES 2
Mike Bollman_1
Respected Contributor

Re: Strange - ML370 G5 Comm Ports keeps blowing?

Steve,
We had a similar problem on a DL385 G1 last year. We have an application that communicates via the serial port to a modem bank for remote device polling. We were going through motherboards every 24 hours. The intial response from HP was to just keep sending out new boards for this server. We finally got it escalated and they sent out a real field engineer to capture some data and figure out what in the world was going on with it.

In the end it was determined that it was an interaction issue with the ILO. Specifically the default setting for "serial Command Line Interface Status" is set to "Enabled - Authentication Required" This was causing the serial port to "fail" even though it was not. We changed that setting to disabled and it has been working like a champ ever since.

You can find this setting if you login into the ILO interface, go to the administration tab, then global settings. It is the 4th item from the bottom.

Good luck and let me know if this fixes it for you...i'm curious if others are seeing the same thing we did.

Mike B.
Diego Castelli
Trusted Contributor

Re: Strange - ML370 G5 Comm Ports keeps blowing?

Hi Steve,
i had a similar problem on a DL380 g3.
I have a com attached to our phone central.
With a Microsoft Update i had a mouse driver installed on com1. That result in a strange thing... Mouse was moving on screen randomly...

I don't think the TIWAY has special drivers so check that there is no virtual or physical device that uses com1. In this case, remove the driver, if applicable.
and then (i know that's hard to believe) reboot.

Hope this helps.

Diego.
Diego C.

MS MCSA Server 2003

HP Accredited Integration Specialist