BL460c powering off

[David Heiert]

In the last couple of months, we have a blade that just powers off for no reason. It is a 460c G5 in a c7000 chassis running Windows 2003 X64. The log on the chassis just shows power removed and Windows reports unexpected shutdown.
"iLO 2 06/05/2010 11:18 06/05/2010 11:18 1 Server power removed. "

Oddly enough, the virtual button for power on fails and this shows in the syslog:
"Jun 5 13:01:51 OA: Blade 4 has been allocated 323 watts but iLO is reporting the blade is powered off."

Other info: all other blades in this chassis do not have this problem and are all G1 running I15 ROM. This one is G5 running I23 ROM which is the only difference I could find.

[Gerardo Arceri]

You might need to have the server/enclosure serviced by HP.
Before that i suggest you upgrade the Enclosure OA Firmware along with the server Firmware. If that doesn't solve the problem then go ahead and get a case opened to get it serviced.
For details on Server Firmware upgrades please check:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00264524/c00264524.pdf

[David Heiert]

Definitely not what I wanted to hear. It looks to me like we are up to date on both chassis and server FW.

[Torsten.]

>> It looks to me like we are up to date on both chassis and server FW.


Only you know what is currently installed (OA, iLO, etc.).


Based on my own experience there are more firmware related problems than real hardware ... but sometimes it is a real hardware problem.

[David Heiert]

I had thought about going back to ROM I15 since none of the other machines have this problem. Is that worth a try or not?

[Torsten.]

I'm sure you cannot use the G1 BIOS on the G5 server.

[David Heiert]

OK, then back one level.

[Torsten.]

But OA is at 3.00 and iLO at 1.82?

[David Heiert]

OA is at 2.52. ILO is 1.79 for all machines.
We paid a the contractor who set up the system originally to come in and update the entire chassis to the latest stable version and this was it per them.

[Torsten.]

It's a bit hard to get all the fixes in different versions, because each version list only the changes made compare to the previous version.

However, I would consider to update them all.

[David Heiert]

I would love to but bringing the whole chassis down to do it is like pulling teeth. Bringing it down for this kind of operation is not likely to happen soon.

[Torsten.]

You can update the OA online.
Same for iLO firmware.

[kris rombauts]

David,

did you checked if your blade falls into this known issue ?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c02063665&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

The OA log example given seems a perfect match with yours.

HTH

Kris

[David Heiert]

That's it exactly. Except that my ILO version is 1.79.
How can I check the system board rev? Reboot I assume.

[Torsten.]

Maybe from SMH or server diagnostics? Not sure.

[kris rombauts]

David,

first of all, your iLO F/W will need to be upgraded to V1.81 to rule out any other issue (as the checklist indicates in the advisory :
OA 2.60 or later
ILO 1.81 or later
PMC 0.5 or 3.4 (D) or later
BIOS 2009.07.10 or later.

To check the PMC version, open a telnet connection to the OA and run the OA CLI commmand :

'show server info X' (X = blade bay number)

That lists the PMC version at the end, the OA GUI does not show it.



The sysboard rev. is only visible on the smallest of the 3 white stickers (bottom right corner) which are on top of the power connectors (so the blade needs to be physically removed).

If you have a revision < = V. A03 then you should place a service call with HP support.
I am not aware of another method to get the rev.


HTH

Kris

[David Mumper]

Just a minor addendum for Kris's comment.

If you've updated your firmware as mentioned above, the PMC version is displayed in the "Rack Firmware" page of the OA. I don't remember if it changed as far back as 2.52, but definitely both OA firmware 2.60 and 3.00 include the PMC firmware information from blades with at least iLO firmware 1.77. (The display from OA version 3.00 is more cluttered, but that's just my opinion. :-))

I am currently also experiencing this problem with a series of BL465 G1's. I'm still researching what I can do about it, but at the very least it would be nice if we could get any further diagnostic information on why the OA is reporting that the blade is being powered off. What component is initiating the power off requeset? Why is nothing logging a reason the power off request was initiated? Or are they simply logged someplace we haven't looked yet?

[David Heiert]

I have not done anything at this point. I have to arrange some kind of window to deal with it since it is a production box.
I do have another G1 blade that I may try to put in it's place.

As for updating firmware, etc. I am not sure what the point is. HP already says when you reach this level and have this problem, the system board is bad. Nothing in the article leads me to believe that if I come up to that rev (which I am not) that the issue will be resolved.