Field Notice: FN - 63542 - PCIe Cards Installed in UCS C220 and C240 M3 May Overheat when System is Idle - BIOS/Firmware Upgrade Recommended

Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
1.0	26-Mar-13	Initial Release
10.0	13-Oct-17	Migration to new field notice system
10.1	21-May-18	Fixed Broken Image Links

Products Affected

Affected Product ID	Comments
UCS-EZ-C220-2650	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-EZ-C220-2680	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-EZ-C220P	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-EZ-CONV-C220E	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-EZ-CONV-C220V	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-EZ-MSSHP-C220	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP4-C220M3V	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP4-C240M3V	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP5-C220E	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP5-C220V	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP5-MGD-C220V	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP6-C220E	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP6-C220P	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCS-SP6-C220V	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-10PK-C220M3L	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-10PK-C220M3S	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-C220-M3L
UCSC-C220-M3L-CH
UCSC-C220-M3L=
UCSC-C220-M3S
UCSC-C220-M3S-CH
UCSC-C220-M3S=
UCSC-C240-M3L
UCSC-C240-M3L=
UCSC-C240-M3S
UCSC-C240-M3S2
UCSC-C240-M3S2-CH
UCSC-C240-M3S2=
UCSC-C240-M3S=
UCSC-DBUN-C220-107	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-108	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-109	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-110	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-111	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-113	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-114	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-115	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-116	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-351	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-352	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C220-353	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C240-111	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C240-112	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C240-113	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C240-114	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C240-331	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-DBUN-C240-332	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-EZ-C240-108	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-EZ-C240-109	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-EZ-C240-110	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis
UCSC-M3L-C240-CH
UCSC-M3S-C240-CH
UCUCS-EZ-C220M3S	Bundle Product ID which contains affected chassis

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCue68150	Increase SL1 fan duty cycle to address LSI card overheating
CSCub12154	C240: LSI Chip temperature very high when system is idle.

Problem Description

PCIe cards installed in UCS C220 M3 and UCS C240 M3 systems may overheat when the system is idle. The issue has been observed only with LSI 9266 RAID Controllers installed in a UCS C220 M3 or C240 M3 chassis. This issue is caused by a cooling fan algorithm which reduces fan speed below the minimum required when the system is idle.

Background

When the system is idle, fan speed is reduced in order to lower power consumption. Some PCIe cards such as LSI 9266 draw high power even when idle, and therefore produce more heat than can be cooled at the idle fan speed setting. The software fix changes the idle fan speed setting to compensate for heat from higher powered PCIe cards.

Problem Symptom

At the time of this Field Notice publication, symptoms noted for the issue have been observed only with the combination of UCS C220 or C240 M3 chassis with LSI 9266 RAID Controller. The following indications have been observed:

1. The server may hang after several hours without any activity or during a reboot.
2. The /var/log/messages directory will have multiple entries similar to the following:

   kernel: scsi: killing requests for dead queue kernel: scsi: killing requests for dead queue

3. When running the MegaCLI command with the parameters noted below, output of it will have high chip temperatures as in this example:

   ./MegaCli64 -FwTermLog -Dsply -a0 | tail
   
   07/18/12 20:51:41: Max Temp is 151 Deg C on Channel 2l 4 is 150
   
   07/18/12 20:51:41: Measured chip temperature at Channel 0 is 146
   
   07/18/12 20:51:41: Measured chip temperature at Channel 1 is 149
   
   07/18/12 20:51:41: Measured chip temperature at Channel 2 is 151
   
   07/18/12 20:51:41: Measured chip temperature at Channel 3 is 146
   
   07/18/12 20:51:41: Measured chip temperature at Channel 4 is 151
   
   07/18/12 20:51:46: Max Temp is 151 Deg C on Channel 2

Workaround/Solution

The solution for this issue is to update the active CIMC and BIOS software to these levels:

For UCS C220 M3 servers (stand-alone or UCSM-managed):

CIMC Firmware 1.4(7g) (BIOS 1.4.7c.0) or higher

or

CIMC Firmware 1.5(1b) (BIOS 1.5.1c.0) or higher

 

For UCS C240 M3 servers (stand-alone or UCSM-managed):

CIMC Firmware 1.4(5h) (BIOS 1.4.5e.0) or higher

or

CIMC Firmware 1.5(1b) (BIOS 1.5.1c.0) or higher

 

It is recommended to update CIMC and BIOS along with other system components using the Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) in order to assure all levels are compatible with each other.

Process for Upgrading Firmware Using Host Upgrade Utility (HUU)

1. Download the latest HUU from Cisco.com at this URL:

   http://software.cisco.com/download/navigator.html?mdfid=283612685&flowid=31743

2. Follow procedure per instructions in the HUU Quick Start Guide.

   http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/sw/lomug/1.4.x/install/b_HUUUG_1_4.html

How To Identify Affected Products

1. Configure CIMC with IP address
2. From a browser connect to CIMC
3. Login as "admin" and password "password"
4. The BIOS and firmware versions are displayed on the server summary page.

Example:

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email
• By telephone

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