BMC Firmware Update causes 1950 to brick

[Karl Katzke]

OK, turns out it was the "BMC Core Update", which is marked urgent for all of our 1950 gen 3's service tags under Embedded Server Management on the drivers and downloads page. Dell has acknowledged the problem, will be removing the update from the server's list of updates, and will be replacing our affected motherboards. 

If you're running Linux and you applied this update, and you're having problems with uptime and it seems to be an APIC issue, you need a new motherboard from Dell. OpenSuSE 10.3 won't even boot, and CentOS 5.1 will kernel panic. 

-K 

----
Karl Katzke
Systems Analyst II
TAMU - RGS


>>> "Karl Katzke" <kkatzke at tamu.edu> 5/22/2008 2:21 PM >>>
Just wanted to let everyone know to beware of the new BMC firmware updates for P/E 1950 III's. We upgraded our BMC to 2.05 using the BMC Firmware patch released on 4/16 and the BMC Core "urgent" update released 9/27/06. (The previous firmware version was 1.97 from the factory. 

The two machines we've installed these two updates on have an error message / amber light and a hard lock up when attempting to communicate with ACPI devices on the motherboard... but not always the same device. The error code is 1422 CPU MACHINE CHK. Other machines that the updates have not been installed on are the usual rock-solid nature of Dell hardware. 

OpenSuSE 10.3 will not boot at all. The Dell OMSA 5.4 LiveCD will sometimes boot and sometimes kernel panic during boot ... regardless, the LiveCD will eventually error out, but it may be hours later. Dell Diagnostic CD does not show anything. Techs are confused, fingers are being pointed, phone lines are being burnt, bosses are scowling, computer parts are smoking, etc.etc. In the meantime, these machines are exceptionally expensive dual-processor doorstops.

We're currently working through exactly what happens to what and when (The Dell tech is actually here --right now--), but until we do, y'all might not want to install those updates if you don't need to for fixin' somethin' else.

Karl 

----
Karl Katzke
Systems Analyst II
TAMU - RGS



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