Solaris ipmitool may show incorrect sensor values as lnc

Asset ID:	1-72-1376980.1
Update Date:	2011-11-30
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1376980.1 : Solaris ipmitool may show incorrect sensor values as lnc

Applies to:

Sun Netra X4270 Server - Version: Not Applicable and later [Release: N/A and later ]
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

In this scenario, the customer uses ipmitool 1.8.8 (Solaris10 10/09's bundled version) to get sensor information from the ILOM service processor. However some of the items listed are not displayed with a value or are incorrectly displaying "unspecified":

------------------------------------------------

MB/R0/P | 28h | lcr | 7.0 | 0 unspecified
MB/R1/P | 29h | lcr | 7.1 | 0 unspecified
MB/R2/P | 2Ah | lcr | 7.2 | 0 unspecified

------<snip>---------------
MB/R0/PCIE0/P | 2Bh | lnc | 7.0 | 0 unspecified
MB/R1/PCIE1/P | 2Ch | lnc | 7.1 | 0 unspecified
MB/R2/PCIE2/P | 2Dh | lcr | 7.2 | 0 unspecified

------<snip>---------------
PCI_MEZZ/PCIE3/P | 2Eh | lcr | 7.3 | 0 unspecified
PCI_MEZZ/PCIE4/P | 2Fh | lnc | 7.4 | 0 unspecified
PCI_MEZZ/PCIE5/P | 30h | lnc | 7.5 | 0 unspecified

------<snip>---------------
/PDB/+5V0_POK | F5h | lcr | 13.0 | 0 unspecified
ALARM_INPUT0 | F3h | lnc | 7.0 | 0 unspecified
ALARM_INPUT1 | F4h | lnc | 7.0 | 0 unspecified
PS0/VINOK | 65h | lcr | 10.0 | 0 unspecified
PS0/PWROK | 66h | lcr | 10.0 | 0 unspecified
PS0/CUR_FAULT | 67h | lnc | 10.0 | 0 unspecified
PS0/VOLT_FAULT| 68h | lnc | 10.0 | 0 unspecified
PS0/FAN_FAULT | 69h | lnc | 10.0 | 0 unspecified
PS0/TEMP_FAULT| 6Ah | lnc | 10.0 | 0 unspecified
PS1/CUR_FAULT | 76h | lnc | 10.1 | 0 unspecified
PS1/VOLT_FAULT| 77h | lnc | 10.1 | 0 unspecified
PS1/FAN_FAULT | 78h | lnc | 10.1 | 0 unspecified
PS1/TEMP_FAULT| 79h | lnc | 10.1 | 0 unspecified

------------------------------------------------

The customer confirmed the status on ILOM service processor was correct and normal.

Cause

Possible causes include:
a) Ipmitool (lower version). Lower or non compatible version of ipmitool may yield inconsistent results.
b) Hardware or a firmware issue. Any hardware defect or low firmware version also could place the sensors in an unspecified state.

Solution

Collect the ILOM snapshot and the ipmitool output form the O/S and compare the results.
This would help to conclude if there is a hardware issue. The ILOM has a built in ipmitool and the results can be compared with the O/S IPMI logs.
If ILOM snapshot shows normal results then;
The action plan is to update ILOM /BIOS firmware to the latest version available and use the latest ipmitool.
Latest version as of writing this document is - Netra X4270 SW Version: 1.1 Released on: June, 2011.
BIOS 14.01.02.10 and ILOM version 3.0.14.11 r64052. Patch 12871136.

The current ipmitool available IPMITool:- 1.8.10.3 Oracle Solaris 10 1.8.10.3 Generic Platform (American English) General IPMItool 16 Dec 2009 887.7 KB. Patch 10319928. Both the above patches can be downloaded form the Patches and Updates page form MOS site.
In this case ILOM snapshot showed the values correctly and no hardware faults were found. Advised customer to carry out the following:

a) Reset the ILOM ( -> reset /SP)
b) Reboot the O/S if possible and recheck the ipmitool results.
c) If the issue persists, update to the latest ipmitool version and firmware.

The issue was tested in lab and was resolved by above action plan (ipmitool version too old to understand modern platform sensors)

Attachments

This solution has no attachment