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Sun Fire[tm] 4800/4810 Server: Field Information Notices

The following list does not include related external storage FINs, unless they are specific to the system.
 
Implementation (Impl.): 
M = Mandatory (Fully Pro-Active)
C = Controlled Pro-Active (per Sun Geo Plan)
R = Reactive (As Required)

FIN
Impl.
Components Affected Description
I0909-1
M
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
Product Engineering strongly recommends that minimum levels of firmware and kernel patches be applied to Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 platforms. This FIN will describe the minimum levels of support and will request proactive system upgrades to attain those levels. These upgrades will increase system performance through reduced downtime and improve identification of hardware or software faults through improved diagnostic capabilities.
I0891-1
C
Sun Fire 3800 System Controller (501-5563-12 or lower)
Sun Fire 4800/4810/6800 System Controller (501-5407-13 or lower)
Sun Fire System Controllers with 5.11.x firmware could experience a loss of network settings during a firmware upgrade.
I0890-1
C
Sun Fire 3800 System Controller (501-5563-12 or lower)
Sun Fire 4800/4810/6800 System Controller (501-5407-13)
Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 domains can hang when System Controller firmware is downgraded from 5.13.0, 5.13.1, or 5.13.2 to 5.12.7 or lower.
I0887-1
R
ASSY CPU-4PROC USIIIP 900+ MHz (540-5052-02 or lower)
ASSY CPU-2PROC USIII 750MHz (540-4729-04 or lower)
ASSY CPU-4PROC USIII 750MHz (540-4730-04 or lower)
ASSY CPU-2PROC USIIIP 900+ MHz (540-5051-02 or lower)
ASSY CPU DUAL 750MHz AL A30 (501-5818-06 or lower)
ASSY CPU-4GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4934-03 or lower)
ASSY CPU-8GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4992-02 or lower)
ASSY CPU-16GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4990-03 or lower)
ASSY CPU-32GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4993-02 or )
ASSY CPU-2GB/2PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4984-02 or lower)
Guidelines for understanding and diagnosing UltraSPARC III Level 2 (L2) SRAM Cache Memory Errors.
I0880-1
R
ASSY CPU 4PROC USIIIP 900MHZ (540-5052-03 or lower)
ASSY CPU 2PROC USIIIP 900+MHZ (540-5051-04 or lower)
ASSY CPU 4PROC USIIIP 1050MHZ (540-5267-01)
Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 with 5.13.3 firmware gives warning message when USIII+ processors are installed on System Boards with Late_Write Ecache DIMMs.
I0859-1
C
ASSY SF CPU/MEM W/2 U3PL-900 0MB (540-5051-03)
ASSY SF CPU/MEM W/4 U3PL-900 0MB (540-5052-03)
ASSY SF CPU/MEM W/4 U3PL-1050 0MB (540-5267-02)
ASSY, CPU-16GB/4PROC USIII 1050 (540-5268-02)
ASSY, CPU-32GB/4PROC USIII 1050 (540-5269-02)
ASSY, CPU-16GB/4PROC USIII 900+ (540-4990-04)
ASSY, CPU-8GB/4PROC USIII 900+ (540-4992-03)
ASSY, CPU-32GB/4PROC USIII 900+ (540-4993-03)
ASSY, CPU-4GB/2PROC USIII 900+ (540-5094-03)
ASSY, CPU-8GB/2PROC USIII 900+ (540-5095-03)
ASSY, CPU-2GB/2PROC USIII 900+ (540-4984-03)
ASSY, CPU-4GB/4PROC USIII 900+ (540-4934-04)
ASSY, CPU-16GB/4PROC USIII 900+ (540-5089-03)
Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 firmware versions 5.11.x and 5.12.x are not compatible with the latest released version of Cheetah processors. The Cheetah 2.3 CPU (900MHz and 1050MHz), as wel as all future CPU releases, will not be recognized when installed into Sun Fire systems with these two earlier versions of firmware. Because of this, customers and field support may need to proactively upgrade Sun Fire system firmware to versions 5.13.2 or above.
I0856-1
C
ASSY CPU-4PROC USIIIP 900+ MHz (540-5052-02 or below)
ASSY CPU-2PROC USIII 750MHz (540-4729-04 or below)
ASSY CPU-4PROC USIII 750MHz (540-4730-04 or below)
ASSY CPU-2PROC USIIIP 900+ MHz (540-5051-02 or below)
ASSY CPU DUAL 750MHz AL A30 (501-5818-06 or below)
ASSY CPU-4GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4934-03 or below)
ASSY CPU-8GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4992-02 or below)
ASSY CPU-16GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4990-03 or below)
ASSY CPU-32GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4993-02 or below)
ASSY CPU-2GB/2PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4984-02 or below)
UltraSPARC III based platforms could be susceptible to Correctable Fast ECC (UCC) errors that could cause a system panic resulting in loss of service of the system. Any UltraSPARC III based server running Solaris 8 without PatchId 108528-15 can be affected. Systems running Solaris 9 are not affected, and pre-Solaris 8 is not supported on these platforms. This issue has typically been seen on 900MHz UltraSPARC III based processors, although other UltraSPARC III based processors have been impacted as well.
I0855-1
R
ASSY CPU-4PROC USIIIP 900+ MHz (540-5052-02)
ASSY CPU-2PROC USIII 750MHz (540-4729-04)
ASSY CPU-4PROC USIII 750MHz (540-4730-04)
ASSY CPU-2PROC USIIIP 900+ MHz (540-5051-02)
ASSY CPU-4GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4934-03)
ASSY CPU-8GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4992-02)
ASSY CPU-16GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4990-03)
ASSY CPU-32GB/4PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4993-02)
ASSY CPU-2GB/2PROC USIII 900+ MHz (540-4984-02)
Sun Fire CPU/Memory Boards are being damaged when components are knocked off due to improper handling. Surface Mounted Devices on the bottom of these system boards are susceptible to being knocked off by rough handling. This damage may cause the boards to fail immediately or make them subject to failure at a later time.
I0850-1
C
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
New firmware, revision 5.13.x, for Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 systems provides full System Controller (SC) failover functionality, as well as fixing various outstanding bugs. It is important to note that there are certain configuration procedures which must be followed when installing or upgrading to this firmware version on a Sun Fire system. Failure to follow these procedures may cause loss of availbility for Sun Fire domains. This issue affects any Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 system where the firmware is being upgraded to version 5.13.x or where replacement FRUs with conflicting revisions of firmware are being installed.
I0841-1
C
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
Sun Fire (3800/4800/4810/6800) Servers with very large storage configurations or large driver .conf files may encounter panics or hangs during bootup.
I0840-1
C
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
Sun Fire Servers (3800/4800/4810/6800) may encounter panic during Dynamic Reconfiguration (DR) operation of PCI and cPCI I/O boards.
I0815-1
R
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
A number of significant firmware upgrades have become available on the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 product line. This FIN is to document recommended levels of the firmware and identify compatibility between the Solaris OS releases and the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 firmware releases.
I0796-1
C
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
In the rare event that a Sun Fire System Controller board detects data parity errors, the domain may be paused to prevent corrupted data from being written to permanent storage. This is unnecessary in the case of single bit data corruption as the corruption can be corrected without pausing the domain.
I0765-1
R
UltraSPARC III family processors (see FIN for list of part numbers affected) Issues with the diagnosing of "send mondo" panics in systems based on the UltraSPARC III family of processors have been noticed. The UltraSPARC III family of processors includes both the UltraSPARC III and UltraSPARC III Cu processors. The frequency and misdiagnosis of the issue seems to be increasing and in many cases has caused customer dissatisfaction due to parts being replaced unnecessarily and the occurrence of additional outages.
I0762-1
C
SP SC RIO Serengeti (501-5563-12 or lower)
SC RIO Serengeti (501-5407-13 or lower)
Some Sun Fire 3800/4800/4810/6800 systems with redundant System Controllers (SC) may experience failed domains when clock failover does not occur after a clock failure. This occurs when the System Controller has an incorrect clock source selection which causes the clock failover feature to be disabled, leading to a system malfunction. If a clock fails and there is a redundant SC, the domains using the failed clock will not switch over to the redundant clock and will hang. Systems at risk are those with two SC's shipped prior to July 2001, or those where a second SC board has been added from FRU stock shipped prior to July 2001.
I0760-1
R
Memory DIMMs Too many Memory DIMMs are being unnecessarily replaced on UltraSPARC III family of systems utilizing NG-DIMM memory
I0759-1
R
Sun Fire CPU/MEM W/2 U3PL-900 0MB (540-5051-02)
Sun Fire CPU/MEM W/4 U3PL-900 0MB (540-5052-02)
A number of incorrectly programmed 900 MHz CPU/Memory boards have been shipped to Sun customers. The CPU/Memory boards will operate at 750 MHz instead of 900 MHz. When these incorrectly programmed boards are introduced into Sun Fire 15000/6800/4810/4800/3800 systems, the performance of the system will be degraded. The affected systems / domains will run at lower or mixed speed without any panics or disruption to customer operations.
I0757-1
C
Ethernet RIO Interface (eri) driver Sun Servers which utilize the "eri" driver could be susceptible to Ethernet link errors or hangs.
I0756-1
C
Firmware version 5.12.5 (Rev-07)
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
Customers may encounter unexpected behavior of the System Controller due to downrev firmware which shipped with a small number of Sun Fire 3800/48x0/6800 systems. System Controllers may hang when they experience software bugs present in firmware version 5.12.5 (Rev-07). This unreleased firmware version was mistakenly shipped on a very small number of Sun Fire systems.
I0731-1
C
Sun Fire 3800
Sun Fire 4800
Sun Fire 4810
Sun Fire 6800
Under certain conditions, the 'flashupdate -u' command can create incompatible firmware versions between boards on Sun Fire 3800, 4800, 4810 and 6800 systems. The system will be unusable until the problem is corrected. CPU/Memory boards will not be recognized by the system controller upon reboot. No system components are damaged and the system can be restored to operation once all the system components are updated with a common firmware version.
I0724-2
R
18 GB and 36 GB IBM disk drives Failure analysis results have highlighted a significant failure rate for Drive Not Ready (DNR) on returned IBM 18GB & 36GB disk drives. These failures have been observed to occur as a result of the disk drives either been stored or operated in an extremely hot and humid environments.
I0722-1
R
PGX32 CARD (X3668A)
SunBlade 1000 System Board (501-4143-15 or lower)
SunBlade 1000/Sun Fire 280R System Board (501-5938-07 or lower)
Sun Fire 3800 cPCI I/O ASSY (540-4591-01)
Sun Fire 4800/4810/6800 PCI I/O ASSY (540-4616-01)
Sun Fire 4800/4810/6800 cPCI I/O ASSY (540-4617-03)

If the Emulex FC HBA card is placed on the same PCI Bus with any other PCI card which causes the Schizo chip to attempt a 64-bit PIO, a system panic would most likely result. The problem will not occur if the Emulex HBA card is installed alone on a PCI Bus. UltraSparc-III platforms utilizing the Schizo 2.1 or 2.2 ASIC may experience panics due to address parity errors on the PCI Bus. The problem has been seen on the Sun Fire 280R with the Emulex FC HBA card in combination with a PGX32 card installed on the same PCI Bus. This condition occurs when a card on the PCI Bus detects a 64-bit parity address error on the PCI Bus while another card on the same PCI Bus is performing a 64-bit PIO. The following error messages are displayed prior to a system panic:

WARNING: pcisch-0: PCI fault log start:
PCI SERR
PCI error ocurred on device #6
dwordmask=0 bytemask=0 PCI primary error (0):
pcisch-0: PCI secondary error (0):
pcisch-0: PBM AFAR 0.00000000:
pcisch-0: PCI config space error status (4280):
signalled system error. pcisch-0:
PCI fault log end.
panic[cpu1]/thread=2a10000bd40: pcisch-0: PCI bus 2 error(s)!

I0720-1
R
RU, EMI Clip, 423/11R, SF (240-3920-03) Loose EMI spring fingers on Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800 chassis may damage the CPU/Memory board FRUs.
I0708-1
R
cPCI Dual FC Network Adapter ( 375-0118-02)
FRU cPCI Dual FC Network Adapter (F375-0118-02)
Sun Fire x800 systems are subject to a "panic" problem at boot time when a cPCI Dual FC Network Adapter (FRU or X-option) is installed for the first time. If a customer installs this board and boots the system, they will see panic messages on the console and the boot will fail. However, any subsequent reboots will be successful. This may result in an unnecessary service call. This cPCI board (P/N 370-0118-02) has been shipped with Sun Fire X800 systems and as an X-option. The current estimate is that less than 1000 boards have been installed in systems and 1200 boards are in field stock (FRUs and x-options) as of 7/12/01.
I0654-1
R
FRUs A number of Serengeti FRU's were shipped to the Field marked as other than Rev-50, but they are equivalent to Rev-50.

 

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