Sun Microsystems, Inc.
spacer spacer
spacer   Sun System Handbook Home | Systems | Components | General Info | Search | Feedback 
spacer
black dot
 
black fade
 

Sun Enterprise[tm] 3500 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
I0821-1
R
SBus Dual FC Host Adapter (375-3048-01) Customers using SBus Dual FC Adapter (X6757A) at Rev. 50 may notice slow performance on sequential write operations.
I0816-1
C
Seagate 36GB disk (540-4525-01), Seagate 73GB disk (540-4905-01) Seagate ST336605FC 36GB and ST373405FC 73G drives could be susceptible to label corruption.
I0800-1
R
I/O Boards Ultra Enterprise Exx00 I/O Boards can fail with FEPS error during POST if installed in a slot where there are damaged spring fingers.
I0790-1
R
VxVM 3.xx Media kit VERITAS VxVM 3.2 and up has new procedure to support multipathed JBOD disks.
I0768-1
R
Sun Cluster 2.X and Dynamic Reconfiguration Sun Cluster 2.X software does not support the hardware DR features of Sun Enterprise Servers.
I0755-1
C
CPU modules Tuning the ecache_scan_rate parameter of the Solaris cache scrubber provides improved Ecache parity error protection on non-mirrored SRAM UltraSPARC II-based systems.
I0723-1
C
Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1401 (390-0025-01) Toshiba DVD-ROM drives (390-0025-01) cannot boot future Solaris releases from DVD media without a firmware patch.
I0719-1
R
Exabyte Mammoth II 8mm tape drives All support calls related to the Exabyte Mammoth II tape drive need to be forwarded to Exabyte. Some customers who have obtained the Mammoth II 8mm tape drive from Exabyte Corporation and have installed it in their Sun environment are calling Sun for support. Sun does not sell or support the Mammoth II Exabyte tape drives.
I0712-1
R
FC-AL GBIC Module 100MB/s (option X6731A, 370-2303) This FIN is to inform the field of a new style GBIC that will be shipping with A5X00 Storage Arrays. Installing a FINISAR GBIC in any platform other than A5X00 will result in a restricted access condition which may result in unanticipated downtime.
I0707-1
R
464MHz CPU Modules Booting from the network can fail with Solaris 2.5.1 and Solaris 2.6 when using 464MHz or faster processors.
I0689-1
R
Torque Tool To torque correctly on a specific Sun Products, refer to the Torque tool matrix for correct Torque Bit Type/Size and Torque Setting.
I0683-1
R
CPU/Memory and I/O Boards New service procedures are available for detached heat sinks on EXX00 CPU and I/O boards. There is now a new recommendation to replace the defective board with a replacement board containing an improved heat sink design.
I0656-1
C
400MHz 8M/4M UltraSPARC II Modules

Patches provide better handling of over temperature limits and danger limit detection for the 400MHz 8M/4M UltraSPARC II modules.

OS Versions Required Patches
Solaris 2.5.1 103640-33 or later
Solaris 2.6 105181-25 or later
Solaris 7 106541-11 or later
Solaris 8 108528-04 or later
I0647-1
R
FC-AL SBus Card (FC100/S 501-3060-06)
FC-AL SBus Card (FC100/S 501-5202-03)
FC-AL SBus Card (FC100/S 501-5266-04)

Fcode upgrade instructions for the FC100/S Host Adapter supplied with the following luxadm patches can lead to obsolete fcode being installed.

  • 105310-14 SunOS 5.5.1: Patch for socal, sf driver, and luxadm
  • 105375-25 SunOS 5.6: sf & socal driver patch
  • 107473-06 SunOS 5.7: luxadm patch
  • 109529-03 SunOS 5.8: luxadm, liba5k and libg_fc patch

The latest fcode for the FC100/S Host Adapter has been moved to patch 109400-03 for all versions of Solaris. This change is not reflected in the README files of the luxadm patches currently available (105310, 105375, 107473 and 109529). These patches still provide a lower version of the FC100/S fcode (1.11) and give instructions for installing it.

I0645-1
C
Seagate ST318203FC
(18.2GB - 10000 RPM
FC-AL 540-4191-01)
Seagate ST318304FC
(18.2GB 10000 RPM
FC-AL 540-4440-01)
Seagate ST336704FC
(36.4GB 10000 RPM
FC-AL 540-4525-01)
Seagate ST136403FC
(36.4GB 10000 RPM
FC-AL 540-4367-01)
Seagate ST318304FC
(18.2GB 10000 RPM
FC-AL 540-4673-01)

Seagate ST318304FC and ST336704FC drives will not boot and will not be recognized by host systems running Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, and early versions of 7 (prior to 11/99) without the correct version of the sf driver patch being installed.

These new generation drives were released as second source 18GB and 36GB FCAL disk drives. These drives are meant to be interchangeable with older generation Seagate drives. The FRU part number for the old and new drives is the same.

FRU Capacity Old Drive New Drive
540-4191-02 18GB ST318203FC ST318304FC
540-4440-01 18GB ST318203FC ST318304FC
540-4673-01 18GB ST318203FC ST318304FC
540-4192-01 36GB ST136403FC ST336704FC
540-4367-01 36GB ST136403FC ST336704FC
I0616-1
C
CPU Module Solaris kernel patches provide improved handling and reduction of CPU, Ecache, and main memory errors in UltraSPARC systems. All customers on Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, 7 and 8 are encouraged to consider upgrading to these kernel patches as they become available.
I0599-1
R
Power/Cooling Module (300-1260/300-1444) Power/Cooling module handling and fault diagnosis N+1 configurations may suffer a Silent Mode Failure. The system will be functioning but may be in a state that leaves it vulnerable to a system crash.
I0588-1
R
Memory When using mixed density memory modules, certain combinations of memory banks result in fatal reset while running POST before a system boot. This problem occurs when using memory modules of 2GB/bank and 1 GB/bank together and memory interleaving is enabled on systems with PROM version 3.2.25 or less.
I0587-1
R
CPU Modules

Systems may suffer down time due to Fatal Reset Error. If the failure message is not understood as E-Cache Tag Parity Error, the solution rendered may not fix the problem resulting in troubleshooting delays and extended downtime.

Any Fatal Reset errors in the UE 3X00 to UE 6X00 servers should be evaluated to determined whether it is because of Ecache Tag error. Do not assume that a Fatal Reset error implies that the system board is defective.

I0586-1
R
I/O Board with SOC+; A3500FC StorEdge Array Clarification of the hardware and software requirement to connect the onboard SOC+ device on I/O boards used with an A3500FC StorEdge Array.
I0579-1
C
Differential Ultra/Wide SCSI, UDWIS/S (370-2443-01/02); Systems with Ultra DWIS/SBus Host Adapter slow to a halt under heavy IO loads and the Console displays "SCSI transport failed" error messages. The failures will cause timeouts on the SCSI bus and drastically slow down the IO operations and eventually hang the system.
I0578-1 R Alternate Pathing Documentation The Sun Enterprise Alternate Pathing (AP) 2.3 AnswerBook package is missing from the AP 2.3 release.
I0570-3
R
CPU Modules The current diagnostic procedure to identify the faulty CPU module from CPU Ecache parity errors is flawed, and it could easily lead to the wrong CPU being replaced. Make sure to follow the appropriate instructions and guidelines to CORRECTLY identify Ecache panic fault diagnosis on multi-cpu systems.
I0569-1
R
Differential Ultra/Wide SCSI, UDWIS/S (370-2443-02) Any system installed with a UDWIS/S (isp-fcode 1.28) has the possibility of displaying "invalid command" messages during POST, "probe-scsi-all" at the ok prompt, booting IF the variable "diag-switch?" is set to "true", or boot -hv from external storage..
I0567-1
R
CPU Modules Cleaning kit available for cleaning silicon oil from CPU module on the system board.
I0559-2
M
CPU and I/O Modules Using Fast Arbitration can cause intermittent fatal resets.
I0552-1
C
Differential Ultra/Wide SCSI, UDWIS/S (370-2443-01); Differential Ultra/Wide SCSI, DWIS/S (370-1704-0X); Single-Ended Fast/Wide SCSI, SWIS/S (370-1703-0X) SCSI devices (especially in a multi-hosted configuration) may go offline after isp errors. The most likely configuration to experience this problem is multi-hosted and shared storage devices connected to differential SCSI cards using the isp driver, or MultiPack/ UniPack connected to single-ended SCSI cards using the isp driver.
I0547-1
C
Differential Ultra/Wide SCSI, UDWIS/S (370-2443-01) Intermittently, SCSI devices connected to a UDWIS card may not be usable after a reboot. This can prevent a system from booting if the UDWIS card connected to the boot device is affected.
I0541-2
R
FC100/P FC-AL PCI Card (375-0040)

Any FC-AL PCI loop where A5X00 Storage Arrays are directly connected to i) a host using PCI FC100/P initiator card without hub, or ii) other host (dual host) with FC-AL initiator-card is connected to the same loop may experience the following errors as described in BugId 4243157.
Sample error messages:

Dec 8 05:18:17 name unix: transport rejected (-2)
Dec 8 05:18:17 name unix:
Dec 8 05:18:17 name unix: WARNING: /pci@4,4000/SUNW,
ifp@4/ssd@w2100002037141659,0 (ssd32)
Dec 8 05:18:17 name unix: transport rejected (-2)
Dec 8 05:18:17 name unix:
Dec 8 05:18:18 name unix: ifp0: LIP occurred
Dec 8 05:18:18 name unix: ifp0: Loop up
Dec 8 05:18:18 name unix: ifp0: Loop reconfigure in progress
Dec 8 05:18:18 name unix: ifp0: Loop reconfigure done
Dec 8 08:17:41 name unix: ifp0: Loop down
Dec 8 08:17:46 name unix: ifp0: LIP reset occurred

UPDATE FOR FIN I0541-2:

The Corrective Action on FIN I0541-1 provides two different options or solutions to the above mentioned problems as follows:

  • OPTION-1: The FC100/P card is the only Initiator on any one loop where Sun A5x00 Storage Array are direct connected.
  • OPTION-2: A Sun FCAL hub is placed between the FC100/P card(s), and the A5X00 Storage Array. In this case, more than one host-adapter on the same loop, may be used.

Due to resistance from the Field over the cost of implementation, OPTION-2 has been removed from the Corrective Action. This option would have required the customer to purchase and connect a hub to the A5x00 Storage Array. The Corrective Action now recommends only OPTION-1 for avoiding this FC100/P card problem. This restriction is advantageous from high-availability/RAS point of view since having each host on a separate loop removes a single point Of failure (SPOF) in Multi Initiator configurations.

I0540-1
R
Sun Cluster 2.2 Upgrade of HA 1.x clusters to Sun Cluster 2.2 may fail if HA-NFS is absent. The upgrade will fail because the /etc/opt/SUNWhadf/nfs/dfstab file does not exist on the machine being upgraded.
I0539-1
R
Alternate Pathing Software Enterprise Server Alternate Pathing 2.2 product is incorrect on the Solaris 8/99 Media Kit. The Solaris 8/99 version is missing several bug fixes and is not patchable via normal patch mechanisms.
I0533-1
R
Seagate ST39102FC (9GB 10000 RPM FC-AL 540-3869) A failure mechanism has been identified as low amplitude head failures due to scratches across the Pole Tip of the head. Pole Tip is the electrical area of the head which detects the magnetic signal from the disk.
The most frequent symptoms are error messages similar to below:
  • Drive not ready and/or drive has excessive G-list adds
I0516-1
R
8mm Tape Drive (370-2183-02, 370-2184-02, 370-2401-02) Firmware upgrade for EOL Mammoth 8mm tape drive.
I0469-1
R
FDDI 5.0 SAS/DAS Assemblies Sun FDDI SBus Adapter 5.0 SAS/DAS mounting screws may not fit the EMI plate due to excessive plating.
I0426-1
R

EXX00 Disk Cards

EXX00 disk card status LEDs changed to "OFF-ON-OFF" on boot up with Solaris 2.6 HW 5/98 or above. Prior to Solaris 2.6 HW 5/98, the EXX00 disk card status LEDs were set to "ON-OFF-ON."

I0421-1
R
Seagate ST19171FC 9GB Disk Recovering from a root filesystem disk failure or corruption on an internal FCAL boot disk in an E3500 Server or a FCAL boot disk in a A5000 which is not mirrored with SEVM or SDS.

Note: This FIN was written before there was an official fix for this; also refer to SRDB 17463 if this problem is experienced.
I0412-1
R
SunATM-155/MFiber SBus Adapter (501-2794-08), SunATM-155/UTP5 SBus Adapter (501-2795-06) SunATM-155 SBus board replacement may render interface unrecognizable.
I0403-2
R
CPU Modules Failure to handle CPU Modules correctly can result in physical damage. Such damage may result in immediate failure or intermittent failures. The Augat connectors have a greater chance of damage if proper torquing techniques are not followed.
I0377-1
R
Memory errors ECC Memory Error Guidelines for Enterprise servers. Excessive ECC memory errors on EXX00 servers are alterations of stored data bit(s) in the memory or in the data path. EXX00 Memory, ECC or Parity error(s) can be categorized and diagnosed based on the status of the error(s).

 

WebToneWebToneWebToneWebTone
 Copyright 1994-2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc.,  901 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA.  All rights reserved.
 Legal Terms Privacy Policy Feedback