PERC H700 with NU209 battery failing every time

Hello.

I've built about 7 Poweredge R710 systems with HCR2Y PERC H700 controllers over the last month or so, and i've noticed that the NU209 batteries we've attached to them have shown up as failed after about 20-30 minutes in every case.  Date code is 02/16 on these.  We can put an older NU209 battery with a date code from say, 2012, and it appears to work fine.  Any idea what the heck is going on?

Not so sure why this is associated with the same date code. Try to initiate a battery learn cycle during which time the charge on the battery will completely be drained and then recharged. Use this command: omconfig storage battery action=startlearn controller=id battery=id , where id is the controller ID and battery ID as reported by the omreport command. To obtain controller ID use omreport storage controller to display the controller ID(s) andomreport storage battery controller=ID to display the controller battery ID.

Reading the H700 manual, it looks like these controllers shipped with 1 of 3 cache options.  a 512 BBU, a 512 non-volatile, and a 1GB non-volatile.  Since the HCR2Y is a 1GB model, i figured it would have to be non-volatile i.e. not in need of a battery, so i disconnected it.  Upon reboot, it now whines that there is no battery connected.  I also tried attaching the 1GB Cache dimm directly to the main controller board with the same battery cable, and got the same "battery missing" message.  Those two theories appear to be out.

You still need this battery. In the 512 non-volatile cache option, the battery enables the transfer of data from this cache to the system flash memory for data retention for a couple of years in event of sudden power outage.