Strange cpu throttling issue with Poweredge m620

Question

We have an older 16-blade M1000e enclosure. One blade is performing computations ~30% slower than the rest. I see no errors or issues in the iDrac. It does seem the cpu speed fluctuates more than normal during high computation calculations.

Is there some setting in the BIOS to change the cpu to "Performance" mode? Here is what I see in the BIOS:

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Thisisalloneword,

The BIOS can change due to updates. What I would start with is to verify the server is up to date on the BIOS and iDrac at least, now if they are really far behind let me know and I can lay out an upgrade path for you, as you don't want to jump a lot of versions.

If the server is up to date, you may want to compare the System Profile pages of the "slower" server and one running at the faster speed, such as if C1E or C-States is enabled, etc.

Let me know what you see.

thisisalloneword · Answer

Thanks. I do see a difference in BIOS and iDRAC versions as follows:

Normal blade:

Bios: 2.1.4

iDrac: 2.65.65.65

Slow blade:

Bios: 2.8.0

iDrac: 2.63.60.62

So I tried to update the iDrac by downloading this file for my Centos 7 OS:

iDRAC-with-Lifecycle-Controller_Firmware_0GHF4_LN_2.65.65.65_A00.BIN

But when I try and do the update I get:

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Thisisalloneword,

What you need to do is either use the Update Package for MS Windows 64-Bit or firmimg image format file. So you can download "iDRAC-with-Lifecycle-Controller_Firmware_0GHF4_WN64_2.65.65.65_A00.EXE" file and try this file on the iDRAC GUI. The other option is to download file "iDRAC_2.65.65.65_A00.exe" and extract it, once extracted then locate the firmimg.d7 file and that file can be used in iDRAC GUI for update.

Let me know how it goes.

thisisalloneword · Answer

That is interesting ! If the Windows .EXE file will work, then what is the purpose of the .BIN file ?

DELL-Charles R · Answer

Hello thisisalloneword,   The Windows .exe can be used within a windows OS or in the iDRAC. The .bin file is used within a Linux OS.

thisisalloneword · Answer

I am running Linux ( CentOS 7.9 ). But I get the error that the *.BIN file is not valid when I upload it in the iDRAC web GUI. I guess I am curious how are these .BIN files supposed to be uploaded?

I will try your workaround of extracting the .EXE file , however my windows machine in my office does not have admin rights . So I can't run the .EXE file. I will look around for a workaround to the workaround

DELL-Shine K · Answer

If you are using iDRAC web GUI to update firmware then you need to use .EXE file. This is regardless of operating system installed on the server. iDRAC is OS agnostics and always work with .EXE. If you are updating iDRAC FW from operating system instead of iDRAC then you need to use .BIN file.

thisisalloneword · Answer

Interesting to know that! I was able to update the iDRAC via the web GUI using this file:

iDRAC-with-Lifecycle-Controller_Firmware_0GHF4_WN64_2.65.65.65_A00.EXE

It seemed to work, but I think I had to reboot the machine for the firmware update to happen.

Now the cpu throttling issue looks fixed! Will report back here if it acts up again. Surprising why the iDRAC firmware would affect that cpu throttling..

PowerEdge Hardware General

Strange cpu throttling issue with Poweredge m620

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