Problem starting a Power Edge M1000e

Hello Debana,

Are you able to log into the CMC? If so, collecting the output from the commands "racdump" and "dumplogs" would be helpful. This should provide a fair amount of information to troubleshoot the issue.

Is the only problem that the CMC isn't picking up a DHCP IP (excluding the LCD for now), or are you having additional issues with the chassis? If you manually assign an IP to the CMC, does it work? 

I looked through the documentation and I think options are going to be limited. Do you have an iKVM? If so, you can use the password reset jumper on the CMC, then connect using the iKVM and reconfigure from there. If no iKVM, then repairing the LCD may be the next best option, because it would give you the option to perform a factory reset of the CMC.

The final suggestion I could make - and this may not pan out - but you could remove the CMC(s) from the chassis and check to see if there is an NVRAM jumper. If there is, that should let you reset the CMC to default, too, I'm just not seeing one listed.

Hello Dylan,

Many thanks for your fast reply.

I'm actually unable to log into the CMC and thus, unable to retrieve any information. Impossible to know anything about the chassis because i do not have similar equipment on which i can test the different parts.

The CMC do not pickup a DHCP IP and as i'm  unable to log into it there is no way to assign a manual IP. Is there anyway to reset the CMC to the factory defaults?

Hope my answers are clear enough, waiting to your reply.

Best regards

Hi Dylan,

I have an iKVM on the chassis but it cannot help as the chassis is not powered on by the CMC. I dis the password reset on the CMC but it did not change anything. Please remember the actual behavior who is that after powered the equipment, power supply 1 and 4 are switch on after few second, then the fans are powered on and start in high speed before coming back to their normal speed. LCD module blink amber and there is noting powered on in the chassis (iKVM, I/O and blades are off.

The only jumper i have on the CMC is the password reset. I removed the battery for many hours, expecting the reset of CMC, unsuccessfully.

Please can you give me any information about the possible reasons of why the CMC is unable to powered on the chassis? Believe me it's the first problem to overcome. Please also take into account the fact that the CMC LED status turn blue (steady)  for about 30 before switching on amber color.

Best regards

The chassis should be able to power up, as well as powering your blades, without a CMC. The LCD is what would tell us the problem, and it with it being broken, I think I would look at replacing the LCD and the control panel. If that doesn't resolve the issue, I'd suspect the midplane. Replacing the midplane is a fairly labor involved task and would require a Torx driver to replace, as well. 

To get the chassis back online, I'd start with replacing the LCD and control panel. This way we can either fix the primary issue, or have the tools needed to identify it.

According to the reference below, the CMC isn't being used, but it doesn't sound faulty.

https://dell.to/39iQQYR

HI DYLAN,

As it's the CMC who powered the chassis when everything is OK, i do not think chassis and blades can be switch on without the CMC.

We ordered two pcs CMC and one LCD. As it take some time before delivering, i'm trying to continue checking in order to understand what is happening and i hope the mid plane do not have any problem because i'm not sure to be able to reach on it.

Something happened yesterday. I powered the chassis only on the power supply n°2 and the CMC switch on all the equipments. After about 4 hours of different tests, i switch the chassis of and put of the power supply to see if it will work normally again. Unfortunately, it return back on the previous behavior

While waiting the arrival of LCD and CMC i'll continue testing and if something change i'll inform you.

Best regards

The M1000e can operate without a CMC. The chassis will power up without any CMC, but won't stay powered on. A chassis that is already up will stay up with no CMC, but at that point everything is initialized. 

I'll leave you with the M1000e manual to reference. Hopefully, you find this of value.

https://dell.to/39pGkPh

I'm having issues getting an edit to take, so I'll just clarify here. You're correct about the CMC not powering on and remaining on without a CMC. With the LCD being broken, removing it wouldn't help us much, because there's no way to see if an error message were to change with or without it. I was wrong about being able to power the blades up from an off state with no CMC - I'd been mistaken because of the ability to have no CMC when everything is already up. Apologies for the error.

The only other thing I could think to do is to take the M1000e to it's own minimum to POST and see if the chassis stays up or not. This would involved having no blades, only 1 power supply,  the control panel, 1 CMC, and no IO modules. Those modules can also cause a no-post for the chassis, so it may be worth testing, just to be thorough. If it powers on and stays on, you could consider installing components one at a time, until a fault is found. That having been said, I do believe you're on the right track in addressing the management hardware.

Hi DYLAN,

I did what you advise me by disconnecting in out modules and all the blades but it did not give any enhancement. Let me describe in detail the behavior. If you powered from power supply n°1 or n°4, after some few seconds blue LED come on, power supply is switch on (green LED on power supply appear), fans are powered on and start at high speed. before being turn at about half speed, all LED on in out modules blink once. After some another few seconds status light on CMC become amber (steady) and the fans continue to run at the same speed.

When powered from any another power supply (2, 3, 5, or 6), blue light appear on the CMC after few second, fans are powered on but did not start. Power supply remain in standby, Blue light remain on longer (about 20s)  than when powered from 1 or 4 before becoming amber. The only time the chassis came on since i'm checking, it was powered from n°2 and i had the opportunity to test blades and in out modules. All are working perfectly.

Hope this can help.

Best regards

If you aren't seeing any behavior change with just the chassis, then the issue should be within the chassis. Replacing the LCD should tell us the root problem.