Dell PowerEdge VRTx CMC not responding

Hi Diego,

I got a replacement card and this resolved the issue.

Regards,

Patrick

Hello @kabatha,

Thanks for lettings us know!

Regards.

Hey there, can you explain the process you went through to get a replacement card? Navigating the same issue and support expired in 2017

Hi there,

I got a replacement card from server world and it worked. What triggered your CMC failure?

Hi @ts-sysadmin,

From the picture, I can remember some time ago, there was an issue with the CMC network that could cause the LCD to show CMC not responding and lead to the CMC LED similar to your picture. 

Could you check if CMC is still accessible? If yes, please check if the CMC firmware is the latest, if not please update them. If CMC is not accessible, you need to connect the CMC serial DB9 to access the console. This is to find out what is the state of both CMC.

Hi,

I have the same problem described in this thread, probably also in my case it's an hardware problem and the unique way to solve is replace the CMC card.

However, I would like to have the confirm from you.

In attached you can see the configuration.

In this moment I have 2 CMC card, one of this with blue led (slot 1) and the other with red led (slot 2). 

I tried to remove the CMC card with red led (slot 2), remaining with the CMC card with blue led (slot 1).

I plugged again the power cable but after 10 minutes I received again 'CMC not responding'.

I tried with another test. 

I removed the CMC card with blue led (slot 1) and I connected the CMC card with red led (slot 2) but in that moment the led on this CMC card was blue.

I connected again the power cable but the I received again the 'CMC not responding'.

Do you think that it's necessary to have both CMC cards working?

How can I solve this problem?

Thanks

Hi,

could you tell me how to connect to the CMC to verify? 

In this moment I don't have the serial cable (DB9-usb) to connect to the ports.

I have a management cable DB9-LAN. Could be it useful?

Or do you know others workaround that I could apply?

Thanks.

ts-sysadmin,

The DB9 cable would be able to be used to get recovery data. So if on the CMC the bottom LED is amber, recovery information is available from the DB-9 serial port located on the front of CMC.

To obtain recovery information:

1. Install a NULL modem cable between CMC and a client machine.

2. Open a terminal emulator of your choice (such as HyperTerminal or Minicom) and use the following set up:

   8 bits
   No parity
   No flow control
   Baud rate = 115200
A core memory failure displays an error message every five seconds.

3. Press the key. If a recovery prompt appears, additional information is available. The prompt indicates the CMC slot number and failure type. To display failure reason and syntax for a few commands, type recover and then press .

Sample prompts shown below:
recover1[self test] CMC 1 self test failure
recover2[Bad FW images] CMC2 has corrupted images

If the prompt indicates a self test failure, there are no serviceable components on CMC. CMC is bad and must be replaced.
If the prompt indicates Bad FW Images, complete tasks in the Recovering Firmware Image section of this User's Guide.

That would be the use for the DB9 cable you have.

Let us know what you see.

Hi,

just to be sure, in this moment this is the LED status (on the read of the host):

Do you confirm me that it's necessary to use this cable between CMC and client machine?

After this I'll use putty to connect and try to recover the information.

Could you confirm it?

Thanks.

Fabio 

I apologize, I misread your previous post, you would need the serial port cable, not the mgmt cable, in order to do that process. Do you have a second CMC that is running and active currently, or is the evice down? I ask because if it is down I would suggest swapping the CMC's and then power back up to see if the issue persists where it was, or if the issue follows a specific CMC. If so then it will likely be a hardware issue with that CMC, now if the issue persists on the same CMC slot then we know there is an issue beyond that CMC itself. 

Just to confirm, at any point did you test the CMC's in the other slots? For example, you said CMC Slot 1 was blue and CMC Slot 2 was red, did you try the CMC with the red light in Slot 1, and did you try the blue CMC in slot 2?
Also, would you confirm that when you tried powering up with just CMC slot 1 installed, and not CMC slot 2, it still comes up with the error?
Lastly, would you export and clear the hardware log, so we can be sure it isn't throwing the previous error?

Let us know.

Hi,

this is current situation:

In this moment I have 2 CMC card, one of this with blue led (slot 1) and the other with red led (slot 2). 

I tried to remove the CMC card with red led (slot 2), remaining with the CMC card with blue led (slot 1).

I plugged again the power cable but after 10 minutes I received again 'CMC not responding'.

I tried with another test. 

I removed the CMC card with blue led (slot 1) and I connected the CMC card with red led (slot 2) but in that moment the led on this CMC card was blue.

I connected again the power cable but the I received again the 'CMC not responding'.

What do you think?

Hi,

I executed 2 tests:

1) swapping the CMC cards and this was the led status:

After 10 minutes the same error 'CMC not responding',

2) connect only the CMC card that previous had the blue led:

After 10 minutes same error 'CMC not responding'.

What do you think?

How can I export the hardware log?

Thanks.

For the log you go to Chassis Overview and click Logs > Hardware Log. The Hardware Log page is displayed. To save a copy of the hardware log to your managed station or network, click Save Log and then specify a location for a text file of the log.

Would you confirm what revision the CMC's are currently at, are the up to date? If not then I would suggest updating them, as there is an update that addressed an earlier version with the CMC that could display this error.