Dell Unity: SP Panic after Being Up for More than 240 Days

Summary: Dell Unity XT 480, 680, or 880 Storage Processor (SP) may panic after being up for more than 240 days. (Dell Correctable)

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Symptoms

Dell Unity XT 480, 680, or 880 SP may panic after being up for 240 days.  Other Dell Unity systems can experience the issue after more than 240 days (that is greater than 730 days).

UDoctor may generate an alert on any code version below 5.2.1 (except for version 5.1.3.0.6.439) where the SP has been running for more than 240 days, and that alert will reference this KB article.  

Cause

An SP panic may occur due to an integer overflow calculation leading to a 64-bit result being stored in a 32-bit variable. 

The issue is most likely to occur on a Unity XT 480, 680, or 880 array running Unity OE versions 5.1.0.0.5.394 through 5.2.0.0.5.173. This is due to changes within that code and the SP hardware used in those models, and how the code interacts with that hardware.

 

NOTE: Older codes and Unity models are less likely to see this issue, but it is not impossible for the issue to occur on older code or older Unity models, especially when the SP has been running for longer than 240 days (that is more than 730 days).

 

NOTE: The average number of days before an SP restart is triggered by this issue is 275-300 days. The SP restart can occur before 275 days, but it is less likely. Storage Processor restarts due to this issue do not occur prior to 240 days.

Resolution

Fix:
The fix first became available in Unity OE version 5.3.  All current supported Unity OE releases include the fix.  Please see KB article 70507 for a listing of current supported versions.

 

Workaround:

Proactively reboot the SP every 240 days to avoid an SP panic. Instructions to reboot an SP are available in the article: Unity: How to Reboot a Storage Processor (User Correctable).

Customers can issue an "uptime" command by connecting to an array using SSH and using the service account to get the SP runtime.

The example below shows uptime is 31 days.

04:30:01 service@xxx spa:~/user# uptime
04:30am  up 31 days  3:41,  2 users,  load average: 29.21, 29.45, 29.51

The UDoctor alert will refresh once per week unless the above Fix or Workaround is implemented.  Dell Technologies recommends that customers upgrade to a current supported version of Unity OE code.

Affected Products

Dell EMC Unity Family |Dell EMC Unity All Flash, Dell EMC Unity Family
Article Properties
Article Number: 000200921
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 30 Jan 2026
Version:  25
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.