IMM or system fails after configuration change or IMM reboot - IBM System x

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H195815

Symptom

After changing the hardware configuration of affected systems, most often when adding options such as memory, hard drives, and Central Processing Units (CPUs), the system may become unresponsive after about 30 minutes.

In some cases, this prevented the server from powering on. In other cases, the server powered on, but network connectivity to the Integrated Management Module (IMM) was not possible. The issue may also occur when rebooting the IMM while the system is powered on with certain hardware configurations.

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

• System x3550 M2, Type 4198, any model
• System x3550 M2, Type 7946, any model
• System x3550 M3, Type 4254, any model
• System x3550 M3, Type 7944, any model
• System x3650 M2, Type 4199, any model
• System x3650 M2, Type 7947, any model
• System x3650 M3, Type 4255, any model
• System x3650 M3, Type 7945, any model

This tip is not software specific.
This tip is not option specific.

The following system firmware level(s) are affected:

• IMM firmware versions previous to yuoo24I (version 1.04)

The system has the symptom described above.

Solution

A fix is included in IMM firmware yuoo24I (version 1.04) or later.

All users of System x3550 M2 and System x3650 M2 should update to this IMM firmware or later to avoid the possibility of replacing the system board.

The file is available from the 'Software and device drivers - IBM System x' web site at the following URL:

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1MIGR-4JTS2T

Workaround

On systems running IMM firmware earlier than yuoo24I (version 1.04), avoid rebooting the IMM while the system is powered on.

On servers running firmware older then yuoo24I (version 1.04), and the IMM reboots while system power is on, reduce the number of Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMMs) in the system to eight (8) and reduce the number of hard drives to 1 to prevent possible recurrence of the issue.

Additional information

An internal buffer overrun issue in the IMM code caused the IMM firmware to repeatedly crash. The internal buffering issue was corrected in yuoo24I. Hardware configurations with large numbers of memory DIMMs and hard disk drives could result in unresponsive systems if the system was powered on and the IMM was rebooted with older firmware.