Exadata X3-2 Hardware
 
Exadata X5-2 Hardware
 
Exadata X3-8 Hardware
 
Enterprise Manager for Exadata
 
Exadata X3-2 Quarter Rack
 
Oracle Exadata Hardware
 

PLA-Support>Eng Systems>Exadata/ODA/SSC>Oracle Exadata>DB: Exadata_EST
 

Applies to:

Symptoms

You are receiving Cloud Control Alerts on the Infiniband (IB) switches:

You check the switch by running verify topology:

     # /opt/oracle.SupportTools/ibdiagtools/verify-topology -t quarterrack

as outlined in MOS note Network Diagnostics information for Oracle Database Machine Environments (Doc ID 1053498.1), but all outputs are fine.

OR you see Inifiband ports showing as Down Red Arrows for their statuses. 

Changes

You have recently upgraded the Exadata plugin to version 12.1.0.3 or higher.

To check the plugin version: In the Cloud Control console, Go to Setup > Extensibility > Plugins.

Or you have recently discovered an Exadata Quarter Rack in 12c Cloud Control.

Cause

This is reported in <Bug 15937297>: EM 12C HAS ERRORS CABLE IS PRESENT ON PORT 'N' BUT IT IS POLLING FOR PEER PORT, which has been closed as not a bug.
 
As part of the 12.1.0.3 Exadata plugin, the IB switch ports are now checked for non-terminated cables.

These errors 'polling for peer port' are expected behavior. 

Since 'polling for peer port' is an enhanced feature of the 12.1.0.3 plugin, this explains why you most likely did not see these errors until you upgraded the OMS to 12.1.0.2 and then updated the plugins.

In Quarter Racks, the following ports are usually cabled ahead of time, but not terminated:

9 5 3
12 8 6

In some racks port 32 may also be unterminated.  The ports in red from the screenshot below are the same ports that "listlinkup" show in the down state:

Solution

Remove the monitoring of the alert within the 12c Console.  This solution will not change the status color in the Metrics and Collection Settings page, but will stop future alerts from firing. 

There is an Enhancement Request submitted that will add code to the framework to determine whether the ports should or should not be alerted based on the type of Exadata Rack (1/4 rack, 1/2 rack etc.).

ER Bug 17312108 - EMSI:12C:ALERT "POLLING FOR PEER PORT"FOR DEFAULT CONFIG, IF IB CABLE UNATTACHED

1.  Navigate to the Infiniband switch home page, then to Infiniband Switch target page >> Monitoring >>  Metric and Collections Settings:

You will see all the Metrics that we trigger alerts for this switch.

2.  Under this metric name:  Switch Port State >> click on the three pencils icon to edit:

3.  On the Monitored Objects screen, click the Add button on top of the table:

4.  Click the magnifying glass icon next to the Port number and select the port number for which you want to disable monitoring.  Leave thresholds empty to disable alerting:

Repeat the above step for the rest of the unused ports on this switch.

5.  Save the changes with Continue, then verify the ports in the Switch Port State list:

6.  Repeat this procedure for the metrics under Switch Port State (For Alerts):  Indicates that cable is present but port is disabled and Indicates that cable is present but port is polling for peer port.

7.  The final page should look similar to the following - your port numbers may be different:

References

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