T1000/T2000/T5xx0 - System shows ASR DB messages, slow to boot and shut down

Asset ID:	1-72-1573070.1
Update Date:	2017-05-01
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1573070.1 : T1000/T2000/T5xx0 - System shows ASR DB messages, slow to boot and shut down

Applies to:

Sun Fire T2000 Server - Version All Versions to All Versions [Release All Releases]
Sun SPARC Enterprise T2000 Server - Version All Versions and later
Sun Netra T2000 Server - Version All Versions and later
Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 Server - Version All Versions and later
Sun Netra T5220 Server - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.
This may also present itself in other systems with an ASR DB like the T5xx0 series systems.

Symptoms

System boots and shuts down very slowly or sometimes hangs in the process. The OS itself is stable.

Additional error messages that the system may experience:

Multiple errors of the ASR DB:

JUL 29 10:46:33 ERROR: no device entries in ASR DB
JUL 29 10:46:33 ERROR: no device entries in ASR DB
JUL 29 10:46:34 ERROR: no device entries in ASR DB
JUL 29 10:46:34 ERROR: no device entries in ASR DB

Fatal SW errors on the ALOM's OS on bootup:

JUL 29 16:01:04 FATAL: Init host ASR DB failed
JUL 29 16:01:07 FATAL: The Service Processor software has taken a FATAL configuration error, the HOST Process cannot be started.
Please examine the logs to determine the reason for failure and then reset the Service Processor

Some additional symptoms that may be observed:

The explorer may not contain the ALOM information
The output from the ALOM is printed out as slowly as if it was being typed.
The system spinner may be present (and spinning!) while the system is in the OBP, and present up until a user logs into the OS itself from the console.

SSHing to the host itself (not through the management ports) does not show any of the above.

Changes

Customer has recently updated the firmware in order to be able to patch the system.

Cause

The issue is most likely caused by an ALOM corruption.

Solution

Before any hardware is replaced, the following should be done to ensure the issue can't be fixed locally:

1) Reset the ALOM configuration to factory defaults.

2) Re-flash the ALOM's firmware to load up a new image.

If none of the above two steps fix the issue, an SR should be opened with Oracle Support to evaluate replacing the ALOM card.

In the case of a T5xx0 machine with similar symptoms, the system board may need to be replaced instead (as the ILOM is integrated into the system board).

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