Incorrect Fan Speed on SPARC T4-1 & SPARC T4-2 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe Card(s) Running System Firmware 8.3.0.b

Asset ID:	1-77-1555194.1
Update Date:	2013-07-10
Keywords:

Solution Type Sun Alert Sure

Solution 1555194.1 : Incorrect Fan Speed on SPARC T4-1 & SPARC T4-2 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe Card(s) Running System Firmware 8.3.0.b

Applies to:

SPARC T4-1
SPARC T4-2
Sun Hardware - Generic
F40 Flash Accelerator Card
Information in this document applies to any platform.
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Date of Workaround Release: 31-May-2013

Date of Resolved Release: 05-Jul-2013
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Description

Certain configurations of SPARC T4-1 and SPARC T4-2 systems with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe card(s) installed and running system firmware 8.3.0.b (patches 150413-01/150414-01) can result in insufficient cooling at higher ambient temperatures, impacting performance of the Sun Flash Accelerator F40 cards.

Occurrence

This issue can occur on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform

SPARC T4-1 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe card(s) running System Firmware 8.3.0.b (as delivered in patch 150413-01) and without Firmware 8.3.0.c (as delivered in patch 150413-02)
SPARC T4-2 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe card(s) running System Firmware 8.3.0.b (as delivered in patch 150414-01) and without Firmware 8.3.0.c (as delivered in patch 150414-02)

Notes:

1. No other platforms, systems or firmware are affected by this issue.

2. To determine if the system has the affected firmware and Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe cards installed, use the following commands:

From Solaris:

To check the firmware version:

# prtdiag -v|grep Firmware
Sun System Firmware 8.3.0.b 2013/04/23 08:54

To check for the presence of the Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe card:

# prtdiag -v|grep pciex1000,7e
/SYS/MB/RISER0/PCIE3PCIE pciex1000,7e
pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@c/pciex1000,7e@0

NOTE: Depending upon system type and slot number, the path to pciex1000,7e will differ.

Symptoms

The Sun Flash Accelerator F40 card will throttle back when it is experiencing high temperatures (75 Degrees C). This will result in longer access and response times, causing lower performance during heavy loads.

Workaround

If you have the current configuration of SPARC T4-1 or SPARC T4-2 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCI-e card(s) running system firmware 8.3.0.b, we recommend that you downgrade the system to 8.2.2.c until the resolution patch can be applied (see below).

Note: If downgrading the firmware, we recommend downgrading to 8.2.2.c since it has important fixes that are not available in earlier versions.

This issue is addressed on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform

SPARC T4-1 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe card(s) with Firmware 8.3.0.c (as delivered in patch 150413-02) or later
SPARC T4-2 with Sun Flash Accelerator F40 PCIe card(s) with Firmware 8.3.0.c (as delivered in patch 150414-02) or later

Patches

<SUNPATCH:150413-02>
<SUNPATCH:150414-02>

History

31-May-2013: Document released - State: Workaround
05-Jul-2013: Firmware 8.3.0.c released (Patch 150415-02); issue is Resolved
10-Jul-2013: Updated to correct T4-2 patch numbers

This bug was introduced in system firmware v8.3.0.b

Details:

When this issue occurs, the system fans drop to the min_level after the second DC power cycle.
When IO PCIe cards are first installed, the fans speed up, depending on card type and slot as expected.
Once the system sees a second DC power cycle, it drops down to a min_level of 30% on SPARC T4-2 and 50% on SPARC T4-1.
This is sufficient cooling for all current PCIe cards except the Sun Flash Accelerator F40 in
any PCIe slot on the SPARC T4-1 and PCIe slots 0, 6, 7 and 8 on the SPARC T4-2.

Questions regarding this document should be addressed to
sunalertpublication_us_grp@oracle.com and copy the
responsible engineer listed below.

Internal Contributor/Submitter: chuck.forgues@oracle.com, anthony.rulli@oracle.com
Internal Eng Responsible Engineer: jim.r.stewart@oracle.com, patrick.ogrady@oracle.com
Internal Services Knowledge Engineer: david.mariotto@oracle.com
Internal Eng Business Unit Group: Systems Group-SVS (SPARC Volume Systems, Horizontal Systems,(includes T2000/Ontario)
Internal Escalation ID: None

References

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