Description

SPARC M5-32, M6-32, M7-8, M7-16, M8-8 systems with certain firmware versions (listed below) may fail to boot when certain devices containing identification information are unreadable.

This condition can result in the machine repeatedly failing to boot.

Occurrence

This issue can occur on the following platforms:

SPARC Platform

• SPARC M5-32, M6-32 with Firmware version 9.6.9.a (as delivered in patch 26407368) or earlier
• SPARC M7-8, M7-16, M8-8 with Firmware version 9.8.0.d (as delivered in patch 27185996) or earlier

Note: The x86 Platform is not affected by this issue.

To determine the firmware version installed on the system, use the following ILOM command:

      -> show /HOST sysfw_version

      /HOST
      Properties:
      sysfw_version = Sun System Firmware 9.6.9.a 2017/07/10 15:31

Symptoms

 If the described issue occurs, the system will fail to boot with console error messages similar to the following:

      2016-06-12 03:56:05 SP> NOTICE: Check for usable CPUs in /SYS/DCU1
      2016-06-12 03:56:07 SP> NOTICE: Apply configuration rules to /SYS/DCU1
      2016-06-12 03:56:09 SP> NOTICE: Exclude all of /SYS/DCU1. Reason: Can't
      determine compatibility of /SYS/CMU5. Remove and reinstall /SYS/CMU5 to attempt detection again.

The system may continue to fail to boot.

Workaround

 To work around this issue, disable the device that is causing the problem (From the example above, that would be CMU5).

From the ILOM UI:

      > set /SYS/CMU5 requested_config_state=disabled

This workaround will allow the system to boot, but will render the faulty (and now disabled) device unusable. It should be noted that, depending on the specifics of the LDOMs configuration in use, the system may not be able to run the current LDOMs configuration and will fall back to the factory-default bootmode configuration.

Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• SPARC M5-32, M6-32 Firmware version 9.6.20.b (as delivered in patch 27043440) or later
• SPARC M7-8, M7-16, M8-8 Firmware version 9.8.4.a (as delivered in patch 27353126) or later

Patches

<Patch:27043440>
<Patch:27353126>

History

25-Aug-2017: Document released, status is Workaround
29-Nov-2017: Removed Bug 6423502 - N/A - no other change in content
19-Jan-2018: Patch available, issue is Resolved
23-Jan-2018: Updated to include M7/M8 systems and patches

When this problem occurs, there will be ereports of one or more of the following classes:
      -ereport.fruid.corrupted@/sys/cmiou
      -fault.fruid.inaccessible@/sys/cmiou

These will not cause the appropriate device to disabled.

The original fix included two bugs: 23599921, 26423502
26423502 introduced a regression and was backed out.
Unable to reproduce this problem when testing on latest images (which include 23599921, but not 26423502).
References to 26423502 have been removed from this SunAlert.

Additional Notes:
3-11566830543 is not attached to the bug, but is mentioned in the bug and shows the signature behavior, and so it is included in the list above.
3-14233953254, and 3-14942666831 are attached to the bug, but do not show the signature behavior, so are not included in the list above.

Questions regarding this document must be submitted to
sunalertpublication_us_grp@oracle.com and copy the
contributor/responsible engineer listed below.

Internal Contributor/Submitter: jack.hayward@oracle.com
Internal Eng Responsible Engineer: jack.hayward@oracle.com
Oracle Knowledge Analyst: david.mariotto@oracle.com
Internal Eng Business Unit Group: Systems Server OS Internal Escalation ID: 3-12866245341,
3-11566830543, 3-13386160441, 3-14104365191, 3-14422601201, 3-13674835431

References

This solution has no attachment