The UCS has a method of verifying that the hardware installed is supported and marking unsupported hardware as such. There is a catalog that is included in the firmware that lists the valid and supported hardware and the system collects inventory information on the installed hardware at initial device discovery and compares those values to what it finds in the catalog. If a specific piece of hardware is found that can not be cross referenced with anything in the catalog it is shown as "Unestablishable." For example:
Location: DIMM_A0
Presence: Equipped Identity Unestablishable
Overall Status: Operable
Operability: Operable
Visibility: Yes
Product Name:
PID:
VID:
Vendor: 0xCE00
Vendor Description:
Vendor Part Number: M393B5170FH0-YH9
Serial (SN): 0x08147927
HW Revision: 0
Form Factor: Dimm
Type: Other
Capacity (MB): 4096
Clock: 1067
Latency: 0.900000
Width: 64
This information is then stored in an inventory database and only updated again when the inventory is collected again. Collecting the inventory from a blade can be a slow process so it is not done often. For example if you remove a blade and reinsert it the inventory of that blade will be retrieved. Or if you decommission a blade and reacknowledge the inventory will be retrieved again.
There are a few possible reasons why a DIMM may be listed as Unestablishable:
- The DIMM is actually unsupported, for example if it is not purchased from Cisco (is not a supported part number) or is not a supported DIMM for this specific platform or hardware
- The DIMM is supported but not in the specific version of firmware that is being run on the device
- The DIMM was installed at a time when the device was running a version of the firmware that did not support the DIMM but the current firmware that is being run now has support for the DIMM and the inventory database has not been updated for that server. This is most often seen with low voltage DIMMs which were not added to the catalog until 1.1(1m), 1.2(1b) and 1.3(1c)
If the catalog has been updated by upgrading the firmware and the DIMM is supported but still shown as Unestablishable, the inventory database will need to be updated for this server. The inventory database does not get updated automatically. It has to be done manually. To update the inventory database for a specific server you can decommission the server and then reacknowledge server. Refer to the Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide for the specific version of firmware you are using for the specific steps to decommission and reacknowledge a server.
For example the guide for 1.3(1) can be found at:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/1.3.1/UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_1_3_1.pdf
