11-25-2015 07:23 AM - edited 03-01-2019 12:28 PM
I've just added a B200 M4 to my chassis, with everything running on 2.2(3d) firmware. The blade has a fault of "Activation failed and Activate Status set to failed".
It appears that this is due to the board controller failing to downgrade the firmware to the version in the 2.2(3d) firmware package (which is 5). The blade comes with board controller firmware version 9.
I tried creating a new firmware package and unchecking the board controller for B200 M4 but that did not help.
What is the best way to resolve this issue? Looking at the compatibility matrix, the M4 should be supported on firmware 2.2(3a) and above.
Also, what are the risks in running with the blade in this state? Is it safe to run with this error or will it cause issues?
thanks.
Solved! Go to Solution.
11-25-2015 07:33 AM
Hi Walt,
The reason you are getting these errors is because, Downgrading board controller is not supported. and It gets failed at activation, because either the package version set on the host FW policy doesn’t have this board controller image on it, or the UCSM doesn’t have any image of the current board controller version in its image inventory.
The work around for this would to do the following;
Workaround:
1. Customer can upgrade their Infrastructure & Blade FW to the latest one (2.2.4b or 2.2.5c), in order to match with the FW version of the new B200 M4 blades. But if it’s a big environment, most customers will not want to do that immediately.
2. If the customer using Host FW policy and the Service Profiles are bind to a template. You need to unbind the service profile from the template, and then set the host FW policy to default. But make sure Default Host FW policy is set to none.
If the default FW policy is set to some package version, and some of the Service profiles are already using it, then create a new host FW policy, set it to none, and attach it to the b200 m4 service profiles.
After the service profile of the B200 M4’s get associated or updated with the new Host FW policy (not set to anything) it will still show FAILED status.
Now go to cisco.com and download the UCS FW B bundle, whichever the blade came with (2.2.4b or 2.2.5c).
Upload it to your UCSM.
Once the uploading and unpacking of the FW bundle is done, go to Equipment and select your blade, go to installed firmware tab on the right side of the window.
Select board controller, right click and select Activate Firmware.
Now on the pop up window, select the right board controller image, check FORCE and click Apply/OK.
Give it a few minutes, or you can check the FSM status, the status will soon show Ready.
Once this done, customer cannot bind the Service profile back to the template, as it will change the host FW policy and the board controller will fail again.
If the customer doesn’t want to unbind the service profile from the template, they can create a new template for the new B200 M4 blades without using a Host FW policy and downgrade the blades manually.
3. If customer doesn’t want to do any of this, he can just simply ignore the fault, as this will not affect his production.
As you can tell by step 3 this is not impactable to production it is just because the board controller can not be downgraded. If you want me to give you detailed steps on how to solve this I can attach a guide on how to do this.
11-25-2015 07:33 AM
Hi Walt,
The reason you are getting these errors is because, Downgrading board controller is not supported. and It gets failed at activation, because either the package version set on the host FW policy doesn’t have this board controller image on it, or the UCSM doesn’t have any image of the current board controller version in its image inventory.
The work around for this would to do the following;
Workaround:
1. Customer can upgrade their Infrastructure & Blade FW to the latest one (2.2.4b or 2.2.5c), in order to match with the FW version of the new B200 M4 blades. But if it’s a big environment, most customers will not want to do that immediately.
2. If the customer using Host FW policy and the Service Profiles are bind to a template. You need to unbind the service profile from the template, and then set the host FW policy to default. But make sure Default Host FW policy is set to none.
If the default FW policy is set to some package version, and some of the Service profiles are already using it, then create a new host FW policy, set it to none, and attach it to the b200 m4 service profiles.
After the service profile of the B200 M4’s get associated or updated with the new Host FW policy (not set to anything) it will still show FAILED status.
Now go to cisco.com and download the UCS FW B bundle, whichever the blade came with (2.2.4b or 2.2.5c).
Upload it to your UCSM.
Once the uploading and unpacking of the FW bundle is done, go to Equipment and select your blade, go to installed firmware tab on the right side of the window.
Select board controller, right click and select Activate Firmware.
Now on the pop up window, select the right board controller image, check FORCE and click Apply/OK.
Give it a few minutes, or you can check the FSM status, the status will soon show Ready.
Once this done, customer cannot bind the Service profile back to the template, as it will change the host FW policy and the board controller will fail again.
If the customer doesn’t want to unbind the service profile from the template, they can create a new template for the new B200 M4 blades without using a Host FW policy and downgrade the blades manually.
3. If customer doesn’t want to do any of this, he can just simply ignore the fault, as this will not affect his production.
As you can tell by step 3 this is not impactable to production it is just because the board controller can not be downgraded. If you want me to give you detailed steps on how to solve this I can attach a guide on how to do this.
11-25-2015 08:51 AM
Thank you for the detailed response. I will follow the steps for #2 and report back.
11-25-2015 09:30 AM
That worked, I was able to force activation and clear the error. Thanks again!
11-25-2015 10:20 AM
Walt,
It's my pleasure I'm glad this resolved everything :).
11-25-2015 11:53 AM
Just for future users... another way to get rid of the "Board Controller Set to Failed" error message is simply update the Capability Catalog to 2.2(4b) or higher and reack the blade.
https://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=283612660&flowid=22121&softwareid=283118767&release=2.5%282b%29&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=&reltype=latest
The catalog has a fix that let the system kind of "ignore" the unsupported downgrade.
Hope that helps other users too.
-Kenny
03-13-2016 09:33 AM
TX good to know.
That will surly clear a few of those warning off.
Stephane.
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