C220 M4 Stuck at Configuring platform hardware step

[Maheshn0205]

Hi All, I have a UCS C220 M4 SFF server stuck at Configuring platform hardware. 

System specifications:

 IMC Firmware V: 4.1(1c)

BIOS: C220M4.4.1.1c.0.1113190848

I'm facing this issue after updating the system using Host utility. I tried this link: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C220M4/install/C220M4/replace.html#94736 but I don't understand is, it says step 5# Slide the clear CMOS DIP switch from position 4 to the closed position. I don't see any slide option to slide the DIP switch. Please see the attached image. Thank you.

[Kirk J]

Try removing the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes.

If you still have access to the CIMC interface, it is possible to manually downgrade the BIOS and CIMC via the firmware managment tab, if we can't find any alternatives.

Kirk...

[Maheshn0205 · Accepted solution]

Hello Kirk,

Thank you for the suggestion. Removing the batter didn't work, but I still have the access to IMC so I tried to downgrade the bios first. After downgrading the bios, the system is able to pass through the POST then I performed system reboot for a couple of times and I re-flashed the bios again to the latest version. This time it went successful without any issues.

I appreciate your help.

Regards,

Mahesh

[Dean Brandt]

Hi and is this assuming you have a preloaded, or "used" BIOS already accessible in CIMC or do I simply download an earlier huu and extract the bios from there?

I obviously have the same issue here :)

[Kirk J]

Both the CIMC and the BIOS have dual firmware slots, and you should be able to 'activate' the previous version that is the 'backup'slot.  You can also upload an older version from an older HUU as well (you have to drill down into the HUU.ISO and extract a number of layers deep to find the bios and CIMC image files for use in the CIMC's firmware management tab)

Kirk..

[Dean Brandt]

Hi Kirk and thanks for the reply.
I have done the drill down on huu BIOS and obtained the boot.cap file for the same version I am running and one later version, but each time I insert the USB into any external or internal USB slot on the chassis, it doesn't seem to boot from the USB
I also tried to extract an earlier version ... 3.04 (I think) but that failed on a linux box:
[root@ip-172-31-12-205 ec2-user]# ./getfw -b -s ucs-c220m4-huu-3.0.4j.iso -d hope
Decryption failed

Whereas the same command above works re any v4.xx huu

[Dean Brandt]

I also have exactly the same version listed in CIMC BIOS control. Primary and backup are identical

[Dean Brandt]

I managed to solve this via CIMC using C220M4.4.0.2f.0.1113190831. Uploaded and then activated, the system auto rebooted.

Thanks again Kirk for a quick response. 

[Kirk J]

You will need to use the latest version of RUFUS, or similar USB bootmaker app to correctly get the HUU ISO to boot off of USB stick, if you are trying to boot to that HUU as a whole.

For individually upgrading using the .cap and .bin files for CIMC/BIOS,,, you just supply those via the web interface, under mgmt tab for 'firmware management'

Kirk...

[Dean Brandt]

Hi again and yes I was using Rufus to do the “normal” systems upgrade, and then after failure I was using the linux approach to extract bios.cap from the huu archive. What I learnt after a while is you simply can’t try and use a copy of the same BIOS version, nor a later one, it has to be an earlier one, and the none of the v3.x worked either. So lesson learnt here, frustrating at times but it’s working again, for now 😊