B230-M2 LV DDR Issues 2.02r

[DAVE GENTON]

  Today I came across a few customer issues with 2.0.2r we would like to resolve.  Firstly realizing most the blades default to Low Voltage and 1066mhz I created a bios policy to disable LV and return to normal for 1333mhz bus speed.   This is a non-issue on their B200-M2 blades but none of the B230-M2's  will change their voltage policy in the bios.

  One thing I did notice is that the default bios policy in UCSM for the B230-M2 does NOT show the LV DDR ??  Others do and policy allows it but doesnt work.  Is LV not allowed on this model at this time ??  Any reason or time frame I can advise customer they can go to 1333mhz bus speed ??

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[padramas · Accepted solution]

Hello Dave,

B230 M2 blades supports only Intel Westmere-EX CPUs.The maximum DIMM operational speed of these CPUs are limited to 1066 MHz even though the DIMMs can support 1333 MHz speed.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10280/spec_sheet_c17-665957.pdf

http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?CodeNameText=Westmere%20EX

Example E7-2850 CPU model

http://ark.intel.com/products/53573/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E7-2850-%2824M-Cache-2_00-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI%29

The speed is limited by CPU and cannot be increased to 1333 MHz.

HTH

Padma

[DAVE GENTON]

Padma, thanks so much for your time. 

Much appreciated,

Dave

[DAVE GENTON]

Today I have a new customer, all blades across 4 chassis are b200m2's and with 2.02r I CANNOT get bus speed to increase to 1333mhz, in fact I cannot see any bios policy changes taking affect for some reason.  I can make other changes but such as add/remove nics but policies will not be enforced via bios beyond UCSM stating in bios settings its no longer in low voltage mode, yet still shows 1067 bus speed.  Any ideas why b200m2 would not take changes via bios policy ??

[mtimm]

Hi Dave,

Which CPU's and DIMM's are installed in these B200-M2's?  The installation guide documents the max DDR3 bus frequency of CPU's and memory:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/chassis/install/blade.html#wp1028500

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/chassis/install/blade.html#wp1035213

Certain CPU's and memory only support 1066 MHz DDR3 frequency.

If that is not the case here, please open a TAC case and collect the blade (or chassis) show tech detail for one of the blades so TAC can look at the RankMarginTest.txt file.  It should state why the BIOS is locking things in at 1066 MHz.

Thanks,

Mike

[DAVE GENTON]

Thanks I was looking for that, and I will confirm this.  I know the B230's for example wont go to 1333 due to CPU type, but I didn't think b200's ever had that issue but I see 2 dimm types that would allow that.   All servers came with memory installed and I would hope they are consistent and match so this isn't an issue, but I will check.   I have tried another bios policy since, with more options changed per Xen best practices to disable the turbo boost and c states, I've yet to see those change as well, further telling me changes aren't being done properly and not just for memory speed.