Field Notice: FN - 63429 - WAVE-274/474 Incorrect BIOS Settings - BIOS/Firmware Upgrade Recommended

Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Products Affected

Defect Information

Problem Description

Some WAVE-274 and WAVE-474 devices were shipped with incorrect BIOS settings. These settings can cause incorrect behavior related to two features:

1. Enabling Server virtualization (virtual blade configuration) will fail. Errors will be logged indicating this event in the syslog.
2. Upon restoration of power after a power failure, the device will not power up by itself. The power button on the front panel needs to be pressed to bring the device back online.

Background

Please use the following link to determine if your serial number falls in to the problem range:

http://serialnumbervalidation.com/63429

In order to find the serial number for your device, enter the show inventory command into the CLI. Here is an example:

NO-HOSTNAME#show inventory
PID: WAVE-274-K9 VID: 0 SN: 2UA82103YF

Note: The serial numbers will NOT change after correcting these settings as specified in this field notice. We highly recommend maintaining a record of the devices that have been manually corrected.

Problem Symptom

There are two settings that are incorrect in the BIOS for devices that fall into the serial number ranges above (power and virtualization).

1. Power settings:
   
   For devices where the BIOS power setting is incorrect, the device will not power on automatically by itself after a power failure. The only way to get the unit to power back up is to manually press the power button. This will reboot the unit and it should come back online.
    
2. Server Virtualization settings:
   
   When a user attempts to enable a virtual blade, the process will not start and virtualization will not enable on the unit.
   
   If console logging is enabled, the following messages will appear when virtualization is enabled:
    

   NO-HOSTNAME#virtual-blade 1 start
   2011 Jun 29 15:12:02 NO-HOSTNAME kernel: %WAAS-SYS-3-100000: kvm: disabled by bios
   2011 Jun 29 15:12:02 NO-HOSTNAME virtual-blade: %WAAS-VIRTUAL_BLADE-3-980003: KVM module failed to load

   
   Otherwise the following messages will be logged in the syslog.txt file when server virtualization is enabled:
    

   2011 May 27 15:46:42 NO-HOSTNAME kernel: %WAAS-SYS-3-900000: kvm: disabled by bios
   2011 May 27 15:46:42 NO-HOSTNAME virtual-blade: %WAAS-VIRTUAL_BLADE: KVM module failed to load

Workaround/Solution

This can be fixed one of two ways. Manually changing the BIOS to the correct setting or an install CD that can be obtained through TAC.

Option #1 Manual Process to correct BIOS settings:

User MUST have console access to run through the manual process.

How to Enter BIOS Configuration Screen? Hit F10 from the keyboard or ESC+0 from the console port at this point in the boot process to enter the BIOS configuration screen.

Choose the appropriate language:

Setting the "After Power Loss" option for "Previous State". It must be set for "previous state" or the user will need to manually push the power button for the unit to come back online after a power outage.

Note: In order to save this screen always hit ESC+0 before move to the next menu to save these settings.

Setting the "Intel Virtualization Technology" option to "Enable"

Note: In order to save this screen always hit ESC+0 before move to the next menu to save these settings.

Saving the BIOS configuration

Option #2 CD BIOS update:

Contact Cisco TAC and request a copy of the WAVE-274/474 BIOS Settings Configuration CD. Please reference this field notice when doing so.

Instructions for the BIOS update CD (NOTE: you will need physical access to the device to run through this procedure):

1. Insert CD
2. Power cycle unit
3. Wait 30 seconds (you will hear beeps when BIOS settings have been changed).
4. Remove CD
5. Power cycle unit

You can monitor the progress on the console port, or you can just wait 30 seconds.

How To Identify Affected Products

In order to identify the HW and serial number, enter the show inventory command into the CLI.

NO-HOSTNAME#show inventory
PID: WAVE-274-K9 VID: 0 SN: 2UA82103YF

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email
• By telephone

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