Field Notice: FN74252 - BBU Marked as Bad with Safety Status 0xf000 Due to Firmware Defect - BIOS/Firmware Upgrade Recommended
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Notice
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Products Affected
| Affected Product Name | Description | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| UCSX-X10C-RAIDF | UCS X10c Compute RAID Controller with LSI 3900 (Front) | |
| UCSX-X10C-RAIDF-D | UCS X10c Compute RAID Controller with LSI 3900 (Front) | |
| UCSX-X10C-RAIDF= | UCS X10c Compute RAID Controller with LSI 3900 (Front) |
Defect Information
| Defect ID | Headline |
| CSCwm13829 | BBU is marked by RAID controller with Safety Status Register = 0xf000 |
Problem Description
Cisco UCS X-Series Compute Nodes are reporting a StorageRaidBatteryDegraded alarm due to a corrupted voltage reading that is not related to a supercapacitor hardware failure.
The supercapacitor module is marked inoperable, and the Write policy on any existing virtual drive will automatically switch from Write Back to Write Through.
Background
The supercapacitor module connects to the front mezzanine storage module board of a Cisco UCS X-Series server and provides power to the RAID controller if facility power is interrupted.
Under rare circumstances, Cisco UCS X-Series Compute Node RAID controllers read a corrupted voltage value and will mark the supercapacitor module as inoperable.
Problem Symptom
A Cisco UCS X-Series blade server will report the following alarm, as shown in the output and image below:
StorageRaidBatteryDegraded: Battery Backup unit <chassis>/<server>/board/controller-1/BBU-CVPM03 is inoperable and needs to be replaced.
When this fault is present, existing virtual drives will switch from a Write Back policy to a Write Through policy.
Workaround/Solution
Solution
A supercapacitor replacement will not resolve this issue. To resolve this issue, upgrade firmware as shown in the following table, and then complete the steps following the table:
| Affected Cisco Product | Affected Release | First Fixed Release |
|---|---|---|
| UCSX-X10C-RAID Firmware | 52.23.0-5117, 0x001C or earlier | 52.30.0-5806,0x001F |
| Intersight Server Bundle | 5.2(0.230092) or earlier | 5.3(0.250021) 5.0(4i) |
| UCS Manager (UCSM) Software (Server bundle) | 4.3(5c) or earlier | 4.3(5d) |
To clear the alarm after the upgrade, complete the following steps to reset the controller to factory defaults:
1. Launch the KVM console.
2. Reboot the server and press F2 when prompted.
3. From the Advanced tab, choose BROADCOM <UCS X10c Compute RAID controller> Configuration Utility.
4. Choose Set Factory Defaults.
5. On the next screen, set Confirmed to Enabled.
6. Choose Yes.
7. Press F10 to save and exit.
If the issue reoccurs after upgrading the firmware, the battery backup unit (BBU)/supercapacitor is legitimately bad and needs to be replaced. Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) and request a replacement if this occurs.
How to Identify Affected Products
All Cisco UCS X-Series servers that are equipped with the UCSX-X10C-RAIDF or UCSX-X10C-RAIDF-D RAID controllers that are running a firmware release earlier than the first fixed bundle release, as shown in the image below, are susceptible to this defect.
Additional Information
See the following table for information about specific RAID controller fixed firmware that is bundled into the release:
| Cisco Product | Fixed Firmware Release |
|---|---|
| UCSM Managed Mode | 4.3(5d) |
| Intersight Managed Mode | 5.3(0.250021) 5.0(4i) |
To verify that the reason for the supercapacitor alarm matches this issue, blade server technical support diagnostics files can be collected. For more information, see Intersight Help Center - Managing Technical Support.
The storage controller TTY log will report Safety Status Register = 0xf000 as shown in the following example. The server must be powered on during technical support diagnostics file generation.
/var/log/tty_log_MRAID_202x-xxxx.txt
08/02/24 23:25:59.011: C1:Fault input = 0x1, Safety Status Register = 0xf000
To check if your system has been properly updated, download and extract a server tech support bundle that will look for the file mnt/scratchpad/techsupport_pid####/tech_support.
Search for "psoc" in the file. If the value is empty, the system has not been updated. If the value is 001F or higher as shown in the following example, the system is running on a patched software version:
+psoc: 001F
Revision History
| Version | Description | Section | Date |
| 1.1 | Updated the affected release number for Cisco UCS Manager. | Workaround/Solution | 2025-JUL-30 |
| 1.0 | Initial Release | — | 2025-JUL-10 |
For More Information
For further assistance or for more information about this field notice, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) using one of the following methods:
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