Release Notes for Cisco Integrated Management Controller

Table Of Contents

Release Notes for Cisco Integrated Management Controller

Contents

Introduction

Hardware and Software Interoperability

Software Features

System Requirements

Updating the Firmware

Limitations and Restrictions

Open Caveats

Related Documentation

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

Release Notes for Cisco Integrated Management Controller

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Date: September 15, 2011

Part Number:OL-20681-01

This document describes the new features, system requirements, and caveats for CIMC, as well as any related firmware or drivers . Use this document in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

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Note We sometimes update the documentation after original publication. Therefore, you should also review the documentation on Cisco.com for any updates.

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Table 1 shows the online change history for this document.

Table 1 Online History Change 

Part Number	Revision	Date	Description
OL-20681-01	A0	September 15, 2011	Release notes made public for initial release

Contents

This document includes the following sections:

•Introduction

•System Requirements

•Updating the Firmware

•Limitations and Restrictions

•Open Caveats

•Related Documentation

•Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

Introduction

The Cisco® Unified Computing System is a next-generation data center platform that unites servers, network, storage access, and virtualization into a cohesive system designed to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase business agility. The system integrates a low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. The system is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain.

C-series servers are capable of standalone management separate from the integrated system, using a simple Web-based interface called Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC).

Hardware and Software Interoperability

For detailed information about storage switch, operating system, adapter, adapter utility, and storage array interoperability, see the Hardware and Software Interoperability Matrix located at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/interoperability/matrix/hw_sw_interop_matrix_seriesC_101.pdf

Software Features

The following system management features are supported in software for this release:

•Display of sensor readings

•Host LOMs

•BMC shared or dedicated MAC and PHY Drivers

•SPI Flash program storage for BMC

•In Chassis USB key Support

•Thermal monitoring and control

•Power Supply Control

•CLI

•IPMIv2.0, KVM, vMedia, SoL

• Web GUI

•Fan Control

•Cooling Zone control

•Power Management

•Network driver

•DoS detection and prevention

•AAA verification

•FW Upgrade

•Multi-PCIe Slot

•SAS Array

System Requirements

The management client must meet or exceed the following minimum system requirements:

•Sun JRE 1.6 or later.

•Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher

•The Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 or higher operating systems

Updating the Firmware

To update the CISM firmware, refer to the "Firmware Management" chapter in the software configuration documents:

Limitations and Restrictions

Server OS

Symptom    CIMC cannot see a USB drive mapped thru virtual media.

Workaround   The kernel needs to be rebuilt with max_luns option set to 255 in modprobe.conf. For full details from Red Hat, refer to the articleat http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-3293 (CSCtd03150)

Symptom    Unable to install VMware on ICH10 SATA controller in SW RAID mode. This only affects loading VMware ona ICH10 SATA Controller in SW RAID mode. RHEL & SUSE are ok when the correct drivers are loaded.

Workaround   None. (CSCtb49393)

Open Caveats

This section lists the open caveats for this release.

BIOS

Symptom    Faulty DIMMs size and speed are sometimes reported in SMBIOS Type 17. The expected behavior is to report "No DIMM" for failed DIMM slots.

Workaround   The user should not assume all DIMMs reported through SMBIOS type 17 are working. Instead the user should go to BIOS setup to investigat working and failing DIMMs. You can also retrieve DIMM failure information from SEL. (CSCtd44151)

Symptom    When CMOS is cleared by jumper or by CIMC, the date and time of the system does not get reset to a default value or keep its correct value.

Workaround   After clearing the CMOS, set the correct date and time using the BIOS setup or booting to an OS. (CSCtd38095)

Symptom    If the BIOS senses a faulty memory DIMM the LED next to the slot will not be lit until after the BIOS POST is complete.

Workaround   None, the delay is unavoidable. The fault information is available in the BIOS setup memory information and the BMC SEL event log, you can check there to discover which DIMM is faulty. (CSCtd44133)

Symptom    When VT-UTF8 is selected as a terminal type in BIOS Setup, junk characters are seen on the terminal.

Workaround   Do not select the VT-UTF8 terminal type, instead use the VT100 default mode. (CSCtb25124)

Symptom    After installing the CMOS clear jumper or clearing CMOS from CIMC, the date shows as 01/01/01XX. The expectation is to see the default date as 01/01/1998.

Workaround   After clearing CMOS, the user is expected to set the correct date. Once the date is set to a correct date, it will persist. (CSCtc14697)

Symptom    EFIOptimized is a command under the UEFI Shell used to enable EFI optimized mode which removes legacy components of the BIOS. When you enable this mode, the boot order is changed to boot from the EFI Shell only. When you disable this mode, the expectation is to see previously configured devices in the boot order, but in the case of the LSI 1064E SAS controller, you will not see the SAS drives in the BIOS Setup screen.

Workaround   Reapply the desired boot order through Web UI or CLI interfaces of CIMC. (CSCtc76805)

GUI Interface

Symptom    Special characters such as $ or ! are not allowed while setting the default password using CIMC Utility . When a special character is given while settingthe password an error message saying : "Invalid character"appears.

Workaround   Do not use special characters for password. Only following characters are supported are "A-Z", "a-z", "0-9", ".", "+", "_" and "-". If you have used a special character in your password and now cannot access CIMC due to that please use the CIMC utility to set a conforming password and this will resolve the issue. (CSCtd38085)

Symptom    After logging in to the CIMC WebUI with one instance of Internet Explorer, opening a new browser instance and logging in again causes the first browser instance to be logged out without terminating the session. The old session still appears in the User Management -> Sessions screen. This only occurs with Internet Explorer 7 and 6 under certain conditions. The second browser instance must have been opened by using the desktop icon rather than using the File -> New menu option. Also, after logging in the first browser instance, the KVM console must have been launched.

Workaround   Do not try to start two sessions to the CIMC WebUI with the same browser from the same host. If you need multiple sessions from the same host, use to different browser types, e.g. Internet Explorer and Firefox. (CSCtd40863)

Symptom    When installing CIMC firmware through the browser client, the progress stays at 5% during the download. If you are downloading over a slow connection, it may appear as if the installation is stuck.

Workaround   That is expected behavior, wait for the download to complete. The progess will resume incrementing with the various stages of firmware installation after the download completes. It is highly recommended that you use a reliable and fast connection, such as your corporate LAN, when installing firmware. (CSCtd31245)

Symptom    While paging through the System Event Log entries, the WebUI appears to skip over some entries. For example, the WebUI shows that it is displaying "Log Entries 1 to 49", but after clicking the "Older >" link, it displays "Log Entries 51 to 100", skipping over entry 50. This may occur if the log contains invalid entries that are filtered out.

Workaround   None. (CSCtd16071)

Symptom    The WebUI displays a "client could not parse XML from server" message. This generally happens when the CIMC is not responding. Common operations that would cause the CIMC to be temporarily unavailable include: rebooting the CIMC, activating new CIMC firmware, changing HTTP parameters on the CIMC, and uploading a new server certificate.

Workaround   When this message is displayed, click the browser's "Refresh" button. If the browser says the site is unavailable, wait a few minutes and click the "Refresh" button again. (CSCtc99186)

Symptom    The WebUI Admin->User Management->Sessions page does not get refreshed automatically when the user launches the KVM console. When you go to the Admin->User Management->Sesssions page and click on the "Launch KVM Console" button on the toolbar the KVM Console will pop-up however the KVM Console session is not reported on the Sessions page.

Workaround   Click the "Refresh" button on the toolbar to see the new KVM session.(CSCtb06106)

Symptom    Existing WebUI sessions are not terminated after changing the CIMC IP address. After changing the IP address, the WebUI will not respond to requests at the old IP address. You will need to log in to the WebUI again at the new IP address. The old WebUI sessions however will still be active and can be seen in the Admin -> User Management -> Sessions screen.

Workaround   There are three possible workarounds:

1. After changing the IP address, manually log out from the session immediately and log in again using the new IP address.

2. After logging in using the new IP address, manually terminate the old sessions using the Admin -> User Management -> Sessions screen.

3. Do nothing and the sessions will automatically time out after the configured timeout period. (CSCtb72716)

IPMI

Symptom    POST Quiet display function does not work as expected. POST diagnostic messages display on the screen instead of the Cisco logo.

Workaround   Go to the BIOS setup and use the Quiet boot mode option to enable Quiet boot mode and display the Cisco logo if desired. (CSCtb85059)

Symptom    When using the IPMI SOL set configuration commands, IPMI SOL parameter changes can be applied even if the sub-function is disabled

Workaround   None. (CSCtb64323)

Symptom    A boot order set using the BIOS will be shown but will not persist across a CIMC reboot.

Workaround   If you need boot-order to be persistent in CIMC, manage it via the CIMC rather than using the BIOS. (CSCtc65961)

KVM

Symptom    Launching the KVM console with Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers fails and causes the message "Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found." This error occurs with Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers with the advanced "Do not save encrypted pages to disk" option set.

Workaround   From the Internet Explorer toolbar, select Tools -> Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog will pop up. Click the Advanced tab and uncheck the "Do not save encrypted pages to disk" option. (CSCtd19439)

LEDs

Symptom    The front panel Power LED should blink when the host is powered off. Currently the hardware does not support blinking the Power LED when the host is on standby power.

Workaround   None (CSCtb90666)

Related Documentation

The following related documentation is available for the Cisco Unified Computing System:

•Cisco UCS Documentation Roadmap

•Cisco UCS Site Preparation Guide

•Regulatory Compliance and Safety Information for Cisco UCS

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see the monthly What's New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation, at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html

Subscribe to the What's New in Cisco Product Documentation as an RSS feed and set content to be delivered directly to your desktop using a reader application. The RSS feeds are a free service. Cisco currently supports RSS Version 2.0.

This document is to be used in conjunction with the documents listed in the "Related Documentation" section.

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Release Notes for Cisco UCS C-Series Manager
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