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This chapter provides an overview of faults in Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). This chapter contains the following sections:
Note For NX-OS Fault messages, go to the Cisco NX-OS System Messages Reference.
This section includes the following topics:
In the Cisco UCS, a fault is a mutable object that is managed by the Cisco UCS Manager. Each fault represents a failure in the Cisco UCS instance or an alarm threshold that has been raised. During the lifecycle of a fault, it can change from one state or severity to another.
Each fault includes information about the operational state of the affected object at the time the fault was raised. If the fault is transitional and the failure is resolved, then the object transitions to a functional state.
A fault remains in the Cisco UCS Manager until the fault is cleared and deleted according to the settings in the fault collection policy.
You can view all faults in the Cisco UCS instance from either the Cisco UCS Manager CLI or the Cisco UCS Manager GUI. You can also configure the fault collection policy to determine how a Cisco UCS instance collects and retains faults.
Note All Cisco UCS faults can be trapped by SNMP.
A fault raised in a Cisco UCS instance can transition through more than one severity during its lifecycle. Table 1-1 describes the possible fault severities in alphabetical order.
A fault raised in a Cisco UCS instance can be one of the types described in Table 1-2 .
The Cisco UCS Manager provides detailed information about each fault raised in a Cisco UCS instance. Table 1-3 describes the fault properties that can be viewed in the Cisco UCS Manager CLI or the Cisco UCS Manager GUI.
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The current severity level of the fault. This can be any of the severities described in Table 1-1. |
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The day and time on which the severity for the fault last changed. If the severity has not changed since the fault was raised, this property displays the original creation date. |
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The component that is affected by the condition that raised the fault. |
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Additional information about the fault state. This can be any of the states described in Table 1-4. |
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The type of fault that has been raised. This can be any of the types described in Table 1-2. |
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The unique identifier associated with the condition that caused the fault. |
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The number of times the event that raised the fault occurred. |
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The severity assigned to the fault on the first time that it occurred. |
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The faults in Cisco UCS are stateful, and a fault raised in a Cisco UCS instance transitions through more than one state during its lifecycle. In addition, only one instance of a given fault can exist on each object. If the same fault occurs a second time, the Cisco UCS increases the number of occurrences by one.
A fault has the following lifecycle:
1. A condition occurs in the system and the Cisco UCS raises a fault in the active state.
2. If the fault is alleviated within a short period of time know as the flap interval, the fault severity remains at its original active value but the fault enters the soaking state. The soaking state indicates that the condition that raised the fault has cleared, but the system is waiting to see whether the fault condition reoccurs.
3. If the condition reoccurs during the flap interval, the fault enters the flapping state. Flapping occurs when a fault is raised and cleared several times in rapid succession. If the condition does not reoccur during the flap interval, the fault is cleared.
4. Once cleared, the fault enters the retention interval. This interval ensures that the fault reaches the attention of an administrator even if the condition that caused the fault has been alleviated, and that the fault is not deleted prematurely. The retention interval retains the cleared fault for the length of time specified in the fault collection policy.
5. If the condition reoccurs during the retention interval, the fault returns to the active state. If the condition does not reoccur, the fault is deleted.
When a fault is active, the additional lifecycle state information listed in Table 1-4 may be provided in the Status field of the fault notification.
The fault collection policy controls the lifecycle of a fault in the Cisco UCS instance, including the length of time that each fault remains in the flapping and retention intervals.
Tip For information on how to configure the fault collection policy, see the Cisco UCS configuration guides, accessible through the Cisco UCS B-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap.
If you want to view the faults for a single object in the system, navigate to that object in the Cisco UCS Manager GUI and then click the Faults tab in the Work pane. If you want to view the faults for all objects in the system, navigate to the Faults node on the Admin tab under the Faults, Events and Audit Log.
In addition, a summary of all faults can be viewed in a Cisco UCS instance. Go to the Fault Summary area in the upper left of the Cisco UCS Manager GUI. This area provides a summary of all faults that have occurred in the Cisco UCS instance.
Each fault severity is represented by a different icon. The number below each icon indicates how many faults of that severity have occurred in the system. When you click an icon, the Cisco UCS Manager GUI opens the Faults tab in the Work pane and displays the details of all faults with that severity.
If you want to view the faults for all objects in the system, at the top-level scope, enter the show fault command. If you want to view faults for a specific object, scope to that object and then enter the show fault command.
If you want to view all of the available details about a fault, enter the show fault detail command.
This section includes the following topics:
A finite state machine (FSM) is a workflow model, similar to a flow chart, that is composed of the following:
The current stage in the FSM is determined by past stages and the operations performed to transition between the stages. A transition from one stage to another stage is dependent on the success or failure of an operation.
Cisco UCS Manager uses FSM tasks that run in the Data Management Engine (DME) to manage end points in the UCS object model, including the following:
The DME manages the FSM stages and transition, and instructs the Application Gateway (AG) to perform operations on the managed end points. Therefore, each stage can be considered to be an interaction between the DME, the AG, and the managed end point. The AGs do the real work of interacting with managed end points, such as the CIMC, the adapter, or the I/O module
When all of the FSM stages have run successfully, the Cisco UCS considers that the FSM operation is successful.
If the FSM encounters an error or a timeout at a stage, the FSM retries that stage at scheduled intervals. When the retry count has been reached for that stage, the FSM stops and the Cisco UCS Manager declares that the change have failed. If an FSM task fails, the Cisco UCS Manager raises the appropriate faults and alarms.
The mMultiple FSM tasks can be associated to an end point. However, only one FSM task at a time can run. Additional FSM tasks for the same end point are placed in a queue and are scheduled to be run when the previous FSM task is either successfully completed or the task fails.
You can view the FSM details for a particular end point to determine if a task succeeded or failed. You can also use the FSM to troubleshoot any failures.
The FSM stage names are constructed using the following notation
Fsm ObjectWorkflowOperationWhere-is-it-executed
Each FSM stage name has a prefix that identifies the FSM and a suffix that identifies a stage within the FSM. The prefix notation is Fsm ObjectWorkflow and the suffix notation is OperationWhere-is-it-executed. For example, if the FSM name is FsmComputeBladeDiscoverBmcInventory :
The Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays the FSM information for an end point on the FSM tab for that end point. You can use the FSM tab to monitor the progress and status of the current FSM task and view a list of the pending FSM tasks.
The information about a current FSM task in the Cisco UCS Manager GUI is dynamic and changes as the task progresses. You can view the following information about the current FSM task:
To view the FSM task for an end point that supports FSM, navigate to the end point in the Navigation pane and click on the FSM tab in the Work pane.
The Cisco UCS Manager CLI can display the FSM information for an end point when you are in the command mode for that end point.
Enter the show fsm status command in the appropriate mode to view the current FSM task for an end point. The information displayed about a current FSM task in the CLI is static. You must re-enter the command to see the progress updates. The following example displays the information about the current FSM task for the server in chassis 1, slot 6:
Enter the show fsm task command in the appropriate mode to view all of the pending tasks in the FSM queue. The following example displays the FSM task queue for the server in chassis 1, slot 6: