Release Notes for Cisco UCS C-Series Software, Release 1.4(1)

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 for your release located at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10477/prod_technical_reference_list.html

Firmware Files

The C-Series software release 1.4(1) includes the following software files:

Note Always upgrade both the BIOS and the CIMC from the HUU ISO. Do not upgrade individual components (only BIOS or only CIMC), since this could lead to unexpected behavior.

Host Upgrade Utility

The Cisco Host Upgrade Utility (HUU) is a tool that upgrades the following firmware:

• Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC)
• System BIOS
• LAN on motherboard (LOM)
• RAID Controllers (LSI storage controllers)
• Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card (VIC)
• Broadcom PCIe adapters

– 5709 Dual and Quad port adapters

– 57711 Dual port adapter

– 57712 Dual port adapter

• Intel® PRO/1000 PF Quad Port Server Adapter

In addition, this utility now supports the following options:

• Download ISO images for a selected platform on a Windows operating system.
• Recover a corrupt BIOS in the EFI shell.

The image file for the firmware is embedded in the ISO. The utility displays a menu that allows you to choose which firmware components to upgrade. For more information on this utility see:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10493/products_user_guide_list.html

Starting with this 1.4 release, separate ISO images of Host Upgrade Utility are available for different server platforms.

The ISO image is now named as ucs-<server_platform>-huu-<version_number>.iso.

The Cisco Host Upgrade Utility contains the following files:

System Requirements

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

• Sun JRE 1.7.0_45 or earlier (Till 1.6.0_14)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher
• Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Apple Mac OS X v10.6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 or higher operating systems

Updating the Firmware

Use the Host Upgrade Utility to upgrade the C-Series firmware. Host Upgrade Utility can upgrade the following software components:

• BIOS
• CIMC
• LAN on Motherboard Settings
• RAID Controller Firmware
• Select PCIe adapter Firmware

All firmware should be upgraded together to ensure proper operation of your server.

Hardware Features

The following platforms are supported in release 1.4:

• UCS-C200
• UCS-C210
• UCS-C250

SNMP

The supported MIB definition for release 1.4(1) can be found at the following link: ftp://ftp.cisco.com/pub/mibs/supportlists/ucs/ucs-C-supportlist.html

Note The above link is incompatible with IE 9.0.

Supported Storage Controllers

SNMP supports the following storage controllers:

• 9260-4i
• 9260-8i
• 9261-8i
• 9240-8i
• 9280-4i4e

BIOS/Hardware

Symptom Cisco is introducing a new generation of SATA 2.5-inch hard drives which are for the first time compatible with the new SATA Revision 3.0 standard capable of 6 Gbit/s. In particular these hard drives are SATA 500 GB (A03-D500GC3) and 1 TB (A03-D1TBSATA). Due to legacy design constraints in certain Generation M2 C-Series servers, the faster 6 Gbit/s link speeds may not always be possible in all servers. However, in those cases, the link speeds will properly negotiate the link back to the Revision 2.0 standard capability of 3 Gbit/s. This operation is seamless to the user.

Workaround This is a known behavior, as follows:

• The UCS C200 M2 SFF server supports these drives at full 6Gbit/s speeds.
• The UCS C210 M2 server guarantees support of these drives at a minimum of 3Gbit/s speeds.
• The UCS C250 M2 server guarantees support of these drives at a minimum of 3Gbit/s speeds.
• The UCS C460 M2 server supports these drives at full 6Gbit/s speeds.

Note In some cases, you may find that some or all links have negotiated to the higher 6Gbit/s speeds. Those links that do, will operate properly at that speed.

Upgrading BIOS and CIMC firmware

Caution When you upgrade the BIOS firmware, you must also upgrade the CIMC firmware from the same HUU ISO, or the server may not boot. Do not power off the server until the BIOS and CIMC firmware are updated.

---

Cisco provides the Cisco Host Upgrade Utility to assist you in upgrading the BIOS, CIMC, LOM, LSI storage controller, and Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card firmware to compatible levels.

The correct and compatible firmware levels for your server model are embedded in the utility ISO.

To use this utility, start with the Cisco Host Upgrade Utility User Guide, which includes the instructions for downloading and using the utility ISO. Select the correct guide for your desired firmware version from this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10493/products_user_guide_list.html

• Cisco Host Upgrade Utility User Guide for Release 1.2(x)
• Cisco Host Upgrade Utility User Guide for Release 1.3(x)
• Cisco Host Upgrade Utility User Guide for Release 1.4(x)

BIOS

Symptom Attempt to reset the C250 server from the BMC causes spurious ECC uncorrectable errors.

Workaround Do not reset the server from the BMC, instead power down and power up the server. (CSCtt35212)

The following caveats were resolved in the 1.4(1) release:

BIOS

Symptom If you enter into the LSI Option ROM Configuration utility WebBIOS, by pressing <CNTRL-H> during boot, the BIOS boot order changes. So after exiting the WebBIOS and rebooting, the system might not boot in the same order as expected previously.

Workaround After exiting the WebBIOS (which reboots the system anyway), update the Boot order by entering BIOS Setup. Follow these steps:

Step 1 Press F2 to enter the BIOS Setup.

Step 2 Goto Boot Option Tab, select “Hard Disk Order” and update the boot order as required.

Step 3 Update the Boot Option #1, #2, and so on.

Step 4 Save and exit (F10). (CSCta56788)

Symptom When VT-UTF8 is selected as a terminal type in the 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)

CIMC

Symptom Immediately after switching off the main CPU in C460 M1 rack server, the CIMC becomes unresponsive.

Workaround Restart the CIMC. (CSCtl56864)

Symptom On some UCS C210 servers, FAN4 and FAN5 TACH sensors are showing status as CRITICAL and the speed is 0.

Workaround None. (CSCtr11881)

Symptom BIOS configuration is not saved in CIMC exported configuration.

Workaround None. (CSCtl72671)

Symptom Gradual memory leak over a period of time is seen in CIMC, which may lead to Out of Memory (OOM) scenario. This is observed when the SNMP feature is enabled.

Workaround None. This has been resolved in 1.3(3) and 1.4(1). (CSCto53530)

Symptom Disabling SNMP feature from Cisco CLI fails.

Workaround Use WebGUI to disable SNMP feature. This is available in the page Admin->Communications services. (CSCtq28791)

Symptom If you enter special characters for a VNIC name like “(“or”)” then a core is generated.

Workaround Special characters should be assigned in quotes. For example, If assigning cd()() as the name of the VNIC, it should be enclosed in quotes in the GUI as “cd()()”. (CSCto54995)

Symptom Image files created by the Virtual Media subsystem are created in the user's desktop directory.

Workaround There is no workaround. Currently image files are always created in the user's desktop directory. Once the image file is created a user can move it anywhere, but the creation process is currently in a fixed location. (CSCtk59127)

LOM

Symptom C460 10GE LOM ports are not supported in RHEL 5.6. Broadcom netxtreme2-6.0.XX Linux drivers cannot be compiled in RHEL 5.6.

Workaround Broadcom does not support RHEL5.6 in this release. (CSCtn17919)

KVM

Symptom User sees out of date (without KVM and VM tabs) KVM/vMedia client windows.

Workaround When running 1.3(1) software, if a KVM session is initiated, and the client does not have separate KVM and VM tabs, then it almost certainly indicates an older client is being run. The solution is to clear the java cache on the system. This is different than the browser cache. On Windows XP, follow these steps:

Step 1 Navigate to the Control Panel -> Java Control Panel.

Step 2 Click on the Settings button in the Temporary Internet Files panel.

Step 3 Click on the Delete Files button in the Temporary Files Settings popup box.

Step 4 Be sure to check the Applications and Applets checkbox and then click OK. (CSCtn41499)

Symptom User is not allowed to choose file name when creating vMedia image files.

Workaround The.img file created when using the vMedia “Create Image” feature is the same as the directory from which the contents are created with the “.img” extension added. Before creating the file, you can change the directory name to match what you would like the final file name to be. (CSCtk59152)

BIOS

Symptom BIOS POST will generate “PCI out of resource” errors when more than three PCI cards are added to a server, and all the PCI cards may not function correctly once the server boots to an Operating System.

Workaround Disable unused PCI card option in ROMs using BIOS setup or CIMC BIOS configuration page.

Symptom Two CPU erroneously detected with different frequency after OS reboot. During boot the server may hang with the following message during BIOS post. Unrecoverable fatal error found. System will not boot until the error is resolved.

Workaround Reset the server.

Symptom On the C series servers with UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card, the system may hang during system boot (BIOS post).

Workaround This happens only when more than two vNICs are set to bootable in UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card. Do not set more than two vNICs to be bootable in UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card.

Symptom BIOS boot order may get corrupted when you try to set the boot order from CIMC.

Workaround You can recover the boot order by configuring the boot order from CIMC with “EFI Shell” as the boot device. “EFI Shell” is provided as a boot option mainly for diagnostic and debugging purposes. This is the last option by default. In case, if it is needed to set “EFI Shell” as first boot device, then BIOS setup should be used to set the boot order.

Symptom When BIOS recovery process is initiated to recover a corrupt BIOS, this process will alter the boot order.

Workaround The boot order has to be reconfigured using BIOS setup after doing the BIOS recovery.

CIMC

Symptom When tested using test manager on C200 M1 platform with firmware version 4.1(1), and host OS Window 2008 R2 with Hyper V, the test result displays the following:

On running the Intel chipset test tool, the test result displays the following:

and, it appears that VMware runs faster than the Windows.

Workaround To resolve Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V performance issue, follow these steps:

Step 1 Update the processor chipset driver.

Step 2 Update NIC driver.

Step 3 Disable VT-d in BIOS, recommended by Microsoft. (CSCtx89650)

Symptom

Workaround

Symptom After Factory default, if the network cable is connected to management port 2. IP restored does not ping.

Workaround We need to connect to management port 1, if we are trying to use factory defaults. CIMC will retain a DHCP IP on management port 1. So we will not loose connectivity to the machine.

Symptom Occasionally when configuring a C-series rack server for in-band management (connecting to the management controller via the host LAN on Motherboard ports, or via a Cisco adapter port), rebooting the host will cause an existing vKVM session to drop.

Workaround Use the dedicated CIMC ports for management connectivity. If that is not possible in your C-series server deployment, configure the switch ports to which the host is attached for fast spanning-tree recalculations. That can avoid the usual 30-second delay many switches impose when a port bounces before they re-run the spanning-tree calculation.

Symptom After resetting a C250 M1 to factory defaults, if the network cable is connected to management port 2, the restored IP does not ping other addresses. Factory default mode is not supposed to be used for normal operation. If ethernet management port 2 is used it gets a static IP used by Cisco even if DHCP is enabled.

Workaround Connect to management port 1 instead.

Symptom SSH and HTTP both can be disabled. If both SSH and HTTP are disabled at the same time then you will loose the complete connectivity to CIMC.

Workaround Do not disable SSH and HTTP at the same time. If disabled, to recover reset the factory default jumper on the board.

Symptom CIMC becomes un-responsive when repeated WSMAN requests are sent.

Workaround Multiple WSMAN requests timeout as current CIM object manager servers only support one request at a time. Send WSMAN requests in a staggered manner so that they do not time out.

Symptom When downgrading from CIMC version 1.2 release to 1.1, CIMC is inaccessible.

Workaround Check its current network settings through the CIMC Configuration Utility or set the CIMC network settings to default using the CIMC Configuration Utility and use default network settings for version 1.1.

vKVM/vMedia

Symptom RHEL 4.8 does not detect the USB when mounted through virtual media.

Workaround The kernel needs to be rebuilt with max_luns option set to 255 in modprobe.conf.

Symptom Launching the KVM console with Microsoft Internet Explorer browser fails with the message “Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found”.

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

Symptom Unable to launch KVM. While launching the KVM, the error message “Login Failed” is thrown and KVM Closed Automatically. This can occur in the following scenarios:

• When you try to launch all the Maximum KVM sessions quickly (4 KVM session) and you can see that out of 4, 2 or 3 are failed with an error Message “Login Failed”.
• When launching single session of KVM, you might get an error message “Login Failed” and KVM is automatically closed.

Workaround When the KVM launch is failed with an error message “Login Failed” then wait for 2-3 mins and then again relauch the KVM.

Symptom Sometimes blank screen is seen on KVM after FW update.

Workaround Clear Java cache from the control panel for Windows machine.

Symptom The virtual mouse in the KVM console is difficult to use when installing SLES 11.

Workaround Use a physical mouse instead of a virtual mouse when installing SLES 11.

Symptom On C460, firmware update might fail with an error message “System update Package not found for the platform” or “Error string not found”.

Workaround Check if the SCU boot CD / ISO is mounted / mapped in vmedia.

• Retry the update after making the SCU CD/ISO available.

Symptom KVM and vMedia does not work with mismatched IE and JRE executables.

Workaround Ensure that the matching JRE (and only the matching JRE) are installed. If a mismatched JRE is installed, it needs to be removed.

LSI

Symptom ESX3.5 does not support LSI 9261-8i RAID Controller.

Workaround Use the 8707 RAID adapter instead.

Symptom System reboots when one or more Intel SSD 64GB drives are plugged in when the C-460 Server is up and running.

Workaround If Intel 64GB SSD drives need to be used in the C-460 server, power down the system completely and gracefully and then plug in the drives. The drives are recognised by the Storage controller after power-on.

CLI

Symptom In Power restore policy, a delay value is shown even if the delay type is random. In CLI, if the power policy is set to random, ideally delay value should not be shown.

Workaround Due to CLI limitation delay value is shown. This must be ignored.

Misc

Symptom Windows 2008 R2 installation fails with the following message: “The Computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click OK to restart the computer, and then restart the installation”.

Workaround Remove the Intel® PRO/1000 PF Quad Port Server Adapter for a successful windows install.

Symptom The CLP command takes a long time to complete and/or other applications appear slow.

Workaround The -l all option instructs CLP to traverse the entire sub tree. Due to the number of objects that must be queried, this command requires a long time to execute. To reduce the time and resources required, cd to the target(s) of interest and execute a show on the individual objects.

Symptom Rx Errors or Rx FCS Errors reported by Ethernet vNICs.

• Processor C3 or C6 Enabled in the BIOS and high rx traffic load. In this case the PCIE root complex occasionally stalls up to 100 microseconds which may cause the ingress packet buffers to fill, resulting in a partial (truncated) frame which is reported as an FCS error.
• High traffic replication load to multiple vNICs assigned to the same uplink (For example, multiple vNICs in promiscuous mode). If receive traffic is replicated to multiple vNICs this may exceed the transfer ability of the adapter, resulting in the receive buffer filling. This may cause a truncated frame which will be reported as an FCS error.

Workaround Enable per-priority pause on active COSes on the switch.

LOM

Symptom Wake on LAN (WoL) Magic packet will not wake the system if they are sent to 10 GigE LOM SFP+ interfaces.

Workaround Use 1 GigE LOM ports for WoL.

Symptom C460 10GBaseT LOM port can not hold the link when the host is down (on standby power) and it is connected to a switch which does not support 1G or lower speed.

Workaround C460 10GBaseT LOM does not support 10G speed on standby. If the BMC network mode is “Shared 10G” and the LOM port has to stay up on standby power, the port must be connected to a switch which supports 1G or lower speed and auto negotiation must be enabled.

Web UI

Symptom While changing network mode to cisco card mode in IE, sometimes you might get an error as not able to parse the xml response.

Workaround Update IE browser version 8.0.6001.18702 and above or use other browser clients like Firefox, or Chrome.

Symptom The SEL Viewer agent in Windows 2003 might crash/stop when accessing SEL.

Workaround This issue is caused only when a COM based service try to access the WMI namespace. Assign the service with the current account (administrator) privilege. To set the privileges, follow these steps:

Step 1 Open services console by typing “services.msc” in Run.

Step 2 Select the service with the name “Cisco UCS SEL Viewer Agent”.

Step 3 Click on Log On tab.

Step 4 Change “Log on as” from “Local System Account” to “This account”.

Step 5 Restart the service.

It is recommended to run SEL Viewer agent from an administrator account.

Utilities

Symptom CIMC downgrade does not work. Firmware downgrade using the fwup utility older than ver 1.1.5 is causing the failure.

Workaround Use the fwup utility above ver 1.1.5. This version of utility is available only in the software releases above 1.4.x.

Symptom When you try to run other applications which uses the same IPMI driver used by SEL Viewer, SEL Viewer stops.

Workaround None.

Symptom All OEM events, severity, and other fields in SEL Viewer will be displayed as Unknown. For example, Microsoft Windows 2003 R2 or Windows 2006 with Microsoft IPMI driver installed logs OEM events not known by SEL Viewer utility.

Workaround None.

Symptom Unable to access SEL Viewer GUI. SEL Viewer may report CIMC unavailable.

Workaround Verify whether firewall is enabled and the port on which SEL Viewer is running (default: 9099) is allowed through firewall.

Symptom The SEL Viewer agent service stops in Windows when reloading SEL, while SEL is empty. This happens in the second attempt.

Workaround Start the service named “Cisco UCS SEL Viewer Agent” manually through service control panel.

The following are the known behaviors found in the 1.3(2d) release:

CLI

Symptom There’s a message discrepancy between user interface and CLI when an invalid special character is entered.

Workaround Special characters should be entered with double quotes to be considered a valid string.

The following are the known behaviors found in the 1.3(1c) release:

CIMC

Symptom KVM console is blank after updating CIMC firmware from AP to BP.

Workaround

Option 1: From control panel clear the cache of java and try performing the reproduction step.

Option 2: Move CIMC to 1.4(x) release.

vKVM/vMedia

Symptom When you try to use virtual media to map both a.img file and a physical USB stick (pen/thumb drive), the following message (or a similar one) pops up: “Either Virtual media is detached or virtual media redirection for the selected virtual disk drive is already is in use by another user”.

Workaround The workaround is to only map one or the other drive at a time.

Symptom When creating a vMedia image file, a popup with the following message is displayed, “Create Image Failed. An error occurred in the Image library”.

Workaround The image creation feature only supports image sizes up to 4 GB (32-bits) in size. Trying to create images from filesystems larger than that will result in an error. There is no direct workaround. Break data into smaller chunks, and represent each chunk as a separate image.

Symptom When shutting down a vKVM session, you will notice a popup with the following message, “Closing this session will also close the locked virtual media session. Do you want to continue?”

Workaround None. Click the “Yes” button.

The following are the known behaviors found in the 1.2(2d) release:

CIMC

Symptom With maximum hardware acceleration in some Windows OS installs, the vKVM cursor disappears.

Workaround If the slider is moved even one notch to the left of the maximum acceleration, then the remote cursor appears.

The following are the known behaviors found in the 1.2(1a) release:

BIOS

Symptom After upgrading to BIOS version 1.2.1a.0, one of the two onboard LOMs may get disabled.

Workaround After upgrading to BIOS version 1.2.1a.0, reboot the server, go to the BIOS setup screen, navigate to the Advanced -> PCI Configuration screen, and set the “Onboard Gbit NIC2” to enabled. Then save and exit the BIOS setup.

CIMC

Symptom The CIMC Web GUI doesn't come up after certificate import. The browser displays the following Error message: Error Invalid Server Certificate. A request failed because the server's certificate was invalid.

Workaround Provide different values for the corresponding fields for “Subject Information” and “Issuer Information” during the certificate import process.

Symptom After using the WSMAN command the session displays the following error message: Error: Unable to create Resource Locator object.

Workaround There is no workaround. This request is not valid. You will need to provide a valid target so that CIMC can return appropriate information.

Symptom Occasionally IPMI LAN interfaces will become unresponsive (to the point of lost functionality) under stress.

Workaround The workaround is not to use IPMI queries during times of high SOL traffic.

Symptom The uboot version shows extra character after normal CIMC version.

Workaround The extra character is displayed after updating to 1.2.x revisions of the firmware. This is a new feature added to the release and it specifies a specific uboot version.

Symptom Two active media sessions observed in the webUI/CLI.

Workaround Reset to default through the webUI or CLI so that the new changes take effect.

LSI

Symptom When the installation of the LSI SNMP agent on a Windows OS is complete, an error message that reads as “Fatal Error” may be displayed, indicating an unsupported version of firmware is installed on the storage controller.

Workaround The firmware version installed on the storage controller must be a supported version. To view the list of supported firmware versions for the controller, see: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10477/prod_technical_reference_list.html

Symptom When there are 8708 and 1064E LSI controllers on the same system, the product name of the 1064E controller is displayed as “UNUSED” on the MIB walk.

Workaround Remove the 8708 LSI controller and place only the 1064E to view the product name in the MIB walk.

BIOS

Symptom BIOS setup parameters configuration interface from CIMC does not validate runtime parameters of the system and also it is not aware of the interdependency between them. For example,

• If the memory configuration does not support memory mirroring, then BIOS setup does not show mirroring as a setup option. However, CIMC would still show the option to set mirroring.
• When the system is equipped with a 4 core CPU, BIOS setup option to disable the cores would only show upto 4 cores. However CIMC would still show the option upto 6 cores.
• When SATA controller is disabled, BIOS setup will hide the options to set other SATA controller parameters. However CIMC would still show the other SATA controller parameters.

Workaround Even though the options are shown and can be configured from CIMC, it does not create any side-effects, nor do any harm to the system. BIOS will handle them gracefully. (CSCtl21208)

Symptom BIOS downgrade using the iFlash32 utility, from 1.4.x to the older version 1.2.x fails.

Workaround Use the startup.nsh script available in the 1.2.x container for the downgrade. This script will execute the BIOS downgrade successfully. (CSCtr93601)

Symptom When the BIOS parameters are configured from CIMC CLI or WebUI interfaces, the configuration might not take effect.

Workaround Re-configure the BIOS parameters. (CSCtn46192)

CIMC

Symptom When you reboot/upgrade the CIMC firmware through the WebGUI, the WebGUI will redirect to login page. When you try to login, you will get a message “session is already active, please logout to clear the existing session”. You will get the same message, even after you logout, and login again.

Workaround You must clear the cookies/cache to login successfully. (CSCts39518)

Symptom The AES encryption field does not show the encryption level (128/256/ etc) on the Web UI and CLI.

Workaround The SNMP V3 encryption key length must be clearly indicated. The SNMP agent supports AES - 128 bit encryption by default. (CSCtr31577)

Symptom SNMP V1 test traps are sent even when V2 or V3 traps are enabled.

Workaround There is no provision for V2 and V3 test traps in the present implementation of the SNMP agent. (CSCtr37876)

Symptom SNMPV3 traps are not receiving in Net-SNMP receiver. When V3 settings are chosen for trap delivery, the SNMP trapd CLI utility fails to receive V3 traps.

Workaround There is a possibility that the SNMP trap utility might not work for V3 authentication/privilege settings. (CSCtr83298)

Symptom When “ipmitool sdr” command is entered at the command prompt, an unspecified error is observed.

[root@localhost ~]# ipmitool sdr

Get SDR xxxx command failed: Unspecified error

Workaround None. (CSCtr99251)

Misc

Symptom Ports on the N2XX-ABPCI02 do not come up after a reboot or power cycle when running Linux.

Workaround Power cycle the server. (CSCtk66778)

LSI

Symptom SNMP trap is not received when check consistency has failed. This issue is seen with certain firmware releases of the LSI Storage controller.

Workaround Update the LSI storage controller firmware. (CSCtr90017)

LOM

Symptom Broadcom adapters and LOMs based on BCM5709, BCM57711 and BCM57712 configured for iSCSI and FCoE boot, iSCSI and FCoE boot configuration is lost after firmware upgrade. This is observed in the following cases:

• Using a Broadcom adapter based on BCM5709, BCM57711 or BCM57712.
• Having either iSCSI boot or FCoE boot configuration in the option ROM.
• Upgrading the firmware with HUU.

Workaround Record the configuration before the firmware upgrade and reapply it after the upgrade. (CSCtr85387)

Release 1.3(2d)

This section lists the open caveats for the 1.3(2d) release:

CIMC

Symptom When you power on the chassis with some PS power cables disconnected, the system health LED on the front panel stays green, though some power supplies have no input voltage.

Workaround Connect all cables from APC power to the power supply securely. (CSCtg92856)

Symptom CIMC Web GUI and CLI correctly reports the number of failed DIMMs, but does not display which of the DIMMs have failed.

Workaround BIOS Setup (F2) or CIMC System Event Log can display the exact failed DIMMs. (CSCto09153)

Symptom On C460 servers, the CIMC Web GUI does not display Cisco P81E card details when the main CPU is powered off.

Workaround Use the CIMC CLI or power on the main CPU. (CSCtn75815)

Note Release 1.3(1) does not support UCS integration. Customers who want to integrate their C-Series server with a UCS instance must use release 1.2(x). If your server is currently running 1.3(1), you need to downgrade it using the 1.2.2 Host Upgrade Utility. For more information, see the Hardware Installation Guide for the type of server you are integrating.

Release 1.3(1c)

This section lists the open caveats for the 1.3(1c) release:

CIMC

Symptom CIMC storage view of LSI 9260 card occasionally reports 0 Cache Memory size.

Workaround There is no workaround for CIMC storage management views. You can use host-based MSM tools to corroborate data. (CSCtn08982)

Symptom When NIC mode is in shared_lom and the boot order is such that EFI is not the first one in the order and there is no other media to boot from, the following message is displayed - “Select proper media else press a key”. If you enter a key, the KVM session terminates.

Workaround Ensure that you have the proper media in place before trying to boot from the device. If not, when prompted with above message, you will have to place the required media and then reboot the host. Else have the system in dedicated mode. (CSCtl82492)

Symptom PI2CPerformOP ioctl driver failures occur in CIMC log.

Workaround This failure message is seen when CIMC couldn't communicate to certain devices, due to the devices being missing or if there is a momentary communication failure. If the messages are constant, this may indicate a problem with the server. There is no workaround for this issue. (CSCtn55177)

Symptom The CIMC firmware upgrade utility can cause an error on the CIMC that will cause System Event Log (SEL) messages to be repeated as if the CIMC had just been restarted.

Workaround None. Firmware upgrade will complete successfully, but dozens of extra redundant SEL messages can occur. (CSCtl12301)

MISC

Symptom SMASH memory enumeration can fail on UCS-C460-M1.

Workaround None for SMASH interfaces. Memory related data can be retrieved through CiIC CLI or WebUI. (CSCtn29771)

vKVM/vMedia

Symptom KVM fails to launch with a pop-up “Unable to launch Application”.

Workaround Follow these steps:

Step 1 Update the JRE to http://www.java.com/en/download/inc/windows_upgrade_ie.jsp

Step 2 Close all browsers.

Step 3 Clear the cache (Internet Options -> Tools).

Open a new browser window and start a CIMC session. KVM should now be able to launch. (CSCtl70994)

Symptom Garbled WebUI output when LSI 9280-4i4e card is installed and external JBOD connected.

Workaround There is no actual data integrity problem, but the displays can be significantly garbled. One workaround is to only use external or only internal on any given controller card. Another is to use host based tools to display information on controllers where both internal and external storage is connected. (CSCtn03816)

Release 1.2(2d)

This section lists the open caveats for the 1.2(2d) release:

CIMC

Symptom C460 CIMC network mode shared_lom_10g with active-standby redundancy can stop working when the host OS is also using 10GE LOM port and then is rebooted.

Workaround Do not use the CIMC network mode shared_lom_10g. Use one of the other modes instead. (CSCtj57061)

Symptom C460 CIMC network mode shared_lom_10g with active-active redundancy will lose connectivity temporarily when the host OS is also using a 10GE LOM port.

Workaround Do not use CIMC network mode shared_lom_10g. Use one of the other modes instead. (CSCtj58245)

Symptom LED sensor color is displayed as Red or Amber or Blue (or any supported color) even though LED state if OFF.

Workaround Ignore LED color when LED state is OFF. (CSCth84883)

Symptom Network mode cannot be set to cisco_card mode even though the option is available.

Workaround Install Cisco UCS P81E card to move into cisco_card network mode. (CSCth87044)

Symptom If you try to move to cisco_card mode from the CIMC Configuration Utility, you see the error “Net mode invalid”.

Workaround Install either just one or two R2X0-PSU2-650-SB power supply units in the server. Restart the CIMC and move to cisco_card mode. (CSCti70359)

LSI

Symptom The host based LSI tool MegaCli when executed will display a “Permission Denied” message on ESXi4.1 and ESX4.1 operating system.

Workaround After installing MegaCli on ESXi4.1 or ESX4.1, use the following command to change permission: chmod 755 MegaCli. Once the permission is changed, MegaCli command and options work successfully. (CSCtk11863)

Symptom LSI Storage controllers on C-460 M1, C200 M2, C250-M2 servers running ESX4.1 and ESXi4.1 cannot be managed using the host application MegaRAID Storage Manager running on remote clients.

Workaround The LSI controller can be managed using WebBIOS which can be accessed using Cntrl+H keys during BIOS bootup when LSI controller is scanned. (CSCtk06208)

This section lists the open caveats in the 1.2(1a) release:

CIMC

Symptom When updating CIMC firmware through TFTP, if the image file is corrupted, the update status indicator is the same as if the file does not exist.

Workaround Be aware that this error message can actually indicate either of the above conditions and should make sure that the file both the exists, and is a valid firmware image for the CIMC being upgraded. (CSCti17492)

BIOS

Symptom If the current CIMC networking mode is shipping mode, then the BIOS F8 CIMC configuration utility does not allow a new networking mode and IP address to be set at the same time.

Workaround Set the new networking mode, save, then set the new IP address and save again. (CSCth71350)

Release 1.1.(2)

This section lists the open caveats for the 1.1(2a) release and applies to the M1 version of the C460 server.

MISC

Symptom If the number of Virtual Drives created in the LSI MegaRAID controller is greater than or equal to 50, the system will not boot from any of these Virtual Drives.

Workaround None. The system boots from MegaRAID Virtual Drives only if the number of Virtual Drives are lesser than or equal to 49. (CSCtg25373)

This section lists the known behaviors for the 1.1(2a) release and applies to the M1 version of the C460 server.

BIOS

Symptom Serial port B cannot be enabled for console redirection in the Server Management —> Console Redirection page of the BIOS setup.

Workaround Serial port B is primarily used for SOL functionality. The BIOS will start redirecting console messages to serial port B if SOL is enabled. You should enable SOL through BMC to get console redirection messages through serial port B. (CSCtf54851)

Symptom System reboots during EFI Windows 2008 R2 installation.

Workaround EFI OS installation is not supported by the BIOS. You should disable the EFI- Optimized mode in the BIOS setup and install Windows 2008 R2 in legacy mode. (CSCtf87728)

CIMC

Symptom The CIMC time/date is set to 1970.

Workaround Do not reboot the CIMC after the BIOS sets the time/date for the CIMC. (CSCtc21237)

Release 1.1(1)

The following caveats were opened in UCS software release 1.1(1d) and are still unresolved.

This section lists the open caveats for the 1.1(1d) release. Unless otherwise noted, the caveats are for all rack server platforms.

BIOS

Symptom Installation of any UEFI Aware Operating System may result in a complete system failure.

Workaround No workaround exists. We do not support UEFI aware Operating Systems. (CSCtd71780)

Release 1.0(2)

The following caveats were opened in UCS software release 1.0(2) and are still unresolved.

This section lists the open caveats for this release. Unless otherwise noted, the caveats are for all rack server platforms.

BIOS

Symptom Installation of any UEFI Aware Operating System may result in a complete system failure.

Workaround No workaround exists. We do not support UEFI aware Operating Systems. (CSCtd71780)

Release 1.0(1d)

The following caveats were opened in UCS software release 1.0(1d) and are still unresolved.

Misc

Symptom The following message appears after installation or upgrade to ESX 4.0 vSphere:
Error:TSC: 1137350434cpu0 :0)NUMA : 827 Signficant imbalance between NUMA nodes detected. Performance may be impacted.:

Workaround There are two possible workarounds.

Option 1: Ensure that memory configuration is equal across both processors. Ensure that there are equal amounts of DIMMs of the same size and speed inserted in the DIMM sockets.

Option 2: Reboot system and enter BIOS setup by pressing F2. Go to Advanced-->Memory Configuration-->Memory RAS --> Performance Configuration --> and change NUMA Optimized to Disabled. Press F10 to save and reboot. (CSCtc33846)

BIOS

Symptom Installation of any UEFI Aware Operating System may result in a complete system failure.

Workaround No workaround exists. We do not support UEFI Aware Operating Systems. (CSCtd71780)

Release 1.0(1)

The following caveats were opened in UCS software release 1.0(1) and are still unresolved.

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)

Web UI

Symptom Printing from Web UI will work from Internet Exploder, but not Firefox.

Workaround None. (CSCtc22985)

Active Directory

In the section titled “Active Directory” in the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller CLI Configuration Guide, Release 1.2(1), and the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller GUI Configuration Guide, Release 1.2(1), the following statement is incorrect:

“When Active Directory is enabled in the CIMC, all user authentication and role authorization is performed by Active Directory, and the CIMC ignores the local database. If the CIMC cannot connect to Active Directory, it reverts to the local database.”

The correct behavior is as follows:

“When Active Directory is enabled, user authentication and role authorization are performed by Active Directory for user accounts not found in the local user database.”

 

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

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

Release Notes for Cisco UCS C-Series Manage ment Controller
© 2015 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.