[zcsccg1]

We have a strange problem...... one of our HMC's connected to a 16way/12active p570 grinds to a halt over the course of a day. We reboot it, at which point all is ok, and you can manage the connected server, but then over the course of the day it grinds to a halt again. Its quite a serious problem, as it becomes unusable until you reboot it.

The hard drive light on the HMC is very active, but we wouldnt expect it to be. This problem has only occured recently, and no new software updates have been applied to change its behaviour.

The HMC code is V5R2, the SFP firmware on the 570 is SF240_259. Obviously, these are not at latest level, but it has been working fine up to now, and nothing has changed.

The partitions on the 570 sometimes also log an error in the error log, I think this is coming from the Service Processor or HMC ....

[cdelgadop]

Hi

Hard to guess. You should place a call to IBM and then they probably ask you to update the HMC SW as well as the p570 Firmware (and all HW components).

I have seen similar problems before and solution was to change the system planar.

Hope this helps

[zcsccg1]

I agree that IBM will respond by playing the upgrade "card".

However, that is not addressing the issue. We have been running these versions for quite some time, so why are we now having a problem? This is something that can be fixed I assume, so they should put some effort into it.

I have already raised a call with IBM, awaiting callback......

[zcsccg1]

I agree that IBM will respond by playing the upgrade "card".

However, that is not addressing the issue. We have been running these versions for quite some time, so why are we now having a problem? This is something that can be fixed I assume, so they should put some effort into it.

I have already raised a call with IBM, awaiting callback......

[cdelgadop]

Hi

Hmm, well, i agree that changing the card is not addressing the issue. But sometimes it's better to change the faulty element than looking for the reason of the fault. And this is true for a production enviroment.

Anyway, i would upgrade HMC SW, then Firmware and last apply latest available patches for AIX 5L.

Hope this helps

[ross.mather]

Start off by asking for the pesh password and try cleaning up the /var and /home filesystems that sometimes helps.

Do you have the Service Agent active? If not cleaning up the entries for the hardware error reporting can also assist in the speed up.

You can upgrade 240_259 to 140_299 without a restart of the p570 , although it will tell you that you need a restart for all features to be activated. You can upgrade the HMC in this case, and that should help as well.

[zcsccg1]

Many thanks to both for responding, it does seem a problem which would be best addressed by checking the process table to see what is clocking up CPU time, I am now awaiting a callback from software support (for root access), the hardware guys have ruled out any particular hardware issue from what was discussed.

We've just upgraded another p570 which was at 240_298 to _299, and a p505 up to240_299. There did not seem to be any problems with the upgrade. The HMC they are connected to is V6.1.2 though ......

[bibisk]

I've noticed our HMC to become less responsive over time, but not in as short a period as one day. Typically it takes several days for it to degrade. I then reboot it and it is fine for a few more days. I assumed there is some memory leak in the HMC code.

[jmcphee]

I've had a similar problem that seemed to grow with the number of frames hooked up to it. After a while, I just set up a daily reboot for the HMC.