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Console cable only attached to the node may cause health alerts, prevent SP access and prevent failover

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Category:
ontap-9
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hw
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Applies to

  • AFF Models
  • ASA Models
  • FAS Models
  • ONTAP 9
  • Console connection

Issue

The following symptoms can be observed:

  • Not able to SSH into the SP or BMC using any account (no response)
  • Various false health alerts may be reported which could lead to HW failure assumptions:
    • fan failures
    • high/low temperature warnings
    • various "sensor unreadable" messages
    • battery failure, etc.
Record 2508: Mon Apr 24 11:01:20 2023 [SP.notice]: SP load is high: 5.22 4.10 2.12
Record 2513: Mon Apr 24 11:03:16 2023 [IPMI.emergency]: triggered OS halt: Multiple fans failed
  • Very slow ("laggy")  or non-responsive console output over SSH
  • Failed Takeover or Giveback

Note: This issue is most likely to occur on newer systems with serial console ports running at 115200 baud

Example:

Log Collection from: SERIALNUM=xxxxxxxxxxx SEQ=31 HOSTNAME=node01-1

================ Log #1 start time Thu Jan  1 00:00:56 1970

================ Log #1 truncated at Wed Apr 29 09:06:18 2020 ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!
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================ Log #1 end time Wed Apr 29 09:06:35 2020

 

Verify using AutoSupport logs in your Active IQ dashboard:

  • Review the SP-LATEST-CONSOLE-LOGS file to look for garbage characters, as displayed above
  • Review the SP-LATEST-RUNTIME file:
    • In the "top" subsection, find the getty process (will be ngetty or agetty depending on ONTAP version) and look for signs of serial port activity and a possible serial port overload condition (as indicated by high CPU%):
  PID PPID USER     STAT  VSZ  %VSZ CPU %CPU   COMMAND
  993    1 root     D    6304   2.2%  0 22.4%  /sbin/ngetty 115200 parallel
 2408    1 sysadmin S    1912   2.5   0 23.7%  /sbin/agetty --nohostname -L console 115200 vt100

 
Note: getty may not always be listed under Top in some ONTAP versions
 
  • In the "top" or "uptime" subsections, look at the values of "load average".
 Load average: 5.22 4.10 2.12 13/218 26338
 02:10:24 up 76 days,  5:07,  0 users,  load average: 5.22, 4.10, 2.12
  • The three values highlighted above represent the load averages of the SP over the last 1, 5 and 15 minutes, respectively.

 

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