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We've noticed lately that our HP Blade System 7000 sounds like it's going to take off. The top 2 PSU on the right are incredibly loud and blowing out significantly more air than the 2 to the left or the 4 underneath. I have spoken with my team and this is an abnormal volume.

Now I'm guessing they are running at full speed for whatever reason but the situation is complicated as I am new to the role and we have no documentation in terms of set up or access. My organisation was part of a managed service that did this install and for reasons I shan't go into they are not being forthcoming in providing us with documentation (I suspect they don't actually have any).

I have taken a look at the chassis to look for a management port and all I could really see was the iLO and it looks like the module may be broken as there is zero activity on it. As a test I've tried swapping module bays but no matter what it gives no activity. I've tried this with known working cables just to be sure.

Could anyone help point me in the right direction to troubleshoot this further?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

ewwhite
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Killian
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1 Answers1

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I'd suggest calling an HP technician to come onsite and look at this. You're working with such scant details, that it's nearly impossible to provide good information to you.

First: Did you look at the front display to check overall health status?

Green is good. Anything else is bad.

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The C7000 chassis is controlled by the Onboard Administrator. That's the management unit sitting in the middle of the chassis backplane. There may be one or two units in your enclosure. Since you had an MSP deploy this, chances are there's only one (lack of foresight).

enter image description here

Similar to an ILO in an HP ProLiant server, the Onboard manages chassis health, power and thermal conditions. The servers contained within can operate without the Onboard Administrator present. It can also be hot-swapped. You might consider removing the unit and reseating it to see what happens at this point.

If the Onboard administrator is bad, they can be replaced under warranty or purchased outright.

ewwhite
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  • Thanks ewwhite Unfortunately the display on the front is not working or has been switched off and there isn't one at the back. For the life of me I can't figure out how to get the front one back on. That module you posted is the one though it's pretty much at the bottom at the back. There's only 1 other slot it will fit into and even reseating it into that one does nothing. There is no light on there at all which makes me think it's faulty. Is there a way to turn on the front monitor? Not sure if it houses a battery or if it draws power from the enclosure itself. – Killian Dec 11 '15 at 11:46
  • Call the organization responsible for the server/blade enclosure's installation OR contact HP with your system serial numbers and request an onsite engineer. Your Onboard Administrator is not functional and you have no ability to manage the blade system. – ewwhite Dec 11 '15 at 11:47
  • Further to that, I seem to recall that all the fans spin up to 100% when the ObA dies (or is pulled out) so that no amount of load to the blades would result in the chassis overheating. That sounds like what's happening here. – GregL Dec 11 '15 at 13:27
  • Thanks both. I had logged this with the Organisation who did the install a few weeks back and it looks like they're finally dealing with it now. They have asked for the serial number but it looks like we're out of warranty. I shall post back here once it gets resolved but what GregL says makes me think it definitely is the OBA. – Killian Dec 12 '15 at 14:42