hpasmcli locks up a DL380G3

[Greg Eden]

On 6 Feb 2006, at 23:57, Henrik Lidström wrote:

>>
>> Hello
>>
>> First of all many thanks for the port of these tools to FreeBSD,   
>> something I'd dreamt about for a long time. The lack of RAID   
>> management tools for FreeBSD on DLxxx hardware was quite  
>> crippling.  OK, they have been removed but at least I know they  
>> are actively  being worked on.
>>
>> Sadly though I've been experiencing problems with the hpasmcli   
>> utility on a number of machines, which today culminated in the   
>> locking up of a production webserver. I was taking what seem to be  
>> a  small risk running it in that environment but initial tests had  
>> shown  it to be quite stable.
>>
>> The box that locked up was a DL380G3 which reports as below,  
>> running  FreebSD 5.3R-p5
>>
>> System        : ProLiant DL380 G3
>> Serial No.    : xxxxxxxxxxxx
>> ROM version   : P29 05/01/2004
>> iLo present   : Yes
>> Embedded NICs : 2
>>          NIC1 MAC: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>          NIC2 MAC: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> Processor: 0
>>          Name         : Intel Xeon
>>          Stepping     : 9
>>          Speed        : 2800 MHz
>>          Bus          : 400 MHz
>>          Socket       : 1
>>          Level2 Cache : 512 KBytes
>>          Status       : Ok
>>
>> Processor total  : 1
>>
>> Memory installed : 1024 MBytes
>> ECC supported    : Yes
>>
>> What appears to happen is thus:
>>
>> 1. For a period of days or weeks the hpasmcli and hpasmd work just  
>> fine.
>> 2. After some period of time, in the order of weeks, when hpasmcli  
>> is  run it will just print:
>>
>> HP management CLI for FreeBSD (v7.22)
>> Copyright 2003,2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Group, L.P.
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> --- --
>> NOTE: Some hpasmcli commands may not be supported on all Proliant   
>> servers.
>>        Type 'help' to get a list of all top level commands.
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> --- --
>>
>> and then hang, without showing the hpasmcli> prompt for input. In  
>> the  past it's been possible to Ctrl-C break out. Restarting the  
>> hpasmd  daemon will see hpasmcli working fine again. Given the  
>> usefulness of  the utility I've been willing to live with that.  
>> However today  running hpasmcli seems to have instantly locked the  
>> box, both at the  console and via ssh. I've been using hpasmcli  
>> since it's public release.
>>
>> The other HP boxes I have include two DL360G4s with FreeBSD 5.4- 
>> p1  and a DL360G3 with FreeBSD 5.3-p4 . They have shown the  
>> hpasmcli  hanging behaviour, but never locked up hard.
>>
>> Unfortunately all the HP boxes I have are currently in production  
>> and  I can't run any  further diagnostics, traces etc.
>>
>> Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Is a fix likely?
>>
>> best wishes
>>
>> greg.
>>
>
> Hi!
>
> Sorry for being late on this one, found this browsing around.
>
> Yes, I have had ONE machine lock up on me once.
> And older HP Proliant DL380G1 UP. Just as you describe, it had been  
> working great for
> a couple of weeks, then suddenly when starting hpasmcli it froze.
> Couldn't even ping the machine.
>
> This particualar machine really is not doing anything, and as I belive
> it still is running (Moved/changed job) and I could probably  
> recreate the lockup.
> I still have access to this machine, so if anyone want me to try  
> something, I can do it.
> The machine is 600km away from me now, so if lockup occurs it can  
> take some time to get it
> powercycled though.
>
> Oh, 5.3 or 5.4 as I recall.
>
> Have you seen any other lockup Greg?

I haven't tempted fate that way yet. I always restart the hpasmd  
before using the client on a machine. This seems to avoid the problem.

Thanks for responding to my mail, you're the third person to confirm  
the problem, which given that it locks the machine up hard, is a very  
serious one.

best.
greg.