Anyone else seeing discharged NVRAM issues with 3240 filers?

[egrigson1]

We have three 3240AE filers which have ALL started logging 'NVRAM partially discharged' errors in the past two weeks (on both nodes, so six total). We've logged calls with Netapp who are still investigating but I've just heard from a friend at another company that a couple of his 3240 filers are now also reporting similar errors. We've tried upgrading firmware which didn't help and we've replaced one of the batteries which does resolve the issue. We're on ONTAP 8.01u5. This still means failing over each filer however and as we run Oracle over NFS that means potential disruption - far from ideal.

Anyone else seeing anything similar?

Regards,

Ed.

[scottgelb]

We did an RMA at one customer after firmware upgrades didn't help and no problems since.  Do you have a replacement part on the way or did support recommend anything else before swapping NVRAM batteries?

[egrigson1]

Thanks for the reply Scott. We've got replacement parts on the way it's just unsettling to think it's affecting six filers, and now anecdotally others too. Maybe a faulty batch? We tried upgrading firmware at which point the error changed to 'NVRAM battery status unreadable' instead. I'm guessing that it's a false positive alarm rather than faulty hardware but it's not a risk that's anyone would want to take. For the time being we've disabled the 'critical' threshold for NVRAM (which is 72 hours, warning at 80 hours) by setting 'option raid.timeout 0'. This at least prevents unmanaged controller failovers.

We'll continue to monitor the batteries once they're replaced and hopefully the issue won't recur.

Regards,

Ed.

[scottgelb]

I am confident the replacement batteries will work (someone from NetApp might be able to comment on batch issues but not likely).

[ADVANCEDTECHJRH]

We have 2 - 3240s. I replaced the NVRAM battery in one unit a month ago, and just got an AutoSupport notification on the other unit this morning. The units are running 8.0.2P3.

[vmsjaak13 · Accepted solution]

There is a workaround for this NVMEM issue: http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/bol?Type=Detail&Display=536445

Regards,

Niek Baakman

[egrigson1]

Thanks for the followup. We've been in touch with Netapp Global Support who gave us the same info but it's good to have the bug reference to keep track of.

[lmunro_hug]

We are currently seeing this on one of our FAS3240s now. Battery level went from 86hrs to 80hrs in the space of 1 and a 1/2 weeks! Wonder how long till the rest of our 32xx filer’s start this behavior.

Before

Now

[egrigson1]

I posted an article about this on my blog back in December (http://www.vexperienced.co.uk/2011/12/28/nvram-problems-on-netapp-3200-series-filers) - I'll post any further updates, info on firmware fixes etc on the blog.

[scottgelb]

There is a new fix now that one of our customers received from support. A firmware update that fixes the issue. Need to get support involved and get the kb or csb.

Sent from my iPhone 4S

[ritusangha]

Netapp released Battery firmware files and the procedure KB:

KB article about update procedure:

https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=2016592&actp=LIST_RECENT&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1327443096712

Note: Follow the procedure, and  download the correct firmware for your controller's manufacturer.

Link to fw download:

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/battery/27100027/

Hope this helps.