linux watchdog support Primergy TX1330

PRIMERGY, SPARC Enterprise Server, PRIMEFLEX, PRIMEPower, BS2000

Moderator: ModTeam

gpatel
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 13:52
Product(s): tx2550

linux watchdog support Primergy TX1330

Postby gpatel » Tue May 18, 2021 15:25

Hello

we have a customer with a TX1330 M2 (board D3373-A1) - out of warranty but not of support - that we installed with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS that was at the time (2016) supported by Ubuntu, but now as 16.04 is EOL it has been upgraded to 18.04 - sadly not supported by Ubuntu for this hardware.

This server has an erratic problem of reboot failure after kernel upgrade; it just stays in stopped state after being instructed to restart. It's not exactly specific to this server, Ubuntu servers are plagued by this problem and the usual solution is to implement a watchdog.

I have tried to load the usual iTCO_wdt driver but it is not working (don't see any hardware).

1) Is there a way to enable /dev/watchdog for this server ?

2) is there in such case a way of using the boot watchdog that can be enabled in iRMC - I did not try to enable it, because I don't want to do experiences with a working server. I'm afraid that in enabling a watchdog not supported in the OS, I risk crashing the server and having to go onsite to fix the problem.

Thanks for any insight, experience...

User avatar
Ask Fujitsu
Moderator
Posts: 724
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:02
Product(s): n/a
Contact:

Re: linux watchdog support Primergy TX1330

Postby Ask Fujitsu » Wed May 19, 2021 12:17

Dear gpatel

According to our support team, we do not support not released OSes.
If you think that it might be related to hardware issues, please contact our Service Desk to open a new ticket. Please note that PrimeCollect will be needed for further investigation.

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Ask Fujitsu - Forum Team

gpatel
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 13:52
Product(s): tx2550

Re: linux watchdog support Primergy TX1330

Postby gpatel » Mon May 24, 2021 11:55

Replying to myself..

The standard Linux watchdog driver iTCO_wdt don't seem compatible with the specific Fujtisu motherboard. It's not so surprising since it seems to rely on specialised hardware, it's not managed in the Intel processor itself.

However, ipmi watchdog is integrated in the Ubuntu 18.04 kernel and it works.
So creating a /etc/modules-load.d/ipmi.conf file having this simple keyword
ipmi_watchdog

then editing /etc/systemd/system.conf to enable (for example)

RuntimeWatchdogSec=180
ShutdownWatchdogSec=4min

and rebooting is enough for the ipmi watchdog to function (I did not need to enable the watchdog(s) in the Ipmi UI). I even tested it by writing a kernel driver to hang the computer when rebooting, so I'm confident it is doing something..


Return to “Server Products”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest