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Laszlo DenesFlag for Canada

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Amber blinking light indicvating (HP ProLiant DL380p G8) that Cache Module Status is disabled because a capacitor has failed to charge to an acceptable level

Hello Everyone,

HP Proliant DL380p G8 server has started (last 24 hours) showing a blinking amber light indicating degraded health. Upon further examination the iLO and array reported that the "Cache Module Status" (on a Model HP Smart Array P420i Controller) has failed and that it is "disabled because a capacitor has failed to charge to an acceptable level" Please see screenshots from iLO and Array diagnostics below for details. The server is out of warranty (we will just pay the cost), but what I am really trying to figure out is how serious this issue is. Everything seems to be working okay and we have no plans on rebooting this server (read that it might not come back up). Is this something that we can live with for the next 10 days or so or is it an A.S.A.P major situation? Appreciate any/all insights to help me determine the severity of the context as an external HP tech might not be available for a few days. Cheers as always
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Member_2_231077

Cache temporarily disabled is the supercap but cache permanently disabled is a bug, the workaround is to enable write cache without battery and then disable write cache without battery, Bear in mind also that HP mis-monitored the supercaps in early firmware and indicated false overvoltage readings which was fixed with later firmware,
I would do a firmware update on this server.  I had this same issue and the firmware update fixed the issue.

Mike
They may have indeed eliminated the need to flick write cache on and off again in firmware by now to get past that bug.

Are you the Mike Roe that worked for MBS 25 years ago?
No never worked for Mbs. I have been in IT about that long but not me
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Thank you everyone. Will try firmware suggestion first and if that does not work then I will try the enable/disable without battery.
Turned out to be battery and once replaced all is good. Thanks again