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swo0sh_gt_13163's avatar
swo0sh_gt_13163
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Feb 27, 2014

Frequent Hardware Failures

Hello Folks,

 

Recently we have faced a strange issue from a customer. Initially, the first incident happened around 15 days ago, where their primary appliance failed not booting further(LCD was showing "F5 Incorporates").

 

For this incident F5 declared as RMA and shipped the new appliance. Now, after a few days, the newly installed appliance failed too. With same symptoms. (F5 - 3600).

 

Good to note that primary and secondary appliances are installed in same rack, with same power strip. However the secondary appliance never failed, and primary twice. (also other hardware sharing the same power strip, seems working well). I can only think about a possibility of specific power cord where the primary appliance is connected.

 

Anyone from you have ever experienced such incident before? Any help will be much appreciated!

 

Thank you, Darshan

 

big-ip 3600
frequent hardware failure
hardware failure
management

4 Replies

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  • Mike_61663's avatar
    Mike_61663
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Feb 27, 2014

    It could be many things, not just electrical issues that caused it. One likely candidate might be thermal issues? Is the sufficient airflow in that part of the rack - i.e is something blocking/disturbing the airflow? Is some other device that's running hot blowing onto the BIG-IP? Another far less likely possibility might be vibration.

     

    The other possibility - just bad luck. Initial device failed - replacement device may have been damaged in transit just badly enough to boot up the first time, but fail after hitting some threshold (e.g. temp?)

     

  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
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    Mar 04, 2014

    What was the nature of the failures. Was it disk corruption?

     

  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Mar 04, 2014

    I had 3 get corrupted to the point that they would not boot. Support RMAed one, and had me rebuild two from bootable usb. But they corrupted again very early on. I was thinking that the new hardware really stinks.

     

    I had named (rather than take the default) some Boot Locations with an alpha-numeric name that started with a numeral, such as "1oldlocation". Once I quit using those Boot Locations, I stopped having disk corruption. It's a long shot, but I thought I would throw that out there...

     

  • swo0sh_gt_13163's avatar
    swo0sh_gt_13163
    Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
    Mar 05, 2014

    Hey!

     

    No, it seems the first time it was disk corruption, and the second time it is file system. F5 Support recommends the clean installation of BIG-IP OS. :(

     

    Thanks, Darshan