Intel BIOS and Firmware Updates in EFI Shell

When it comes to updating some of the Intel server configurations that we have put together, we use the EFI Shell to update any server related BIOS and firmware.

The update being run on an Intel Server System SR1560SF this evening choked. It turned out to be some bad files on the USB Flash drive.

The benefit to using the EFI Shell was the ability to pull the USB flash drive, update the files on it, and plug it back in without losing connection to the drive.

Once we forced the BMC update to run we had things up to where we wanted them to be and were able to move on.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Intel SR1560SFHS + SRCSASRB USB HDD lockup

One of the last things we do before putting a server into production is blow it away and restore it from the backup we create just before.

In this case, we are dealing with the ShadowProtect image of the new server that served as a replacement for this crashed server (previous blog post).

There are two particular purposes for this recovery:

1. Test restore of the production server. We provide this service on a quarterly basis for most of our clients with some opting in on a monthly recovery test.
2. Work with an exact replica of the production Exchange Information Store database as it is not behaving.

Since we managed to salvage the Exchange store from the somewhat corrupted ShadowProtect image, the store will mount, but it will not do so on its own. After a reboot, the store needs to be manually mounted via the Services.msc console.

We ran into a bit of a peculiarity in that the server we are restoring is the soon to be production server at another client that is identically configured.

After booting the ShadowProtect Windows Vista Recovery Environment, loading the SRCSASRB drivers and running the first volume's recovery the system was locking up. No matter what we tried, even going so far as to remove the hard drive from the Thermaltake Silver River Duo enclosure and connecting it via a Thermaltake BlacX SE USB hard drive connector, the system still locked up.

A couple presses of the Num Lock key on the keyboard would bring about a red trouble light on the front of the SR1560SFHS chassis.

The firmware on the motherboard, FRU, and SDR were up to date. But, as it turns out the firmware on the SRCSASRB RAID controller has a new update this last week.

After running the update for the RAID controller and rebooting back into the ShadowProtect Vista Recovery Environment, we were able to initiate a successful series of recoveries for the three volumes on this array.

Links to previous posts on the above crashed server:

• Images No Good ... Catastrophic SBS Failure ... Now What?!?
• SBS, ShadowProtect, and an Event ID 55 NTFS Error ...
• SBS Disaster Recovery - Second DC SBS Restore Caveats
• SBS Disaster Recovery - Finished

More to come on the Exchange issue.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Seagate 750GB ST3750330NS Failure on SRCSASRB

We just had our first Seagate Enterprise ES.2 series drive failure on a client production server.

The server setup:

• Server: SR1560SFNA 1U Dual E5440 Xeon server
• Drive: ST3750330NS 750GB Seagate ES.2 7200RPM Enterprise Storage.
• Controller: SRCSASRB RAID Controller
• Array configuration: RAID 1 (2x ST3750330NS)
• 750GB ST3750330NS Global Hot Spare

This server is running SBS 2003 Premium R2 Open License version.

A screen shot of the Intel RAID Web Console 2:

Seagate 750GB ES.2 Failed

One of the last times we had a RAID array fail on an add-in RAID controller was on an Intel SRCS16 RAID controller with a RAID 1 pair and the remaining 4 drives on a RAID 5 array for capacity.

One of the OS RAID 1 pairs failed. We had to down the server to replace the drive as that was a quirk with the SRCS16 and the then new SATA 300 drives.

The rebuild on the 250GB pair was over 20 hours with the server offline. Performance degradation while the server was online was tangible. This client ran CAD drawings off of the SBS box along with all of the other tasks required by SBS. We left the server on overnight in rebuild mode. It finished just after their office opened the following morning.

In this case, the rebuild rate on the SRCSASRB is significantly better:

750GB RAID 1 Rebuild: ~3-4 Hours: Server Online

Keep in mind that the above time may not accurately reflect the exact time the rebuild will take. Since this is our client's busy time, the rebuild times may be a lot slower due to the OS demand for disk time.

We will be popping in to hot swap replace the failed drive and subsequently setting up the replacement as the new hot spare.

The above mentioned SRCS16 failure was a nail biter. We did not have any ShadowProtect backups at that time and would have had to have rebuilt the server using the built-in SBS backup. While that would have worked, it would have been time consuming and our client would not have been pleased with the idea that their people would miss a day of work.

The most critical time in a failed RAID 1 or 5 array is the time to introduce a replacement drive and have it rebuilt.

In today's case we had an identical Seagate ES.2 drive setup as a hot spare.

In a case where there is no hot spare to begin a rebuild cycle as soon as an array drive member fails, there is that additional time for a technician to respond and replace that defective drive.

No hot swap? Then more time and lost production for the client to down the server and replace that defective drive. We then have to ask our client: Do you want to risk the possibility of total loss if another array member dies (goes for both RAID 1 and RAID 5 arrays), or do we down the server, replace the defective unit, and put the server back online in rebuild mode (a lot slower) - or leave it offline in rebuild mode (a lot faster)?

We must keep in mind that stress on the hard disks will increase markedly during the rebuild cycle too. This is because the RAID controller is demanding both the rebuild tasks and the regular server operations if the server is still online.

For clients with higher costs for down time, this is the primary reason to be promoting the hot swap option to them. There is a selling point for the add-in RAID controllers as well: The motherboard based RAID controller in this situation (S5400SF) would more than likely have locked up the server when the drive failed.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Hyper-V on Server Core - Hardware Considerations

Depending on an organization's needs and usage model, there are a number of configurations that can be used.

For those that require a number of virtualized desktops for remote access or perhaps a virtualized small Web server setup:

• Intel Xeon 3300 Series Quad Core CPU
• Intel 1U Server System or Pedestal
• 8GB ECC DDR2
• Intel RAID controller SRCSASRB or equivalent (minimum)
• Seagate Enterprise Storage ES SATA 3.0Gb/s Series

Where more performance is required for virtualizing high volume Web sites, CPU intensive Line of Business Applications, or a couple of server and a number of desktop instances:

• Dual Intel Xeon 5400 series CPUs
• 32GB ECC FB RAM
• Intel 2U or 5U Server System
• Intel RAID controller SRCSASPH16I or equivalent (minimum)
• Hot Swap
• Seagate Cheetah 15K RPM SAS

Another possible option for our larger clients is Intel's new 6U Modular Server that gives us the ability to install up to 6 blades that support dual Xeon Quad Core 5400 CPUs and up to 32GB of RAM per blade. The modular server supports up to 14 2.5" SATA or SAS drives that can be configured in many different ways relative to one or more of the blades. SBS on one blade, SQL on another, ISA on yet another, and the rest for virtualization or other needs.

There is a lot of flexibility to be had for virtualization and other server infrastructure needs on the Modular Server.

Whatever the virtualization requirements that our clients have, server capabilities today can bring about a very quick and reasonable Return on Investment and with their very efficient power consumption patterns significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership over the life of the server.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Intel SR2400SYSD2, SR1530AH, and SR1560SF Power Consumption

We have an APC BR1500LCD UPS unit that we leave sitting on our bench.

It has the facility to provide live readouts on its LCD panel of various power and UPS events.

One of them is the amount of watts that a device uses while connected to it.

So, to get an idea of what each unit uses for power we plugged each unit into the BR1500LCD on its own and fired it up.

Here are some of the results:

• Intel SR1560SF 1U with Dual E5440 Quad Core Xeons and 3x 750GB Seagate ES SATA
• Power Up POST: 205 Watts Peak
• SBS Boot: 175 Watts on average
• SBS Online: 145 Watts on average
• SBS at rest: 110 Watts on average
• Intel SR1530AH 1U with Intel Xeon X3230 Quad Core Xeon and 2x 750GB Seagate ES SATA
• Power Up: 175 Watts Peak
• Server 2008 Core Boot: 125 Watts on average
• Server 2008 Core online: 80 Watts on average
• Server off but plugged in: 8 Watts
• Intel SR2400SYSD2 2U with dual Intel Xeon 3.0GHz HT and 6x 500GB Seagate ES
• Power Up: 525 Watts Peak
• POST Initialization phase: 235 Watts on Average
• Windows Server 2003 scroll Portion of OS startup: 250 Watts on average
• Windows Server 2003 network and computer startup portion: 205 Watts on average
• SBS at work: 225 Watts on average
• SBS at rest: 205 Watts on average
• Server off but plugged in: 30 Watts

It looks as though the newer technology really shows its efficiency when running full tilt or at a relative idle as can be seen by the above numbers.

Obviously the 2U will consume a bit more power due to the additional hard drives and a more powerful fan setup. However, the older 2U still has a big hit against it in the form of power savings relative to the new 3000 and 5000 series Xeon setups.

In a high density data centre situation, that 50 watts at idle on the newer technologies spread across hundreds if not thousands of servers means a huge savings in power consumption for the server systems themselves as well as the power required to cool the centre.

The neat thing is, there are even better power efficiency enhancements coming down the pipe in future versions of Intel CPUs, the server boards they plug into, and the plug in peripherals. All of this translates into a bit of relief for those data centres already pushed to the limits on their floor space per compute capability, power consumption, and cooling capacity.

For us, it means we have seen a significant drop in our power bill with every NetBurst Xeon server we have replaced with a Core Xeon technologies based server.

That practical experience for us translates into a good selling point for the newer technologies with our clients. A server that saves them money even when they are not in the office is a good thing!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Intel SRCSASRB on Intel SR1560SF/S5400SF Series requires PS/2 Keyboard

During the first phase of the SBS setup, there is a point right around 34 minutes where the USB ports are knocked out.

That is also right around the time that the Intel SRCSASRB RAID card drivers will have a WHQL warning pop-up message that one will need to acknowledge.

If there is only a USB keyboard and mouse installed on the server, one will not be able to click on the Continue button. One will need to reset the server and plug in a PS/2 keyboard or mouse to get to the pop-up window.

Once the pop-up driver windows have been acknowledged, the setup can proceed without the need for any further input via a PS/2 keyboard.

This situation is one reason to keep a PS/2 keyboard around besides the need for one on KVMs.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Intel SRCSASRB RAID Controller and SR1560SF Caveat

Intel's SRCSASRB RAID controller has a catch when it is to be installed on the S5400SF series server board that comes in the SR1560SF series server system: The PBA on the card needs to be D92806-153.

The MM# on the box needs to be 892598.

The PCN:

Intel Product Change Notification: 108057-00

The above mentioned PCN came to us via the Intel support technician we spoke with on the phone today.

Now, we have mentioned in the past on a number of occasions how we need to research our system components to see if there were any compatibility issues relative to the revision level of the components.

It is very important, because in the case of Intel desktop and server boards one runs into the board revision level being too low for a particular processor on a somewhat frequent basis.

The same is true for compatibility between RAID controllers and a given desktop or server board.

In the Tested Hardware and OS List document we see the following:

Intel Server Board S5400SF Successfully Tested with SRCSASRB

Note the BIOS, BMC, FRU/SDR, and HSC revision levels required.

At the bottom of the Tested Hardware document we find:

SRCSASRB Stepping C1 not compatible with Gen2 PCI-E

Intel's products all of a PBA number on them. In this case, the product we pulled out of the SRCSASRB box had a PBA number of: D928906-152.

As indicated in the above PCN, we needed to have -153 in order to have the correct stepping for the second generation PCI-E slot that the SR1560SF/S5400SF has.

But, our box has an MM# 892598, which by the above PCN should have had a -153 in the box.

We did not however find out about the above PCN and the correct PBA number until after the SR1560SF would freeze during POST with the SRCSASRB installed and the Intel technician supplied us with a link to the PCN.

It is truly amazing how Murphy's Law finds its way into situations where timing is of the essence! ;)

Our supplier has shipped us another SRCSASRB to replace this one. Hopefully it is correctly boxed! 8*O

Product related links:

• Intel RAID Controllers
• Intel RAID Controllers: Intel RAID Controller can not be detected after installed [sic] into PCI-E GEN 2
• Intel SRCSASRB Support Page

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.