Power supply failure: Servers and ME4/VA storage arrays

Products

• Security Analytics

Issue/Introduction

A pink banner reports a hardware problem.  Looking in /var/log/messages, you might see a power supply (PSU) failure.  While looking in the Dell Value Array Storage Manager you might see a Fault next to the Power Supply on the System > Table page.  

Environment

Dell R640xl
Dell ME4012/VA012
Dell ME4084/VA084

Resolution

This can be caused by

• a power supply failure
• the power switch is off
• the power cord is not fully seated.

Push both ends of all power cables found into their sockets.  Look for green lights on the power supplies themselves.  Both supplies should have the same green status lights.  

You can run the following command as root to gather more information and context of the actual error:

grep HARDWARE /var/log/messages

You may see something similar to this: 

Powervault System Health: A subcomponent of this component is unhealthy.;

2022-05-31T15:00:18+00:00 hostnamehere POWERVAULT[318089]: snlog: sn="####" id="DS" m="23" c="6" event="DISK_STATUS" category="HARDWARE" ip="192.168.1.1" model="R640xl" msg="An Enclosure Management Processor (EMP) reported an alert condition on a power supply. Type: fault. (enclosure: 1, WWN: ####) power supply RIGHT, power supply status: Failure, DC failure, AC failure; "

If there is a pink banner within the Security Analytics UI, you can clear the banner by clicking the "X" to the far right side. If the pink banner appears again, generate a CSR, create a support case, and attach the CSR to the case.  Support will review the /var/log/messages file to assist in finding the cause of the problem.

The PSU can be replaced while the system is running.  Dell has provided the following videos on PSU removal, if needed.

For the 12 drive enclosures, ie ME4012/VA012, see ME4012/VA012 PSU Replacement

For the 84 drive enclosures, ie ME4084/VA084, see ME4084/VA084 PSU Replacement

 

Additional Information

The log messages are specific to the storage array but the concept applies to the servers, also.