Fan health sensors report false alarms on HPE Gen10 Servers with ESXi 6.7
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Fan health sensors report false alarms on HPE Gen10 Servers with ESXi 6.7

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Article ID: 317955

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on steps to stop the sensors from generating Fan Health false alarms.

Symptoms:
  • vCenter vSphere Client shows Fan Health as “Critical” after the updating host to ESXi 6.7 - Build 16075168 (ESXi670-202004002)
  • Server Hardware is HPE Gen 10
  • On validating HPE Integrated Lights-Out (ILO), the alarm is identified to be false positive


Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware ESXi670-202006001 Build 16316930, available at VMware Downloads.

Workaround:

Impact of workaround:

Using the workaround, you will not be able to see the Hardware Health status for the Node-Sensor ID in the vCenter Server vSphere Client. Alternatively, use the HPE Integrated Lights-Out (ILO) to check the Hardware Health Status.

To work around this issue if you do not want to upgrade:

From the ESXi host Command Line Interface     

  1. Connect to the affected ESXi host as root that is reporting the Fan Health alarms through SSH.
  2. Determine the Node-Sensor ID for the Fan device, using this command:

    esxcli hardware ipmi sdr list

    esxcli command line
    In this example, the Node-Sensor ID is 0.3 which corresponds to the sensor of Fan Device 1 Fan 1. (Note: Sensor ID here is 3).
  3. Using this Node-Sensor ID, use this advanced option command from the affected ESXi host to ignore the health alarms from the selected fan sensor:

    esxcfg-advcfg -s 3 /UserVars/HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors
     
  4. Run this advanced option command to see what sensors you have using this false flag:

    esxcfg-advcfg -g /UserVars/HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors

    For example:

    esxcfg-advcfg -g /UserVars/HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors
    Value of HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors is 3

From the vCenter Server vSphere Client (UI)      

  1. Log in to the vCenter Server using vSphere Client.

  2. Select ESXi Host > Configure > Advanced System Settings > UserVars.HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors.

    vcenter UI
     
  3. Enter the Node-Sensor ID from the resulting response from this command:

    esxcli hardware ipmi sdr list

    In this case, the Node-Sensor ID is 3.

    Note: The result should update automatically in 90 seconds. Alternatively, Click on Refresh (if required) in the vCenter Server vSphere Client through ESXi hostMonitor > Hardware Health > Alerts and Warnings > Refresh.
     
  4. Click on OK.

To disable this workaround, reset these values:

From ESXi host Command Line Interface

  1. Log in as root to the ESXi host through SSH.
  2. Run this command:

    esxcfg-advcfg -d /UserVars/HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors

From the vCenter Server vSphere Client (UI)

  1. Log in to the vCenter Server using vSphere Client.
  2. Select ESXi Host > Configure > Advanced System Settings > UserVars.HardwareHealthIgnoredSensors
  3. Remove the Node-Sensor ID.