I randomly started experiencing an issue with one blade in one of my PowerEdge C6100 blades. It wouldn’t obey all commands issued too it via IPMI or through the BMC’s web interface. Additionally the blade would randomly power on when off, and the front light would consistently blink as if a hardware fault was detected.

This has been bothering me for a while, but it was my spare blade and wasn’t affecting my lab in anyway so I’ve ignored it. I finally needed it for a project and looked into what may be causing the issue.

A thread on the Serve the Home forums lead to me too a solution, even though my symptoms didn’t quite match up with what I was experiencing.

I downloaded the PowerEdge C6100 Owner’s Manual for the jumper information, and found it too be redundant. The board itself has each of the jumpers clearly labeled.

After pulling the affected chassis out of the server I connected the pins for the CMOS reset, CMOS password reset, and system reset for about 15 seconds. I pulled the jumpers, reinstalled the blade and it’s happy once again. Problem solved.

Update: After performing a few commands via the web interface the issue returned. I’m still looking for a solution too the problem.

Update 2: I’m now suspecting that the issue may be related too me not updating the FSB, which is responsible for handling power management of individual nodes as well as reporting temperature and command response from the BMC.