Re: certain Offline Converter Assemblies (OCA) in 5802 and 5877 I/O drawers could be susceptible to a premature capacitor degradation condition

Well from an IBM Perspective they're likely not too happy to either have this occur or for you to post this publicly. Now hundreds of customers who do NOT have this issue might think they COULD have this issue and will hassle IBM to "Come look at mine."

IBM Tracks pretty much down to the screw every batch of components. So they know if your server could contain the potentially unhappy components. Because they maintain multiple suppliers for every part as well as controlling component batches they know the distribution of those parts.

This is very standard stuff for large companies. My wife used to handle QA for all inbound raw materials at a huge Keebler (Now Kellogs) bakery. In just hours she could tell you where every pop-tart that contained a particular batch of red food coloring #9 was until they hit actual retail shelves. And they made more pop-tarts (per minute!) than IBM made 5877/5802 drawers ever.

Hopefully this is fairly limited thing and few if any of the rest of us will be getting this note.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 4/13/2015 11:43 AM, Steinmetz, Paul wrote:

Just received this from our IBM CE.

Has anyone else received the same or similar?

Dear IBM Customer,

IBM continues to maintain a strong focus on quality and reliability of our systems and servers. We monitor the availability of installed systems on an on-going basis for improvement opportunities. We have determined that certain Offline Converter Assemblies (OCA) in 5802 and 5877 I/O drawers could be susceptible to a premature capacitor degradation condition that might, in some cases, lead to a loss of OCA function. If the OCA loss occurs during AC power-on of the I/O drawer, the drawer should still power on as long as the redundant OCA is operational.

IBM Service will verify which OCAs currently installed in your 5802 and 5877 I/O drawers are affected and work with you to schedule a repair action at your earliest convenience.

In order to maintain high quality standards, IBM is taking this proactive no-charge action to minimize any unplanned impact to your business.

Your Power7 has been identified as one of several machines in the field that may contain suspect power supplies in the 5877 expansion drawer. To determine whether or not you have these suspect power supplies, please follow the steps I've listed below. The steps must be run from the partition that owns the expansion drawer, I believe in your case that would be your VIO partition. I've attached the ECA336 client letter for your review. Please feel free to give me a call if any of this information is unclear.

=>IOS
Query Drawer VPD - Note: You will utilize the IOHRIBADVPD macro to access the drawer VPD:
a. Access the OS command line.
b. On the command line, enter the following command:
STRSST
Then press the Enter key.
c. Sign in with a service tool profile and password that has authority to Display/Alter/Dump in SST.
d. Select Option 1 - Start a service tool, and press the Enter key.
e. Select Option 4 - Display/Alter/Dump, and press the Enter key.
...i. To view the data on the screen, select Option 1 - Display/Alter storage, and press the Enter key.
...ii. To dump to a spooled file (for sending the data to IBM), select Option 2 - Dump to printer, and press the Enter key.
f. Select Option 2 - Licensed Internal Code (LIC) data, and press the Enter key.
g. Select Option 14 - Advanced analysis, and press the Enter key.
...i. On the Select Advanced Analysis Command screen, there is a list of available advanced analysis macros (under the Command column).
...ii. Since IOHRIBADVPD is not listed, type 1 (Select) next to the top blank line under the Command column.
...iii. In the blank line, type IOHRIBADVPD, and press the Enter key.
h. In the Options field, type -GA2 -ALL, and press the Enter key. This will provide one output (if dumped).
i. If the output is to be spooled (See "Dump to printer" option above), the spooled file name is QPCSMPRT.
j. Collect the output of the IOHRIBADVPD macro and reply to this note with attachment.



Thank You
_____
Paul Steinmetz
IBM i Systems Administrator

Pencor Services, Inc.
462 Delaware Ave
Palmerton Pa 18071

610-826-9117 work
610-826-9188 fax
610-349-0913 cell
610-377-6012 home

psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pencor.com/