TECHNICAL SUPPORT BULLETIN

February 25, 2010

TSB 2010-075-A

SEVERITY: High Operational

P RO D U CT S AF FE CTE D :

DCX, DCX-4S, and Brocade 5300

CORRECTED IN RELEASE:
The fix for this issue, which is documented in Defect 270261, is included in the Brocade Fabric OS
versions v6.2.2b and v6.3.1a. It will also be included in future Fabric OS releases, v6.3.0d and v6.4.0.

BULLETIN OVERVIEW
When either of the two upgrade paths listed below is used to upgrade a DCX, DCX-4S or Brocade
5300, the Compact Flash (CF) may report an access error.

Fabric OS v6.1.x to Fabric OS v6.2.2a or lower

Fabric OS v6.2.2a or lower to Fabric OS v6.3.1 or lower

This will cause a reboot of the affected CP within the DCX/DCX-4S or Brocade 5300 to fail.

Brocade produces and publishes Technical Support Bulletins to OEMs, partners and customers that
have a direct, entitled, support relationship in place with Brocade.
Please contact your primary service provider for further information regarding this topic and
applicability for your environment

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Starting with Fabric OS v6.2.0, the User Programmable Machine (UPM) of the PowerPC processor was
updated to use faster values. This enhancement was implemented to decrease system hot code load
and reboot times.
As a result of this change, and the natural variation of Compact Flash parts, a timing violation may
occur. All compact flash parts used within Brocade products meet their specified read/write
characteristics. There is nothing wrong with any physical Compact Flash currently in use in the field.
2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. TSB 2010-075-A

Potentially, the UPM value change may cause a DCX, DCX-4S or Brocade 5300 to exhibit a timing
violation. In this situation, the Compact Flash device is out-of-sync with the PowerPC. When this
happens, the Compact Flash is unable to accept new commands. In rare cases, the CF becomes
corrupted and unusable.

RISK ASSESSMENT
When a DCX, DCX-4S or Brocade 5300 is upgraded from firmware Fabric OS v6.1.x to v6.2.2a or
lower, it is possible that a timing violation during an access cycle could cause the upgrade operation to
fail.
If this situation occurs in a DCX or DCX-4S, the affected Control Processor blade (CP) fails to reboot
and the two CPs fail to gain HA-Sync. When this occurs within a Brocade 5300, the processor fails to
reboot and the switch fails to come online.
This can also happen when upgrading from Fabric OS v6.2.2a or lower to v6.3.1 or lower, or during a
cold reboot / power-on of the system while loaded with Fabric OS v6.2.2a or v6.3.1 or lower firmware.

SYMPTOMS
The affected CP blade within a DCX or DCX-4S will fail to reboot completely and the two CPs will fail to
gain HA-Sync. For the Brocade 5300, the switch fails to reboot.
This failure is accompanied by the message HDA: Device not ready from the serial console output.
The existence of this message does not always mean that this condition has occurred. However, this
message is always encountered when the CP fails to reboot because of the timing violation.

WORKAROUND
If the Compact Flash and the PowerPC simply fell out of sync with each other, then a cold reboot of the
CP or the Brocade 5300 will recover the system.
If the Compact Flash was corrupted due to a timing violation during an access sequence, the unit will
fail to recover after attempting a cold reboot. In this case, replace the Brocade 5300 or affected CP
within the DCX or DCX-4S.

CORRECTIVE ACTION
The UPM timing values for the DCX, DCX-4S and the Brocade 5300 have been restored back to the
original values used in Fabric OS v6.1.x and earlier releases.
Upgrading to a patch or code version that reinstates the earlier UPM timing values will ensure that no
timing violations occur.
Brocade recommends that users upgrade their DCX, DCX-4S and the Brocade 5300 units to Fabric OS
v6.2.2b or higher, Fabric OS v6.3.1a or higher, or Fabric OS 6.4.0 when it becomes available.

2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. TSB 2010-075-A

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