12400 appliance dead, but LOM working

[JozkoMrkvicka]

Hello guys,

The issue which I am facing at the moment is quite strange for me. We have 12400 appliance which suddenly stopped working. After some checks we discovered that LOM interface is working well. LOM states that device is in OFF mode. Of course that we have tried to turn it on from LOM, but the error message was displayed.

As this device is around 6000 km away from me, I cannot check it in person. But according to guys who physically checked the status of this device, appliance is completely dead. No sign of life, no alarms, display is dark and cannot access anything from there. They tried to re-seat both PSUs, unplug both power cords for about 10 minutes, use other power outlets, but still the same.

What I do not understand is how it is even possible that LOM is working and I can access LOM of this device without any problem ? Has LOM some independent power source (battery) ? How is LOM interface designed ? Why I cannot turn on the device if LOM is working well ? Voltage of both PSUs was decreased so much that they cannot provide enough power to serve all needed circuits, only LOM ?

Thanks for every comment on this.

[AlekseiShelepov]

LOM interface has its own "hardware" and software and works when the appliance is turned off or not responding. And actually that's the whole point of having LOM interface. But still, LOM requires at least one of PSUs connected to work.

Intelligent Platform Management Interface - Wikipedia 

In case of some big issues with LOM it is even recommended to do the following to reboot LOM card:

1. Shut down the appliance completely.
2. Unplug all power cords from all power supply units.
3. Wait for 5 minutes.
4. Plug in the power cords to power supply units.
5. Power on the appliance.

So you're saying that when both power cords are unplugged for some time, you still can connect to LOM? Are you sure that you're connected to the correct LOM? Guys on site can try to unplug ethernet cable from LOM to see if you loose connectivity.

[JozkoMrkvicka]

I see from LOM event logs that the power was disrupted, so I am connected to the correct LOM IP. As I mentioned, LOM shows that the appliance is OFF. Wasnt connected to the LOM at that time when guys removed the power cords, but I am 100% sure that it is the correct one. In addition to that, I have noticed that the date and time of LOM was erased and shows 2015 year. All other settings were preserved.

[e846de29-af9a-4]

We have experienced exactly same issue & also on the same day last week.  At 9.00am on Friday 2nd Nov, the device powered itself off.  It's a Checkpoint 4800.  LOM connects fine, but refuses to power on, we have reseated power / power supply etc & as you say the power must be live or the LOM wouldn't work at all.  I have had a replacement device shipped & I am going to swap it out tomorrow, and recover faulty kit & see what state its actually in.  I will update what I find with the fault kit before I return it to Checkpoint.

[JozkoMrkvicka]

If I may suggest something... Before full replacement, try to swap only PSUs. From spare device remove PSUs and put them into faulty device. Do you have single or redundant PSU ?

[e846de29-af9a-4]

I did actually consider just swapping the power supplies when I was in the data centre yesterday, however as its a critical service in a data centre ~ 100 miles away & I only have single PSUs, I decided to follow Checkpoints recommendation of swapping the entire box - didn't want to risk a fried main board causing PSU issue for instance.

I am now ordering secondary power supply for each firewall for future resilience.  When I tried the broken device back @ my desk, the LOM did still work but mainboard would not power up at all.  There was a light on inside the device by the power supply as soon as I connect the power supply so I suspect PSU was fine & even dual would not have helped here … anyway - hopefully this device will last more than six weeks !! (original fault was a faulty disc / controller, again a complete device swap as that's what Checkpoint seem to ship everytime).

[JozkoMrkvicka]

Thank you for the update, we will do the same 🙂

[_Val_]

LOM is a separate tiny board. It might be that the main board is fried, so you cannot restart it, but LOM answers. Most probably not PSU issue. However, if both power cables are out, LOM should not answer either. Is that the case?

[JozkoMrkvicka]

Yes. But the LOM is module which can be inserted into slot on main board, isnt it? So if main board is faulty, shouldnt be dead also LOM ?

Anyway, i will try to upgrade LOM firmware to the latest version and check if we have some news afterwards.

According LOM firmware map, the latest version of LOM on 12400 appliance does not suport Java 8 (known limitation). How I am supposed to accees KVM console if I have Java 8 already installed ?

[_Val_]

LOM has an interface to the main board to send low level system commands and pull data. That said, it is not a part of the main board. 

For Java, I would check if you really cannot use it, before raising an issue.

[JozkoMrkvicka]

Thank you, we will proceed with full RMA.

Regarding LOM and Java 8:

I am using IE version 11.0.9600.19155

I am using Java 8 Update 171 (build 1.8.0_171-b11)

Once clicked on "Launch Java KVM Client":

Once clicked on "Launch Java VM Client":

[JozkoMrkvicka · Accepted solution]

Issue solved by swapping both PSUs from spare device.

No motherboard issue at all, just PSU failure.

Issue with LOM and Java 8 also solved (in Java settings disable usage of Java 8).

[_Val_]

Good you have it resolved.