Troubleshooting HPE Blade Server C7000 Out-of-Band Login Failure

Jun 04 , 2025 16

Troubleshooting HPE Blade Server C7000 Out-of-Band Login Failure

The customer's HPE Blade Server C7000 exhibited the following issues: the chassis could not be accessed via out-of-band management, but the blades were accessible and operating normally with no impact on business operations.

Symptoms:

1. One power supply indicator on the rear of the chassis was flashing.

2. The small display screen was black with no output.

3. The out-of-band management IP was unreachable, while the blade IPs were accessible.

4. The chassis out-of-band management IP was not pingable, and the connected switch port was repeatedly cycling between UP/DOWN.

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. The engineer inspected the OA (Onboard Administrator) module and found that the C7000 had only one OA module installed, with its indicator light off. Based on the symptoms, two possibilities were identified:

• (1) The module was improperly seated, causing fan control failure and the Insight Display to remain black.

• (2) The OA module had failed and needed replacement.
  The recommended actions were to reseat or replace the module during a maintenance window.

  
  

  

  
  

To expedite troubleshooting, a spare OA module with the same firmware version was prepared. The engineer brought the replacement part to the customer site during the scheduled maintenance window.

3.After arriving on-site, the engineer reseated the OA module but observed no response, confirming a hardware failure.

4.After replacing the OA module, the fan indicators returned to normal, and the small display screen became functional. This confirmed that the original OA module had failed.

5.The customer reported that only Bay6 and Bay14 were in use. The engineer configured the management IP via the display screen and reconfigured the IP, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS settings in the management interface.

6.Once the configuration was complete, the OA connection was restored, and the customer verified that all functions were working correctly.