Technical Advisory 948

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The backplanes of some SR1625, SR2600, and SR2625 systems have been built with an incorrect version of the
GL830 converter. It is not possible to load a Linux OS or the Intel Deployment Assistant on a system using a backplane
with the incorrect GL830 component. The failure mode will vary depending on the specific version of Linux used but
can include a hang or kernel panic.
The systems built with the incorrect GL830 will not be able to install a Linux OS from the internal optical drive. If a
suspect system has already used an internal optical drive to install a Linux OS, then that system is not affected by this
issue. Systems that are already installed in the field and have not demonstrated an OS load failure can be assumed to
have the correct GL830 component. These units are fully functional and should not be returned.
If Linux has already been installed without using the internal optical drive, failures can also be seen when attempting
block reads to the drive. This can be tested using the command “dd if=/dev/cdrom1 of=/dev/null count 100”. Systems
built with the incorrect GL830 component will return an error. Systems built with the correct GL830 component will
execute the command successfully.
The backplanes suspected to be built with the incorrect GL830 can first be identified by the system serial number list
above. To confirm, the markings of the GL830 converter must be visually inspected. The GL830 is located on the rear
of each backplane as shown in figures one, two and three. For each system, this component is visible after removing
the top cover without removing any other parts from the system. Incorrect parts have a ‘02’ suffix, see figure 4, while
the correct parts have a ’03’, see figure 5.
Figure 1: SR1625 Backplane (PBA# E27104-403) - Location U4L2
Figure 2: SR2600 Backplane (PBA# E32704-203) - Location U7M1
Figure 3: SR2625 Backplane (PBA# E26398-303) - Location U5N1