Specifications

BIOS Error Handling QSSC-S4R Technical Product Specification
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is displayed in the Error Manager if “POST Error Pause” is enabled. In any case, the Error Code 0x8198 is logged
to the SEL.
For details on the format of the events logged, see Section 21.2.3.6.
21.1.3 Operating System Watchdog Failure
In addition, the Operating System or OS drivers or the Server Management Software (SMS) may use the BMC
Watchdog Timer to prevent a permanent hang in the OS. In this case, the OS or application software is responsible for
setting and resetting the timer.
If an OS device driver is using the BMC Watchdog Timer to detect software or hardware failures and that timer expires,
this implies that the system has hung, and an Asynchronous Reset (ASR) is generated, equivalent to a hard reset, just
as with the OS Load timer.
The BMC logs this event in the SEL, and the system restarts and goes through POST. There are two differences
between this case and the “OS Load timer” case – first, the Timer Purpose in the BMC SEL Event is different, and
secondly, there is no POST Error Code generated by BIOS during the reboot.
This is not a BIOS-related event, although it logs a BMC SEL Event that is very similar to the FRB-2 and OS Load
watchdog timer timeouts in which the BIOS does participate. It is included in this discussion in order to differentiate
between it and BIOS-related timeout events.
For an OS/SMS Watchdog timeout, the timer purpose in the BMC event is “OS/SMS”, and there is no POST Error
Code logged.
Table 158. OS/SMS Watchdog Timeout SEL Events
Generator ID Sensor
Type Code
Sensor
number
T
y
pe code E
v
ent Data1
Bytes Used
+ Offset
E
v
ent Data2 E
v
ent Data3
20h
(BMC
Firmware)
23h
(Watchdog
Timer2)
03h
(Watchdog)
6Fh
(Sensor
Specific Offset)
C1h
(Data2 has
Sensor Specific
Code;
Offset = Hard
Reset)
04h
(Interrupt =
None;
Purpose =
OS/SMS)
FFh
(N/A)
21.1.4 Boot Event
The BIOS downloads the system date and time to the BMC during POST and logs a boot event. Software that parses
the event log should not treat the boot event as an error.
21.2 Error Handling and Logging
This section defines the sensors the BIOS uses to log errors into the System Event Log (SEL). This section is required
by the utilities team to ensure that events annotated in the SEL are properly decoded into human-readable form.
Where possible, the following listing is consistent with previous platforms where the BIOS defined its own sensors.
21.2.1 Error Sources and Types
One of the major requirements of server management is to correctly and consistently handle system errors. System
errors that can be enabled and disabled individually or as a group can be categorized as follows:
x PCI Express Sensors – see Section 21.2.3.1
x Legacy PCI Sensors – see Section 21.2.3.2.
x Memory Sensors – see Section 21.2.3.3.
x Intel® QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) Sensors – see Section 21.2.3.4
x Compute module extensions – see Section 21.2.3.5
x Watchdog Timer Timeouts – see Section 21.2.3.6
There are also two classes of System Event Log events logged by BIOS that are not controlled through enabling or
disabling in the Setup:
x Normally-recorded POST events that appear simply as informational messages – see Section 21.2.3.1.2 and
Section 8.2.2.8