FxM/FxV - All remote access to Dell R300 machine no longer available. (57818)

Dell R300, small appliance Foglight Experience Monitor (FxM) or Foglight Experience Viewer(FxV), has lost use of its onboard (embedded on the motherboard) NICs (eth0 and eth1). All remote access to the machine (including web console UI) is lost since eth0 is the control port.

We had rebooted the appliance and pressed the F2 key when it was rebooting (it prompts for that). Those two onboard (embedded NICs) are now listed as Not Present in the BIOS. Or BIOS may say that, for the two embedded NICs, that they are enabled but that their MAC addresses are not present

If you run:
ethtool -i eth0
and the Driver says anything other than "bnx2" (eg. "e1000") then that means the on-board NICS are not coming up, due to this problem. 

The add-on Intel NICs (the monitoring ports eth2 and higher) continue working.

This is a known problem with the current BIOS on the R300s. If R300 machines are hard reset (pressing and holding the power button) the NVRAM in the system can become corrupt. This may also occur in the event of a power loss.

NOTE: ensure that you have confirmed that the machine is an R300 AND that the on-board NICs show up as Not Present in the BIOS (under Integrated Devices). You can get into the BIOS by rebooting and pressing the F2 key. And confirm the command 'ethtool -i eth0' does not return "bnx2"

WORKAROUND1
Open up a Support case with Dell hardware and have them send someone onsite. Refer to SOL40994.
https://support.quest.com/SUPPORT/index?page=solution&id=SOL40994

WORKAROUND2
1.unplug the machine
2.open the box
3.remove the battery
4.hold down the power button for 15 seconds
5.replace the battery
6.power the appliance back on


RESOLUTION

The latest Dell Server Updates image addresses this issue to prevent it from happening in the first place or from reoccurring. The updates will not resolve the issue once the NVRAM is already corrupt and the onboard NICs have stopped working; the appliance will still need to have its NVRAM manually cleared (do one of the workarounds above).

1. Get the latest Dell System Management Tools and Documentation image (under Systems Management)
2. Get the latest Dell Server Updates image (Under Systems Management)
3. Boot from the Systems Management DVD and choose Build and Update Utility.
4. Insert the Server Updates DVD when prompted. You need to run the Build and Update Utility twice in order to get all the updates installed.