IBM x3650 M3 Does Not Recognize NICs

Posted on 2 mins read

I was battling with a piece of IBM hardware last week during the install of a new ESX host.

I had installed a new server, IBM x3650 M3 with 2 Intel Dual Port Server Adapters, and the damn thing would not recognize the cards in the system. I updated to the latest firmware. This was not the first time this model had been installed but up until now now problems had occurred.

After mucking about on the internet and calling support - apparently some of the NICS are not recognized properly in the UEFI settings (see full article for all the details).

Symptom

Upon power up, after the user installs one or more PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Server Adapters, Option 39Y6136, Field Replaceable Unit (replacement part number) 39Y6138, in one or more PCIe slot(s) in a System x Gen2 server, the adapters are not seen by the system.

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

  • System x3550 M2, Type 4198, any model
  • System x3550 M2, Type 7946, any model
  • System x3550 M3, Type 4254, any model
  • System x3550 M3, Type 7944, any model
  • System x3650 M2, Type 4199, any model
  • System x3650 M2, Type 7947, any model
  • System x3650 M3, Type 4255, any model
  • System x3650 M3, Type 7945, any model
  • System x3850 X5, Type 7145, any model
  • System x3850 X5, Type 7146, any model
  • System x3950 X5, Type 7145, any model

Workaround

In the UEFI, change the setting for the PCIe slot(s) from “Gen2” to “Gen1” as follows:

To set the system PCIe bus/slots to Gen1 mode in the system UEFI:

  1. In UEFI, go to Devices and I/O Ports and select Gen1.
  2. Save the new setting and reboot the system.

The adapter(s) should now work fine with the system PCIe bus/slots set to Gen1 mode.

This is really stupid and ridiculous it should just work!!

Posted here so I do not have to look for it again, and perhaps is useful for you as well.