One of our Dell servers (PowerEdge R210 II, running OpenSUSE) has recently started to report abnormal alerts for the system board planar temperature.
OMSA logs show series of warning/critical messages alerting of planar temp getting above the upper limits and then (within few seconds/minutes) getting beyond the lower limits:
Critical - Tue Mar 18 09:29:22 2014 - The system board planar temperature is greater than the upper critical threshold.
Non-critical - Tue Mar 18 09:29:22 2014 - The system board planar temperature is greater than the upper warning threshold.
Normal - Tue Mar 18 09:29:27 2014 - The system board planar temperature is within range.
Non-critical - Tue Mar 18 09:29:27 2014 - The system board planar temperature is greater than the upper warning threshold.
Non-critical - Tue Mar 18 09:30:22 2014 - The system board planar temperature is less than the lower warning threshold.
Normal - Tue Mar 18 09:30:28 2014 - The system board planar temperature is within range. -
Non-critical - Tue Mar 18 09:30:38 2014 - The system board planar temperature is less than the lower warning threshold.
We have been checking ambiental and chassis temp by hand, as well as other indicators (fans, temps, voltages), and everything seems to be ok within ranges.
Since lower and upper thresholds are set to 8ºC and 42ºC (~46ºF to ~107ºF) and it is obvious that the server is not suffering such extreme rises and falls of temperature, I guess either the temp probe is failing or maybe there is some problem with the firmware.
Has anyone run into this problem? Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.