BMC System Event Log (SEL) Full on Intel Server

You receive the following message in the BIOS´s error manager:

ERROR CODE    SEVERITY           INSTANCE

84FF          minor                  n/a

You can read the following in the detail description:

DESCRIPTION
BMC System Event Log Full.
The error code value identifies
the error.  Minor severity do
not require user intervention
or stop the booting of the
system.

In the following is a screenshot of how the message looks on the screen:

Background information

The IPMI BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) stores log information in the System Event Log (SEL). If this message appears, the System Event Log is full and no further entries can be written to the log.

Affected hardware

Intel SR2500 server with S5000PAL mainboard, potentially other Intel servers as well

Solution

To prevent the error message and make room for new entries in the SEL, the contents of the SEL must be deleted. This can be done in the following ways:

under Linux via ipmitool command
in the server´s BIOS

Emptying SEL under Linux

The SEL is emptied using ipmitool sel clear. Before doing so, you can view the contents of the SEL and then write them to a file to preserve the old log information:

[root@testserver ~]# ipmitool sel list | less
[root@testserver ~]# ipmitool sel list > /root/sel-list.txt
[root@testserver ~]# ipmitool sel elist > /root/sel-elist.txt
[root@testserver ~]# ipmitool sel clear
Clearing SEL.  Please allow a few seconds to erase.
[root@testserver ~]# ipmitool sel list
   4 | 04/24/2009 | 10:43:48 | Event Logging Disabled #0x09 | Log area reset/cleared | Asserted
[root@testserver ~]#

Emptying SEL in the BIOS

The contents of the SEL can also be deleted via the BIOS. It is not possible to write the contents of the SEL to a file beforehand in the BIOS. The contents of the SEL can be deleted in the BIOS under ‘’'Server Management'‘’ by setting ‘’'Clear System Event Log'‘’ to ‘’'Enabled'‘’. The settings must then be saved when exiting the BIOS:

More information

For information on deleting the SEL on Supermicro servers, see the article BMC System Error Log (SEL) Full on Supermicro Server.

Author: Werner Fischer

Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.

Translator: Alina Ranzinger

Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.