Supermicro server crashes under I/O load (old BIOS)

[Jsmart]

we have found a combination of Supermicro and Intel that can cause servers to reboot on even very small I/O load.

We noticed that servers that did not have the latest BIOS, they had version 2.0 in our case, the servers can randomly reboot under even low I/O load.

Once we upgraded the BIOS on those servers to version 2.1, the servers stopped crashing under I/O load, even heavy I/O load.

you can check your BIOS by running the following command:
"dmidecode --type bios --type baseboard"

You should be able to get the latest BIOS from here: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/

SAMPLE:
# dmidecode --type bios --type baseboard
# dmidecode 2.7
SMBIOS 2.5 present.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes.
BIOS Information
Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
Version: 2.0b
Release Date: 03/20/2008
Address: 0xE4EC0
Runtime Size: 110912 bytes
ROM Size: 1024 kB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
PNP is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
ESCD support is available
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
EDD is supported
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
LS-120 boot is supported
ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 8 bytes.
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: Supermicro
Product Name: X7DBR
Version: PCB Version
Serial Number: 01<removed>


--Jessie

[agathongroup]

FYI, I've also seen it in machines with the following BIOS:

BIOS Information
Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
Version: 6.00
Release Date: 11/02/2007

Similar Supermicro barebones/motherboard, but I have no clue what that BIOS version is (i.e., where version "6.0" fits in with 2.0b and 2.1).