Yellow LED light Flashing on Back of Xserve

is it the system ID LED

The yellow light in the back corresponds with the front one, so that one must be flashing too.

Flashing does indicate an error. To be sure, restart the machine and see if the light persists.
If so, check the server monitor. If there is nothing, open the console (applications->Utlilities->Console), clikc on Logs and select the /var/log tab and choose hwmond.log and its archives (i.e. hwmond.log.0.gz) to see.

Even though server monitor reports degraded Raids, you can still check Disk Utilities for that (provided you use Raid)

I'd expect the [Xserve G5 User Guide|http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/XserveG5_UserGuide.PDF] would likely indicate exactly what the particular yellow LED might mean in general terms.

If it is not simply the yellow system locater beacon having been enabled here, then you're in for a call to Apple support or your local hardware support provider; I'd assume your site has some sort of contract, or spares or such. This assumes you can't find anything relevant in the Server Monitor or Server Admin or system logs.

The Apple hardware maintenance manuals are not directly available outside Apple's own use and outside the Apple partners, from what I can determine.

This was bad RAM for me. The bad chip will so up in the bottom left list when clicking on memory in server monitor.

OZ

Is anything wrong with the machine?

Are you sure it is not the Ethernet activity indicator light?

Luck-

-DP

Hi, I already asked you is you checked the logs. Did you do that?

The server monitor only displays current state data and yellow will turn green if the issue goes away while the indicator light stays on until turned off via software or button press.

One common issue is the enclosure intrusion. Since a lightsensor triggers that, even the smallest gap between cover and front plate can trigger this. It can be in a state where it triggers it sometimes and sometimes not.

Message was edited by: Wolfman

Good point.

What DO the error logs say?

-DP

Not sure what you mean by that the "imaging the workstation" error.

It would be quite unique for the indicator light to come on without a trace in the hwmond.log (or its archives). Did you check those log files?

Here is an example:
Mon Jun 9 18:25:50 CDT 2008 - The enclosure has been opened.
Mon Jun 9 18:25:50 CDT 2008 - Service light has been automatically set to 'blink'.
Mon Jun 9 18:31:56 CDT 2008 - The enclosure has been closed.
Mon Jun 9 18:37:02 CDT 2008 - Number of drives change from 2 to 3.
Mon Jun 9 18:39:02 CDT 2008 - Number of drives change from 3 to 2.
Mon Jun 9 18:48:26 CDT 2008 - Service light has been manually set to 'off'.

Enclosure intrusions, along with other failures (such as mobo, blowers, etc. will be accompanied by a status summary which will show you the state of the system (voltages, rpm's, raid, ect.)

Hope this helps

Wolfman