I had a Blade Specialist ask what happens when the EEPROM fails on the BladeSystem Enclosure.

First of all, just what does the EEPROM do for the blade enclosure.

The c-Class Architecture documents on the mid-plane says as the following.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00810839/c00810839.pdf
"The only active device is an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), which the Onboard Administrator uses to acquire information such as the midplane serial number. If this device were to fail, it would not affect the signaling functionality of the NonStop signal midplane."

Question:
Does this mean the blade server and interconnect device will have no problem and keep running even if the EEPROM fails and the information on this device is completedly lost ?

Answer:
When and if the EEPROM fails, it fails "safe" and results in no loss of functionality. It is not in the signal path of anything. It is 'active' in the sense that it is a powered device, but its activities are completely passive, basically to contain information that the OA can query about serial number as stated below and some Field Replaceable Unit information.

Does OA work fine continuously ?     YES
Does Blade server "Boot" normally ? YES
Does iLO access work fine ?            YES
Is the Virtual Connect profile still applicable ?           YES