About SMM alarm levels

Minor, major, and critical alarms are defined based on both IPMI, ATCA, and Telco standards for naming alarms.

• A minor alarm (also called an IPMI non-critical (NC) alarm) indicates that a temperature or a power level was detected by a sensor that is outside of the normal operating range but is not considered a problem. In the case of a minor temperature alarm the system could respond by increasing fan speed. A non-critical threshold can be an upper non-critical (UNC) threshold (for example, a high temperature or a high power level ) or a lower non-critical (UNC) threshold (for example, a low power level).
• A major alarm (also called an IPMI critical or critical recoverable (CR) alarm) indicates a temperature or power level was detected by a sensor that is far enough outside of the normal operating range to require attention from the operator. It could also mean that the system itself cannot correct the alarm. For example, the cooling system cannot provide enough cooling to reduce the temperature. It could also mean that conditions are close to being outside of the allowed operating range. For example, the temperature is close to exceeding the allowed operating temperature. A critical threshold can also be an upper critical (UC) threshold (for example, a high temperature or a high power level ) or a lower critical (LC) threshold (for example, a low power level).
• A critical alarm (also called an IPMI non-recoverable (NR) alarm) indicates a temperature or power level was detected by a sensor that is outside of the allowed operating range and could potentially cause physical damage.

You can use the SMM CLI to get details about alarm sensors, thresholds, and the events that trigger alarms.