Sun Enterprise[TM] 3500: Boot device paths

Asset ID:	1-71-1003121.1
Update Date:	2010-12-10
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 1003121.1 : Sun Enterprise[TM] 3500: Boot device paths

Applies to:

Sun Enterprise 3500 Server
All Platforms

Goal

Understanding and setting up boot devices on a Sun Enterprise 3500

Understanding full physical paths on an E3500 in relation to the onboard disk drives is important when selecting a boot device.

Solution

There are four ports on the interface board (IB) labeled top to bottom:

UB, UA, LB, LA

This photo shows an FC-AL IB laying on it's side.

To access these ports you must come off either:

an I/O board onboard FC-AL port, or
an Sbus FC-AL port

See the picture below for reference of where the I/O Board and FC-AL Interface Boards are located on the rear of the E3500:

The full physical device address describes:

whether you are using the I/O board onboard ports or the Sbus HBA ports
which port (0 or 1) on the onboard or Sbus HBA
which IB board port (A or B) you are using

NOTE: The address does not indicate whether the drives are upper or lower drives.

The upper drives and the lower drives act as two separate arrays.

Use the "probe-fcal-all" command and the disk World-Wide Number (WWN) to determine which array (top or bottom) your disk is on.

The following is a breakdown of a complete physical path:

/sbus@A,0/SUNW,socal@B,10000/sf@C,0/ssd@w2DEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,F:G

A  - convert to decimal: divide by 2 to get the I/O slot#
B  - 0=Sbus slot0, 1=Sbus slot1, 2=Sbus slot2, d=Sbus slotd (onboard fcal)
C  -  identifies which gbic: 0=bottom gbic, 1 = top gbic
D  - identifies which port (A or B) on the IB board:  w21=UA/LA, w22=UB/LB
E  - disk WWN
F  - drive SSD number
G  - LUN (always "0") - slice

How to identify which port on the host IB board:

(W21=UA/LA, W22=UB/LB) identifies if cable plugs onto A or B on the interface board, but does NOT identify whether top or bottom drives. (top and bottom are 2 separate arrays).

"E", "F" and "G" identifies the drive, LUN and slice. Using this information, use "probe-fcal-all" to identify if drive is on top or bottom array.

Using the above information you should be able to make an alias to boot from any internal drive as follows:

1. Select an alias name: <myinternaldisk>.

2. Type the following at the ok> prompt:

 ok> nvalias  /sbus@A,0/SUNW,socal@B,10000/sf@C,0/ssd@w2DEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,F:G

(Use the above example to fill in numbers for A, B, C, D, E ,F, and G).

3. Copy the contents of the command into nvramrc:

ok> nvstore

4. Add the alias to the boot device list.

ok> setenv boot-device  [disk] [net]

5. Reset the system.

ok> reset-all

6. Boot the server. You will not need this step if auto-boot is set to true.

ok> boot

From the Installation Guide (pdf), section 2-15:

External SCSI-2 devices connect to your system through the built-in single-ended Fast/Wide SCSI-2 port on I/O+ boards (except for the board in slot 1), or through FSBE/S, DSBE/S, SWIS/S, or DWIS/S SBus cards installed on I/O+ boards.

Note - The onboard SCSI-2 bus on the I/O+ board in slot 1 controls internal media tray devices. Therefore, the external SCSI connector on the I/O+ board in slot 1 must always have a terminator installed.

@ Internal Comments
nvalias, e3500, boot, device, path
Previously Published As
40562

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