topic Re: cannot boot in Operating System - HP-UX

cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:02:33 GMT

We have an HP 9000 server 800/G30.
We had a chewed tape in the drive and could not get it out.
I gracefully shutdown the server, then console.
Waited a few mins, console on , server on to get power to eject tape.
Server fails to boot.

Front pannel has 4 LEd`s, from left to right:
1= Green ON ( symbol shows a sigle period ie .)
2= Amber( could be orange) ON( symbol shows ... )
3= Yellow ON (symbol shows a box with an arrow top right)
4= clear OFF ( battery symbol)

I tried using diagnostick CD ,,, wont boot
HP tape no boot.

How do I get the console to show me the command line. to see the boot process?

Thanks in advance

Dave
System admin

Re: cannot boot

RAC_1 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:09:25 GMT

What is the error message you are getting.

Connect to GSP and do co.

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:09:41 GMT

Hi,

Try these,

1. Power-off the tape drive/console and G30.
2. If the tape drive is connected externally remove all the SCSI cables from the tape drive connecting to the system
3. Power on console
4. Power on G30

Let me know if the system boots now.

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:11:09 GMT

I guess G30 doesn't have GSP. Does it???

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:11:50 GMT

This is an old box.

The tape failure seems coincidental to the system failure unless the box loads the OS from tape.

Boot it again.

Interupt at the 10 second prompt on the console

sea

If it does not find any or the appropriate boot disk, there has been a failure of the I/O, probably the disk or the scsi subsystem.

SEP

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 14:15:26 GMT

We had a G30 at our office. And whenever it failed to boot I open the box, give the hard disk a warm pat on its back (not too professional huh ;-) after that it used to work.

don't forget the ESD straps

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:21:58 GMT

Well thanks for all the replys.
1. RAC- no error message , cannot get to cli .
2.-Karthik S S - all cables remove frpm tape. still no reboot.
3. Whats a GSP ?
4. SEP - It boots from SCSI, I do hear a ping noise coming from 1 of the drives but wont boot. Do I press ' sea then enter as its booting ?
5. Karthik S S - slaps didnt work either.

Re: cannot boot

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:24:48 GMT

boot the box from the console, probaby via power switch in this case.

Hit a key at the 10 second prompt.

sea

hit enter

That will tell you on the console if you have any working, bootable scsi devices.

Re: cannot boot

RAC_1 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:25:24 GMT

I do not know if it has got a GSP.

But you can always connect laptop/PC to consoel cable and watch. Post error message if any.

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:31:27 GMT

Are you getting any display on the console screen now?? As others have suggested when the system boots, you will see something like this,

press any key in 10 seconds ..

Now press space bar and then you should be in the BCH console. Issue the following command

search

if it lists any disk try to boot from one of those disks or you can also try

boot pri

You said that you can here some ping noise from the harddisk. Can you hear the humming of the motor noise contineously or does it get interuppted??

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

Tim D Fulford — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:38:38 GMT

Hi

We had an old T500 that died like this. It turned out to be a bad SCSI cable. It came up into the PDC (just after it says press any key within 10 seconds). It started to boot from primary disk, then fell over. As such what HP did was remove (terminate) ANY disk devices that were NOT vg00.

Worth a try

Tim

Re: cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:40:14 GMT

Hi again and thanks for all the replys.
I guess I have a HDD failure, I managed to get to the cli on console ,
boot failed , boot alrternative path - YES
Getting VFS_MOUNTROOT failed.

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:53:50 GMT

Do you mean to say that you are getting "VFS_MOUNTROOT failed" when you try to boot from alternative disk. If the OS is not installed on the other disks you will not be able to boot from them.

How many disks do you see when you do "search"?

try,
sea ipl

to view bootable disks.

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:54:59 GMT

Forgot to add,

If you see the original boot disk in search try booting from an alternative kernel.
usually it will vmunix.prev

hpux /stand/vmunix.prev

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:00:36 GMT

dont know how I managed to get the VFS_ message
when the system is bppting I do not see any messages, I press CTRL -B to get to the CM console mode.
Then pressing CO to open the console.
Then I does nothing.

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:04:55 GMT

As it is a prett old system it might be taking time to boot. I would suggest you not to presss Ctrl+B but wait for the display in the console.

Powerdown the system and the console. Then power on the console and the system. Be patient and wait till you get a display in the console. If it still doesn't work you might want to call HP Support.

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:08:13 GMT

I will wait and see. will keep you all informed.

Thanks

Re: cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:25:32 GMT

I guess I now need to call HP
I waited and eventualy it goes through some proceses:

then:
system panic, 9245XB HU_UX (B.10.20)
#1 -sun jun 9 06:31:19 PDT 1996 ******* yes 1996?
panic: (display 0xbf00 flags==0x0
data page fault
not possible for the kernel to find process that caused this crash.
dumpsys called
dump not configured call HP
dumpsys failed 4294967295

Re: cannot boot

Karthik S S — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:44:47 GMT

It means that the disk is still alive. Were you asked to hit any key when the system was booting? May be you can give one final try by interruppting the boot process and boot through an alternative kernel as I suggested in my earlier post.

-Karthik S S

Re: cannot boot

admin_18 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 22:17:25 GMT

Yes I did see the 10 second message, but had to leave it at that today.
Had to Leave town on another server matter.
I will try again on Thursday when I am on site again.

Just Glad we had a backup plan. Put into action within 25 minutes of the server failure. But now I have till the end of the week to fix .
So a great deal more reading on my part.
Thanks again Guys and Gals