topic Re: Booting L2000 from A6795A in Disk Enclosures

Booting L2000 from A6795A

Don Billing_1 — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 15:05:10 GMT

The documentation says it can be done, but how? We have a L2000 (rp5450) that we are trying to boot from a MSA1000 using the A6795A Tachyon HBA. We have upgraded the firmware on the L2000 to 44.28, and the MSA1000 to 4.38 for HP-UX support. The problem is, the HBA never makes a connection until AFTER the OS/drivers load. We have tried direct connect FC/AL, and also going through a SanSwitch 2/8. In either case, a search for boot device does not show a LUN, just the Tachyon controller. If we boot 11i V1 from an internal disk, everything works fine. All the units created show up and mount ok. We can install 11i to the MSA with no problems, but once it reboots, the HBA looses connection. We have tried two different HBAs. One had EFI firmware on it, so I assume it came from an itanium system. The VPD data on the current one shows no EFI firmware.
I've bounced around so many documents, I've just become more confused, and am not sure where to look. The tech support information for the Tachyon controller is, shall we say, poor, to say the least. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Don Billing

Re: Booting L2000 from A6795A

Andrew Rutter — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 05:20:01 GMT

hi don,

dont know if this helps or you've tried it, but, some of the other HBA's require you to boot the support plus media and setup the card as aboot device. Then you can change the pri path to boot this and then the hpux install will see the storage box as a potential boot device

andy

Re: Booting L2000 from A6795A

Bernhard Mueller — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 05:22:46 GMT

Don,

is the card in an odd numbered slot? if so, try it in slot 6, 8, 10 or 12.

Regards,
Bernhard

Re: Booting L2000 from A6795A

Don Billing — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 10:27:42 GMT

Thanks for the replys.
Bernhard, I have tried different slots and it is currently in slot 10. No change there.
Andrew, I tried booting the Support Plus CD, and there are a couple of tools under the ODE diags for the FC60, and VA, but of course they are password protected. I'm not sure if the A6795A can be configured with those or not. I'll keep plugging away at it.

Thanks again,
Don

Re: Booting L2000 from A6795A

Don Billing_1 — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 07:10:43 GMT

Well,I have found a sequence that works. I'm just confused as to why or how it works. After installing the A6795A with the non-EFI firmware on it, I decided to try and re-load the OS on LUN 0 of the MSA1000. This time it rebooted after loading. I loaded the necessary patches and shut everything down. If I power up in the following sequence it will boot to the MSA. First, power up the MSA1000. Wait until it is fully booted and stable. A "show connections" command at the CLI shows the connection we created, with no online or offline status showing. Next, power up the SanSwitch and wait for POST to finish. Wait for Link OK to be displayed on the MSA. The show connections command still shows no status change. Finally, power up the L2000. It boots, even though the LINK light is not on on the HBA or the SanSwitch.
If I interrupt the boot proccess and do a "search ipl", the drive does not show up, but somehow it still boots to it. I'm confused, but hey, it works. :)

Any fibre gurus out there have any thoughts as to why? When the system gets to the end user, I'd like to have some kind of explaination other than "It's a mystery to me". ;-)