topic Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk in Integrity Servers

rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert Atkinson — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:03:39 GMT

I have an rx3600 hooked up to a SAN switch via an Emulex LP11002 card. The port speed on the switch shows as 2GB.

The problem I have is most of the time, the server refuses to boot (OpenVMS) saying that it failed to find the path configured.

If the node does eventually boot, it's fine, except whilst booting it clocks up thousands of errors as below :-

Name Value
In Bytes(MB) : 0.0
Out Bytes(MB): 0.0
In Frames : 0
Out Frames : 0
Frames Busied : 0
Frames Rejected : 0
Total Errors: 74188

My guess it's either a firmware revision problem, or some kind of negotiation going wrong.

Any help on setting this up correctly would be appreciated.

Rob.

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

jaap prenger — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:03:42 GMT

As the LP11002 is a 4Gb card, I assume that the SANswitch is a 2Gb type. After trying other speeds, the autonegotiation process during connection setup results in the 2Gb speed.
First check for the latest firmware on the system and HBA and than I would fix the speed of the LP11002 and the switchport to 2Gb. If possible also fix the HBA to point-to-point. With these settings no autonegotiation is necessary and the link should come up.

If this doesn't help, please provide some more information about your configuration (firmware levels of system, adapters, SAN switch, consolelogging of a failed boot, etc.).

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Jaap Prenger

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert Atkinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:22:00 GMT

It seems the problem is a little more complicated than I'd thought.

I tried to run EFIUTIL.EFI to gather FW levels on the card, but it reports no cards present.

I then downloaded the latest CD ISO from HP and tried to run that, but I then couldn't see the DVD drive.

I'm guessing from the fact the HBA's and DVD keep dropping in and out of hardware config, that the PCI bus is faulty or badly connected.

I'm going to attempt to check it myself, but as the server is a loan from HP, I guess they'd come out and check it for me.

Rob.

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert-Jan Goossens_1 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:59:08 GMT

Hi Robert,

Have a look at this patch/package.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3257031&swItem=ux-61658-1&prodNameId=3257032&swEnvOID=2080&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1

Regards,
Robert-Jan

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert Atkinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:06:37 GMT

Robert, our 3600 (delivered in November 2008) is already at this firmware level.

Rob.

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert Atkinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:07:57 GMT

SYSREV

Current firmware revisions

MP FW : F.02.17
BMC FW : 05.23
EFI FW : ROM A 07.12, ROM B 07.12
System FW : ROM A 04.03, ROM B 04.03, Boot ROM A
PDH FW : 50.07
DHPC FW : 01.23
UCIO FW : 03.0b
PRS FW : 00.08 UpSeqRev: 0c, DownSeqRev: 08
HFC FW : 00.04 SetRev: 00

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert Atkinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:15:00 GMT

It looks like the 'DVD going missing' may have been a red-herring. Although it shows up in the device list under 'USB device' is does appear to be there permanently.

So, I'm probably back to hunting down firmware problems, or incompatibilities.

Rob.

Re: rx3600 Failure To Find EVA Boot Disk

Robert Atkinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:57:43 GMT

With help from HP, it looks like we've found the solution.

The port was set to 2GB, even though both ends support 4GB. As soon as I set the switch end to auto-negotiate, to port errors stopped.

Rob.