topic ES40 and ES45 - console memory in Operating System - OpenVMS

ES40 and ES45 - console memory

Kevin Raven (UK) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 06:28:07 GMT

When I first started working on ES40 , you had to perform an INIT at the SRM prompt to clear memory between server boot and running wwidmgr.
However I seem to remember on a later model of ES40 not having to do this (When the plastic case turned black).
I know have some ES45 and I have to perform INIT between boot and wwidmgr at the SRM prompt. Are these old models I'm working on ?
Or was the whole thing about not having to sit about waiting for INIT's to complete a dream.

Thanks
Kevin

Re: ES40 and ES45 - console memory

Colin Butcher — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 07:58:16 GMT

I've always used INIT to reset the machine after messing around with WWIDMGR (4100s, ES40s, ES45s etc.). If not you can find all sorts of strage things like phantom devices showing up.

Also beware firmware V6.9 (I think) and the environment variable SCSI_POLL. If SCSI_POLL is non-default then it stopped WWIDMGR finding the FC devices at all - which confused the hell out of us for a while. It's been fixed since then, but it's worth checking the firmware versions.

If you're not making use of Galaxy then you should be able to speed the INIT up by turning off the full memory check and so on - even if you only do that temporarily while messing around with WWIDMGR.

Cheers, Colin.

Re: ES40 and ES45 - console memory

DAVO — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:02:44 GMT

Hello Kevin

In addition to Colin's remarks I would like to share my experience...

a) Eventually the boot_reset variable is set to off as listed in the example below.

>>>sho boot*
boot_dev dkd1000.10.0.2004.0
boot_file
boot_osflags 1,0
=>> boot_reset OFF
bootdef_dev dkd1000.10.0.2004.0
booted_dev
booted_file
booted_osflags
>>>
Then the init and boot is rather fast.

b) Another issue could be the memory_test variable. The default value is full.
Especial on a ES40 this value MUST be defined to FULL. Otherwise you will experience very strange things and the system get unbootable!!
This is based on my personal experience.

On server setup's with a maximum memory configuration of 32GB the memory test consumes nearly 5 minutes on a ES40 or ES45.

The ES45 is able to handle other memory_test values and will still boot!!!
Even if it is not recommended by HP.
During upgrades or other issues that requires a couple of INIT's it will speed up when the value is TEMPORARY defined to PARTIAL.
Maybe this is the case and therefore the whole power-up or INIT is fast.

Available options of MEMORY_TEST:
P00_gdc09y>> set memory_test bla
bad value - valid selections:
full
partial
none
bad value - memory_test not modified
P00_gdc09y>>

Attention:
I do not want to encourage to change the MEMORY_TEST value - only to explain what it could do. If the value of the memory_test variable is not defined to full it could cause servere problems.

Cheers
Andreas

Re: ES40 and ES45 - console memory

Andreas Vollmer — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:16:28 GMT

Hi again,
A remark to my ID...
I updated it in the profile but somehow it did not populated.
Please use this ID.

Thanks
Andreas