BL860c restart long wait time to init fibre channel adapaters

[Mario Dhaenens]

Hi,

When I restart a BL860c server it takes a very long time (10 minutes for each card) before the HBA cards are comming online.

What is happening during that moment?
Can I speed up this part?

Below you can see a part of the restart.
EFI version 2.00 [14.62]
EFI64 Running on Intel(R) Itanium Processor Family
UEFI 2.0 IPF server BL860c 7.14 [Fri Feb 23 17:21:28 2007] firmware by HP
Loading 'SysROM:Floating-Point Software Assistance Handler'...
-- 'SysROM:Floating-Point Software Assistance Handler' returned Success
Loading 'SysROM:Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Driver'...

Copyright (c) 2000-2006 Broadcom Corporation
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet EFI driver v9.4.4

-- 'SysROM:Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Driver' returned Success
Loading 'SysROM:SCSI Bus Driver'...
-- 'SysROM:SCSI Bus Driver' returned Success
Loading 'SysROM:SCSI Disk Driver'...
-- 'SysROM:SCSI Disk Driver' returned Success
Loading 'SysROM:SCSI Tape Driver'...
-- 'SysROM:SCSI Tape Driver' returned Success
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (BCM5704) is detected (PCI-X)
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (BCM5704) is detected (PCI-X)
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (BCM5704) is detected (PCI-X)
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (BCM5704) is detected (PCI-X)
HP PCIe 2Port 4Gb Fibre Channel Adapter (driver 1.09, firmware 4.00.090)

/Toine

[Hoff]

I'd look to confirm that the FC SAN is properly configured; this looks like connectivity problems.

The BladeSystem configurations have the SBA FC SAN giblets, and various mezzanine and rear bulkhead options available in this path, and the FC SAN controllers (also) need to be correctly configured.

If the BladeSystem box is under a support contract, call up HP and ask them to have a look. If not, peek into the FPL and the SEL as a start; in the console startup logs. Check the logs; look for errors and timeouts.

[marsh_1]

hi,

there should be entries for this in the fc switch event logs, at the very least the plogi/flogi entries. perhaps a negotiation issue.

[The Brit · Accepted solution]

This sounds like a problem that I had many months ago. In my case it turned out that a parameter was incorrectly set in drvcfg.

Get to the EFI shell.

SHELL> drivers

get the "drv" (column 1) for the FC Devices. In my case,

28 00000109 D X X 1 - HP 4 Gb Fibre Channel Driver PciROM:06:00:01:002
29 00000109 D X X 1 - HP 4 Gb Fibre Channel Driver PciROM:06:00:00:002
2D 00000109 D X X 1 - HP 4 Gb Fibre Channel Driver PciROM:08:00:01:002
2E 00000109 D X X 1 - HP 4 Gb Fibre Channel Driver PciROM:08:00:00:002

SHELL> drvcfg -c 28
Configurable Components
Drv[28] Ctrl[2C] Lang[eng]

SHELL> drvcfg 28 2C -s
Set Configuration Options
Drv[28] Ctrl[2C] Lang[eng]
Fibre Channel Driver Configuration Utility

NOTE: Do not redirect console output to a file.

Main Menu

NVRAM Parameters
1. Edit Adapter Settings
2. Edit Advanced Settings
3. Edit Database
4. Edit Boot Settings
Information
5. Show Database
6. Show Translation
7. Show NVRAM Buffer
8. Info
9. Help
Operation
10. Abandon
11. Write
12. Quit

Enter a Selection: 4 (Select Boot Settings)

Edit Boot Settings

0. Previous Menu
1. Help
2. Enable Alternate Boot Device [n]
3. Enable Selective Login [n]
4. Enable Selective Lun Logins [n]
5. OS Mode [HP-UX/OpenVMS]
6. EFI Variable EFIFCScanLevel [?]
7. Enable World Login [n]

Enter a Selection: 6 (EFIFCScanLevel)

Set the value of EFIFCScanLevel to zero (0). Then exit out (0 to previous menu, (I always do 11 (write) then 12 quit)

Exiting...

Drv[28] Ctrl[2C] Lang[eng] - Options set. Action Required is None

I dont remember if it is necessary to repeat this on all FC drivers, however, when completed, do a reset on the blade (although reconnect -r may be enough.

Hope this helps.

Dave.

[The Brit]

Forgot to add explanation. (As I understand it), setting EFIFCScanLevel to 0 (or not defined) then EFI only attempts to configure "bootable" units. In this case, the device map will normally only list the Blk devices associated with the "fs" partitions.

If it is set to any other value (>0) then EFI will scan for ALL FC devices (bootable or otherwise), and this can take a long time.

This will often lead to a device map which is VERY long, especially if you have many SAN disks presented the the blade HBA's.

There is "Help" within the Driver Configuration Utility.

Hope this helps.

Dave.

[Mario Dhaenens]

Hi Dave,

I think you solved my problem.
The EFIFCScanLevel is set to 1 on my BL860c
I will change this parameter to 0 in our next maintenance window.

/Toine

Some details:

Shell> drvcfg 28 2A -s
Set Configuration Options
Drv[28] Ctrl[2A] Lang[eng]
Fibre Channel Driver Configuration Utility

NOTE: Do not redirect console output to a file.


Main Menu

NVRAM Parameters
1. Edit Adapter Settings
2. Edit Advanced Settings
3. Edit Database
4. Edit Boot Settings
Information
5. Show Database
6. Show Translation
7. Show NVRAM Buffer
8. Info
9. Help
Operation
10. Abandon
11. Write
12. Quit


Enter a Selection: 4


Edit Boot Settings

0. Previous Menu
1. Help
2. Enable Alternate Boot Device [n]
3. Enable Selective Login [n]
4. Enable Selective Lun Logins [n]
5. OS Mode [HP-UX/OpenVMS]
6. EFI Variable EFIFCScanLevel [1]
7. Enable World Login [n]


Enter a Selection: 6

[Mario Dhaenens]

I have changed EFIFCScanLevel from 1 to 0.
Now the Blade server has a normal boot process. No long wait times on Fibre HBA cards anymore.

Thank you all for the support.

/Toine

[Mario Dhaenens]

Problem solved and closed