BL890c i2 takes too long to reach the efi menu

[jose da silva]

Hello

I am interested to find out if anyone has noticed that the BL890c i2 takes approximately between 10 to 15 min to boot up into Unix " HP-UX 11.31". What I have noticed is the the post tests take too long before it starts to load the vmunix. I know that the FAST BOOT can be enable which should improve on the time it takes to start loading the unix, but as far as I can recall HP does not recomend us to set FAST BOOT ON due to bypassing certain hardware tests. Can some one give me some guidelines on this issue. NOTE THAT THE SYSTEM IS HEALTHY NO HARDWARE ERRORS PRESENT. Here is the Systems details:-
HOSTNAME: fldrsaht1
SYSTEM: ia64
MODEL: ia64 hp Integrity BL890c i2
SERIAL #: GB80323LV5
SYSTEM ID: 0045147274
CPU SPEED: 1.73 GHz
TOTAL CPUS: 32 processor(s)
MEMORY: 392917 MB
HP-UX VERSION: B.11.31 64 Bit
USER LICENSE: unlimited-user license
LAST BOOT: Oct 20 17:01
UP TIME: 21 mins, mins
LAST PATCH: Oct 5 10:39
TRUSTED SYSTEM: No
VOLUME MANAGER: Logical Volume Manager (LVM)

[Torsten.]

15min to reach EFI?

There could be a couple of reasons:

- a "deep search" is enabled for the FC adapters
- a large number of FC adapters
- FC HBAs are zoned but nothing is to "see" for the HBA (so the search takes a long time)
...

Watch the console output and find out where it takes so long.

[jose da silva]

Hi Torsten

Ok I will check today and redirect the output results of the console to a file. Will come back with some answers.

Warm Regards,
Jose

[Torsten.]

OK, but remember to watch the boot process and note down where it takes that long.

[Sivaramakrishna_1 · Accepted solution]

I hope the i2 blades doing diagnostic testes on CPU and memory while booting.

I have observed that BL860c i2 is taking apprrox 3-5 min to reach EFI with 2 CPU (Quad core) and 48 GB memory.

In this situation i hope 8 CPU with more than 300GB memory and as well said by Torsten said it will take more time to scan the FC HBAs

[jose da silva]

Hello Torsten and Sivaramakrishna

I have doen some research and found that the memory tests take very long for the BL890c i2 consists of " 4 BL860c i2". The scanning of the fibre channel devices is very quick. I have timed the server from the power on sequence to the unix prompt and it takes approx 18 minutes. The only way to speed up the boot process is to edit the Boottest options and disable the ones you intend to bypass the tests. See table below:-


BOOTTEST Settings Default Variable

OS is not speedy boot aware.

Selftest Setting
--------- --------------
early_cpu Run this test
late_cpu Run this test
platform Run this test
chipset Run this test
io_hw Run this test
mem_init Run this test
mem_test Run this test

Therefore the long time to boot up is normal. Disabling some tests is not advisable and not by HP Support.

Please let all you colleagues know about this. Thank you for your replies, please email me if you have any more information or input on this matter. I am closing the call for now.

Thanks
Jose da Silva

[jose da silva]

Than you all for the inputs. As per my previous input some of the tests have to be disabled to speedup the boot process.As I re-eterated HP does not recomend to disable the boottest.


THANKS Jose