make boot tape command on itanium servers

[Fabian Briseño]

Hello Guys.
I've came back form the land of the dead and I have a question.


We hava a couple of RX6600 itanium servers, OS version is 11.23.

I used the make_boot_tape command to make a boot tape, but every time i try to boot of this tape I created i get the following error, "Load of "DDS TAPE" failed: not found", where DDS TAPE is the name I supplied when I configured the direct boot tape configuration.

I already tryed different tape media and I get the same results.

The strange thig is that we made a make_tape_recovery on both servers and then recovered them with success(we booted and recovered of the tape devices).


So my question is, is make_boot_tape supported on itanium based servers?.

[Fabian Briseño]

Hello.

oops I forgot to mention that im trying to recover from an ignite server.

never mind, I found out that make_boot_tape is only supported on PA-RISC systems :(.


so the other options I have is to boot of LAN and to use make_tape_recovery and the use the ignite server to recover.

[Tim Nelson]

For IA where you need a Ignite boot helper you can use a make_tape_recovery tape, or use the dbprofile in the EFI to do a lan boot.

There is also an option to use /opt/ignite/data/scripts/examples/make_media_install to create either a bootable tape or DVD. view the script for details.

[Tim Nelson]

Correction. The make_media script states tape is only an option for PA-RISC. DVD should work though.

[Torsten.]

I did this several times on a rx2660 - very similar to your rx6600 - without any problems.
This class of servers can do the direct tape boot without problems.

But you need a current ignite version.

[Torsten.]

From the boot output:

Shell> reconnect -r
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (BCM5704) is detected (PCI-X)
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (BCM5704) is detected (PCI-X)
HP PCI-X 1Port 4Gb Fibre Channel Adapter (driver 1.09, firmware 4.00.090)
==>> Scsi(Pun3,Lun0) HP Ultrium 3-SCSI G64D (320 MBytes/sec)
...

HP-UX Boot Loader for IPF -- Revision 2.035

==> Booting from Tape <==
...

NOTE: Boot device is: 0/3/1/0/4/1.0x3.0x0
...

insf: Installing special files for stape instance 0 address 0/3/1/0/4/1.3.0

...

[Fabian Briseño]

Hello torsten.

My Ignite version is: C.7.5.142.

And my problem is using the make_boot_tape command.

I read on the man pages that Make_boot_tape is only supported on PA-RISC systems.

Booting from DVD is another option, but the problem i have with this is that the only DVD that I have has ignite version C.7.4.122, so when I boot from this DVD and try to recover form the ignite server it displays and Ignite version mismatch on the ignite and the client server.

So what Im trying to do now is
1. Try to get a hold of version C.7.4.122.
and downgrade the ignite version on all
clients and server.
or

2. boot thru LAN.

I have a mixed environment for my ignite server, My ignite server is OS version 11.11, with some clients being 11.11 and 11.23.


If Any other alternatives exist, I'll be glad to hear them.

Thanks for your time guys.

[Tim Nelson · Accepted solution]

You can use the /opt/ignite/data/scripts/examples/make_media_install

to create yourself a DVD or a Tape ( and as Torsten noted the Tape option does work on IA, unless I misunderstood).

If you use the make_media_install from the Ignite server you will now have bootable media with the same version as the ignite server that you can redirect after boot.

Should be a problem solved ?

[Torsten.]

Sorry, I got this wrong.

You are about make_boot_tape, not make_tape_recovery.

What I did so far with several Integrities:

- make_tape_recovery and boot directly from tape

- make_tape_recovery and 2-step-boot (CD boot, restore image from tape)

- boot from CD, restore image from ignite server

- lanboot from ignite server and restore (from server or tape)

- dbprofile based boot from ignite + restore

- boot from LAN, install from different ignite server

...

but never created a boot tape directly on ignite server, sorry for misunderstanding.

[Fabian Briseño]

Hello.
As always, thanks a lot for your help guys.

I'll put all of your tips to good use, and get back to you.

Have a nice day.