11iv2/RP2470/A6795A - HBAs not visible

[Eric Garbos]

I have an RP2470 system running HPUX 11.23 with the latest patch bundle (Dec05) and two recently installed A6795A fibre HBAs. The system does not appear to see the fibre cards whatsoever... nothing appears in ioscan, no /dev/td# or /dev/fc# files are created, etc.

I've double-checked the relevant FCMS patches I've seen in other threads are included in this (PHKL_30309/PHKL_31501). I've uninstalled and reinstalled the available driver (FibrChanl-00 v11.23.03). I've rebooted repeatedly. I've run "insf -e". Still, no cards.

I'm fairly certain the cards work, as they were taken out of another system that was previously fine. They should be compatible, as they're listed as available options for the RP2470 model.

Can anyone help suggest further troubleshooting steps I can try? At this point I'm beginning to suspect a HW issue in the host. Any and all help would be appreciated.

[Sameer_Nirmal]

Hi,

Did you try using other PCI slots?

Do you see those card from BCH menu
BCH > IN > IO
Any error in MP > SL > E ?
Do you see anything "NO_HW" or "UNCLAIMED" anywhere in # ioscan -fn ?
dmesg?

Unless there are seen by ioscan under OS OE , the device files won't be created.

[Eric Garbos]

To be honest I'm not 100% certain what you mean RE: the BCH and MP commands... are these in the service processor? I'm not currently near the system and have been working this remotely, but if it comes down to it I may may a trip to the system to check such things, though I have less familiarity with the GSP/HW level than I do with the OS - so a bit more explanation would probably help me a lot!

The cards do not show up as "NO_HW" or "UNCLAIMED" in the ioscan - they simply do not show up at all. I'd paste the command output but I really don't think it helps indicate anything. :)

[Eric Garbos]

By the by... is it possible to move this thread to another forum section? I just realized I somehow posted my question under the Itanium section, but this is a PA-RISC system. (Sorry!)

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Eric,

Waht level is the PDC firmware on this server?

It needs to be at least 43.50 for the A6795A cards.

Support matrix is here:

http://docs.hp.com/en/FC_SMdec05/FC_SM.htm

HTH

Duncan

[Eric Garbos]

This may be a phenomenally stupid question, but how can I verify the PDC FW revision on this host? I have access to the GSP, but it reports version C.02.14 (4/14/03), which I don't think is the same thing. I can't get into the ISL (one of the reasons I think the FW rev may indeed be an issue) to do anything there. I don't see any relevant PDC version info go by at boot time, either.

I attempted to load the correct PDC FW version via the available patches, but since this revision is supposedly a prerequisite for 11.23, they don't actually provide a patch that works with 11.23 - only 11.0 and 11.11. Is it sane to force the 11.11 one? Or because it's a prereq for 11.23 should I assume that it's already there and we have another issue?

(Starting to fee lost here...)

[Slawomir Gora]

Hi,
you can check PDC version by cstm,mstm,stm utilty:
echo "selclass qualifier cpu;info;wait;infolog" | cstm | grep PDC

it works on HP-UX 11.0, 11.11 - but I don't know if it works on 11i v2

you can also check PDC version during boot process - is is Firmware Version:

************ EARLY BOOT VFP *************
End of early boot detected
*****************************************

Firmware Version 39.46

[Slawomir Gora · Accepted solution]

Hi,

at this link you have Firmware for A500 (rp2470) 43:50 and all instructions how to check version and update firmware.

This patch PF_CHAW4350 is not OS-Installable

http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?BC=patch.breadcrumb.main|patch.breadcrumb.search|&patchid=PF_CHAW4350&context=firmware:cpu

[Sameer_Nirmal]

Hi,

As per my understanding , the PDC firmware provides boot-up support for this FC HBA. That is why it mentioned in the support matrix. Moreover it is always recommended to have firmware at latest level. You can determine the PDC formware version using methodes given above and upgrade it if required.

As I said before , you need to check if the card apprears at BCH menu.

You should be able to use the HBAs with the current enviornment.

By the way,
What you see LEDs on the cards?
On which PCI slots the cards are installed?

[Eric Garbos]

# echo "selclass qualifier cpu;info;wait;infolog" | cstm | grep PDC
PDC Firmware Revision: 43.24 IODC Revision: 0
----------------- Processor 0 HPMC Information - PDC Version: 43.24 ------
PDC Firmware Revision: 43.24 IODC Revision: 0
----------------- Processor 1 HPMC Information - PDC Version: 43.24 ------

Very nice, that command goes in the ol' notebook. I'll pursue the non-OS patch installation process today and see what I can get.

Also, in response to the question, the cards are installed in PCI slots 1&2, the same as in other similar servers where they work, though I think those are running other OS revisions (could even be updated FW, I don't know). I don't see any lights after the system is booted (not sure if they might flash as they're probed during bootup), which may mean they're bad or just not getting properly initialized, I think.