AlphaServer 400 firmware login password unknown

[Doug Graver]

I have a customer with an OpenVM v6.2 system with zero free blocks on the system disk. Before I got involved they went and logged in on the console and ran an application function that disables Ctrl-Y and it subsequently got hung and thus rendered the console unusable, so we had no choice but to hit the reset button. The system booted but the OpenVMS startup procedure will not complete. (After thinking about it now, I suspect that the system volume may have been in a shadow-merge, and may allow us to login when that completes (?). We cannot get a Username: prompt on the console, so we hit the reset again to get to a >>> prompt. In attempting to walk him through a conversational boot over the phone, he tells me that the system wants a login password. I have never run into this before. No one in the data center knows the password. Apparently, the only command that can be entered at the >>> prompt is "boot" -- ALL other commands we try require a login password. We also tried powering off the server and restarting it to no avail. Does anyone know anything about AlphaServer firmware passwords and what do do here? I advised my customer to open a call with HP (but he got some MORON who suggested that he try booting from the system disk).

[Duncan Morris]

Doug, see the write up about "Secure console mode" in this AlphaServer 400 guide....

http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/readmes/archive/doc/alpha400_v70_fw_relnote.txt

includes references to clear password etc.

[Chris Davis_9]

Hi Doug,

If all else fails, you should be able to boot from an Operating System CD and then mount the system disk and free up some space on it. You should then be able to start the sytem up normally.

Good luck!

Chris

[Duncan Morris]

The tech Info manual is here

http://www.pimpworks.org/dec/manuals/ek-pcdsa-ti.pdf

and the user guide is here

http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/download/ek-pcsva-ui-a01.pdf

[John Gillings]

re Chris,

>If all else fails, you should be able to boot from an Operating System CD

Sorry, can't do that. Secure console mode only allows the default boot device and flags.

If you really can't clear the password, you have two options. First is to fiddle with jumpers to make some other bootable device match the default device. Maybe a CD drive, maybe another disk. Second is to physically remove the system disk, take it to another for which the password is known. Boot that system, clear some space on the disk, and return it to the original system.

Personally I can't see a lot of point in setting a console password. They just create another possible block to getting the system running. Keep critical systems and consoles in secure locations.

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Or find the guy who put the password in place.

[Robert_Boyd]

The information in the manual listed here shows the correct jumpers to mess with on page 57.

The weird thing is that it also says "not used on the AlphaServer 400". Surely there is a "factory default" reset of some sort that will wipe it out.

Robert

[Robert_Boyd]

Woops that should have been "Not used on the AlphaStation 400" -- so perhaps you're good to go since you have an AlphaServer. Just dig in and find the jumpers listed on Page 57.

Robert

[Jan van den Ende]

Doug,

from your Forum Profile:


I have assigned points to 1 of 16 responses to my questions.

One issue is from 2004

Maybe you can find some time to do some assigning?

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33

Mind, I do NOT say you necessarily need to give lots of points. It is fully up to _YOU_ to decide how many. If you consider an answer is not deserving any points, you can also assign 0 ( = zero ) points, and then that answer will no longer be counted as unassigned.
Consider, that every poster took at least the trouble of posting for you!

To easily find your streams with unassigned points, click your own name somewhere.
This will bring up your profile.
Near the bottom of that page, under the caption "My Question(s)" you will find "questions or topics with unassigned points " Clicking that will give all, and only, your questions that still have unassigned postings.

Thanks on behalf of your Forum colleagues.

PS. - nothing personal in this. I try to post it to everyone with this kind of assignment ratio in this forum. If you have received a posting like this before - please do not take offence - none is intended!

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Doug Graver]

Many thanks to all who contributed, and my sincerest apologies for taking so long to respond with points and this acknowledgement. In the end, the solution involved entering the password to unlock the console, using a password obtained after the involvement of a manager in the data center, but in the meantime we were proceeding to look into working with the necessary jumpers. I was supporting this crisis remotely, so I am not certiain of what was really being typed at the console, but we were not able to use boot flags with the console locked (conversational boot was apparently not possible until after we entered the password). We completed a minimum boot, and deleted the SYS$MANAGER:ACCOUNTNG.DAT file to create sufficient free space on sys$sysdevice to boot and startup normally.