Booting I64 from SAN lun (EMC)

[James T Horn]

I have a rx6600 with HBA's, connected to a EMC Clarion CX4-960.
We setup a SAN drive, did the initial installation of OpenVMS 8.3 on to the SAN drive, it setup the "boot options", but when I try to boot the system from one of the entries it comes up with:
Loading.: OpenVMS on $1$DGA3: PGB0.5006-0169-3B20-131D
Load of OpenVMS on $1$DGA3: PGB0.5006-0169-3B20-131D failed: Not Found

I know with AlphaServer we use the command wwidmgr... command to setup the boot device.
===
Entry Description Options
----- ---------------------------------------------------------- -------------
1 OpenVMS on $1$DGA3: PGB0.5006-0169-3B20-131D
$1$DGA3 PCI(0|c5|0|0) Fibre(500601693B20131D,Lun2000000000000)

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/786

[The Brit]

Hi James,
I am running OpenVMS 8.3-1H1, on Blades, booting from EVA and XP storage. I know nothing about EMC storage, however I have seen this failure before using EVA storage. (I have a suspicion about why this occurs, but I am not sure so I won't muddy the water), however;

If, as I assume, your luns are multi-pathed, then there should be more than one entry for each lun in the list of boot options displayed in the boot menu. In my case, with my configuration, I get 8 paths for each lun.

When I look at my boot menu, I see all 8 boot paths. If this failure occurs, I simply move to the next option and try that.
It will usually boot from either the first or second option.

I suspect that it is due to the path to the LUN not being available through the disk controller with the specified WWN. I also suspect that with my EVA storage, this is related to the fact that the controllers are NOT Active/Active.

HTH

Dave.

[James T Horn]

When following the instructions in the section titled "For OpenVMS I64", doing the commands:
vms_bcfg boot add 1 dga3 -flags 0,0 "$1$DGA3 OpenVMS 8.3"

returns:
vms_bcfg: Could not find VMS Device dga3 )/usb(0,0)

I also tried the $1$dga3 for the device name with still no success. Using "vms_show device" does not list the Fibre Channel drives.
Using SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS and during installing of OpenVMS on the SAN drive worked fine, setup the boot entries, but where wwidmgr sets up the AlphaServer with the Fibre Channel device, I'm still not seeing the devices listed, but when the system is up it has the SAN Lun's

[The Brit]

James,
If you select the EFI Shell option from the boot menu, it should display the device map, and if your SAN volumes are seen they should appear something like

fs2 : Acpi(HWP0002,500)/Pci(2|0)/Fibre(WWN21000020375AE714,Lun0)/HD(Part1,Si
gF7D00000)
fs3 : Acpi(HWP0002,500)/Pci(2|0)/Fibre(WWN21000020375A5E5B,Lun0)/HD(Part1,Si
g7D930000)

(the "fs" number will probably be different), but you should see the "/Fibre" in there somewhere, followed by a WWN and an LUN #.

you could also try issuing a "reconnect -r", to rescan the busses (although this is part of the normal power-up.)

Dave.

[James T Horn]

The EFI SHell does not show any fibre device listed.
"reconnect -r" does not even show the drives.

[Hoff]

If you've followed the sequence listed at the URL I posted and if you're (still) not seeing the SAN drives, then it's time to have a conversation with the folks that are maintaining and configuring the SAN. If that's (also) you, then you'll best be discussing this (lack of) visibility with EMC support.

[Toine_1]

Hi James,

You should set EFI Variable EFIFCScanLevel to 1 via the EFI console to scan all the devices in the SAN and to display all available active paths on the Fibre Channel.

Reinit you system so it scan the SAN.

See: http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1266530397489+28353475&threadId=1140093

or

http://www.dectrader.com/docs/set3/ucr_na-CYBBOOTING_FC_164.pdf-1.pdf

/Toine

[cnb]

Hi James,

Just curious as to which model/part number HBA and FC switch you're using?

Have you tried EMC's E-lab Interoperability Navigator to make sure you're meeting their minimum requirements?

Rgds,

[cnb]

FYI:

Minimum Flare code level required for external boot is 04.28.000.5.003

Rgds,