Problem with OpenVMS SAN Boot from IBM SVC

[Volker Halle]

Marty,

try the VMS_SHOW EFI utility first:

Go to the EFI shell, then select fs2: (a file system on an OpenVMS system disk)

fs2:> \efi\vms\vms_show dev

To change a system parameter during boot, you have to do a converstional boot:

fs2:> \efi\vms\vms_loader.efi -fl 0,1

(assuming your system boots from root SYS0).

SYSBOOT> SHOW DUMPSTYLE ! should be 9
SYSBOOT> SET DUMPSTYLE 11 ! add bit 1
SYSBOOT> C

Then post the console output from the crash.

Volker.

[Volker Halle]

Marty,

based on your Efi> map -r output, the rx4640 can see ONE SAN disk with 4 partitions via 2 HBAs.

Where did you set the 'number' 121, which OpenVMS uses as a boot device ?

Could you also please clarify this:


* I have defined separate UDID's on the SVC Vdisk


separate from what ?

Volker.

[Marty Steffens]

Volker,

I attached the output from the dump. Thanks for your help on that part!
_________________________________________

I'll try to explain the 3 different ID's from the SVC perspective:

UID - this is the 32 byte hex string. For device $1$DGA121 it's 60050768019001BC8000000000000003.

UDID (Unit Device Identifier) - For device $1$DGA121 it is 121. (This is the number that's added on to the device names for OpenVMS).

SCSI ID - This is the SCSI ID of the virtual disk. What I'm seeing here is that one of the SAN disk, or virtual disk, has to have a SCSI ID of zero. Otherwise, VMS will not see any of the SAN disk.

Let me know if you need any further explaination on the ID's. Hope that cleared up some confusion.

Thanks!

Marty

[Volker Halle]

Marty,

on Itanium, R8 typically contains the return or error status (on Alpha it is in R0). An INCONSTATE crash typically leaves the error status in this register, so that you can 'see' it in the crash:

$ exit %xa50
%SYSTEM-W-ITEMNOTFOUND, requested item cannot be returned

Unfortunately, this does not help a lot. You need to raise a support call with either HP or IBM for further assistance.

What did the VMS_SHOW DEV EFI utility report ?

Can you mount the SAN disk (when booted from SCSI) and look at the crash ? At least a CLUE CRASH command would tell which driver crashed the system. Also look at whether the disk is configured correctly.

$ ANAL/CRASH $1$DGA121:
SDA> CLUE CRASH
SDA> SHOW DEV DGA
SDA> EXIT

Volker.

[Volker Halle]

Marty,

I've looked at one of my terminal session capture files from a rx2620 and EVA installation.

I see that NONE of the FC devices shown by EFI> map -r have a LUN value of 0 ! They look like:

Fibre(WWN50001FE15003D5A8,Lun1000000000000)
Fibre(WWN50001FE15003D5A8,Lun2000000000000)
and so on...

Your DGA121 FC disk shows a LUN value of 0. LUN 0 on OpenVMS may be mapped to the CCL LUN (i.e. device $1$GGAx:).

In a DS6000 IBM manual I've read, that the first storage volume assigned to a host is LUN 0. Can you somehow change this LUN value for this Vdisk at the SVC ? Or just present a second Vdisk to the rx4640 and check whether it then becomes LUN 1 at the EFI level and allows you to boot.

Volker.

[Marty Steffens]

Volker,

Our application vendor loaded OpenVMS 8.3 on device $1$DGA122 and received the same BUGCHECK error on a SAN boot. I attached the output from another map -r command. As you can see, the LUN number is different for this device than it is for $1$DGA121 (LUN 0). Just like you were talking about in your previous response.

Can you elaborate a little more on the CCL LUN and and at what level it is configured at? I've see this talked about in a few different threads, but I can't pin point it down to where I should be looking for this.

Thanks!

Marty

[Marty Steffens]

Volker,

I attached the report from the VMS_SHOW DEV EFI command.

Marty

[Uwe Zessin]

>Can you elaborate a little more on the CCL LUN and
> and at what level it is configured at?

CCL (Console Command LUN) was the terminology on HSG60 and HSG80 controllers. On the EVA storage array it is called the SACD (Storage Array Controller Device).

In SCSI terminology, this LUN is not a type 0 (disk), but a type 12(10) device. It is configured on the storage array.

Sometimes it is called the LUN_Z or the 'gatekeeper device'.

Its purpose it to always present a device at LUN address 0, so that SCSI commands like 'REPORT LUNs' work. On some storage arrays like the EVA it is required for in-band management and cannot be disabled.

[Volker Halle]

Marty,

could you try to unpresent DGA121 (the FC device with LUN0) and see if that allows you to boot from DGA122 ?

Volker.

[Marty Steffens]

Volker,

If you mean to unpresent it from the host on the SVC side, then the OS will not see any of the SAN disk because this disk ($1$DGA121) has the SCSI ID of Zero.

Let me know if this is what you are referring to.

Thanks!

Marty