NVRAM backup of the Rx7620 due to cell board remove.

[Dhananjaya Amarakoon]

Hi Friends

We have a Rx7620 server that running HP-UX 11.23. We plan to upgrade DIMMs (another 8 dimms ) of the server in near future.
To that process I need to remove both cell board of the server.
I have go through HP document regarding this matter and it point out following thing.

"IMPORTANT
The SCSI parameters and the real time clock data stored in NVRAM are lost when the cell
board is removed. Make a note of all SCSI parameters before removing power from the cell
board. Refer to Matterhorn Service Note A6093A-07A for detailed instructions if necessary."

So how can I get those values?
Do I need to backup NVRAM data?
How can I do that?
What time do I need to restore those NVRAM data back ?
How can I restore NVRAM data back?

Please help me regarding this matter? Because I do have Matterhorn Service Note A6093A-07A

Thanks and Regards
Dhananjaya Amarakoon

[kris rombauts]

Hi,

to backup the variables on a Itanium cell based server, do this:

- shut down OS and boot to EFI shell level
- move to the EFI partition (i.e. fs0:)
- run the command variable -s 'filename'

This will save the NVRAM variables into a file that you can restore later by doing the same steps as above (boot to EFI shell) and run the command variable -r 'filename'

example of help output:

fs0:\> variable
variable: Too few arguments

Usage:
VARIABLE -s|-save [filename]
VARIABLE -r|-restore [filename]
VARIABLE -d|-dump [filename]


The service note you refer to seems to be for a PA-RISC system, not Integrity.

HTH

Kris

[Dhananjaya Amarakoon]

Hi Kris

Thaks lot for your information.

Could you please tell me whether this command saves all the contents of the NVRAM to a file (Hope this file store in root disk) or do we need to specify in this command, what we need to save in this file?

What is the different of the dump and save option?

to replace the memory I am referring the HP Service Guide -HP Integrity rx7620 Server-Ninth Edition document

Regards
Dhananjaya

[kris rombauts · Accepted solution]

Hi,

there is no other option needed then -s (SAVE) and a filename you choose like the example from the Help shows.

You do need to be on the EFI filesystem partition (i.e. fs0:), this filesystem has nothing to do with the Unix filesystem since we are in a pre-boot environment and it is from that level you read/write the variables.

The -d (DUMP) option just shows the info on the screen but does not save it anywhere.


HTH

Kris