vpar and boot order

[Lovro VRES]

Hello,

I have RX7640 with several vPars. I would like to have also alternate boot path. I added it and now I have boot path, EFI Shell and alternate boot path.

I changed boot order to boot path, alternate boot path and EFI shell. After that I saved it to NVRAM and reboot the vpar. Everything works fine. After rebooting whole RX7640, I noticed that vpar got back boot order like it was before my changes.

Is there any idea what should I do to keep changed boot order on vpar.

Thanks,
Lovro

[Eric SAUBIGNAC]

Hi Lovro,

I suppose you want to modify boot order of the nPar.

When you boot an Itanium in vPar mode the EFI you access is a copy of the EFI in nPar mode. If you make modifications, like boot order, in vPar mode every thing goes well until you reboot.

So to make a permanent change, you must reboot in nPar mode, make your changes, then reboot again in vPar mode.

You have several ways to modify nPar/vPar mode :

- from OS, with "vparenv -m [npars|vpars]"
- from vpmon with "reboot npars"
- from EFI with "vparconfig reboot [npars|vpars]

I suggest you halt all the vpars, from vpmon at MP console issue "reboot npars", stop reboot and alter efi boot order, then go to EFI shell and use "vparconfig reboot vpars"

Hope this will help

ERic

[Lovro VRES]

Hello,

the problem is not booting Itanium in vPar mode, but booting the vPar machine. I made some changes in boot order for vPar machine, save to NVRAM, reboot vPAr machine - it is OK. When I reboot Itanium, vPar machine boot order (not vpar mode) is lost.

Regards,ž
Lovro

[Eric SAUBIGNAC]

Lovro,

You are not supposed to modify EFI boot order for a vPar from EFI Shell, but with commands like "vparmodify"

Note : normaly you can't access EFI when you boot a vPar. But you can do it if you hit a key very rapidly when you are at the EFI menu. So, how do you enter EFI boot order configuration menu in a vPar ?

[Tim Nelson]

I would like also to see if there is a solution to this.

I my experience with vPars there is no automatic way to control the order.

The typical boot string is vparboot -a, fastest vPar wins the boot race.

Another option would be to add something to each vPars boot scripts, i.e. on vPar1 nothing, on vPar2 sleep for 2 minutes, on vPar3 sleep for 4 minutes, etc..

[Eric SAUBIGNAC]

Well, i am a beat confused. What do you want to do exactly ?

- modify the boot order in EFI of each vPar --> vparmodify

- modify the boot order of the wole nPar --> see my first message

- modify the order in which vPar are started --> see Tim's message

Eric