Hp Integrity rx2620 Date/Time issue

[Ahmed Noor]

I am facing Date/Time Issue on two same config rx2620 (with OpenVMS 8.x) server at different locations.
Date and Time is set in EFI, but it asks for Date/Time at every OpenVMS boot.I hv replaced the System Battery but problem is still there. EFI Firmware Version is 3.17 (4513).
can some one help out..


Ahmed

[sujit kumar singh]

Hi

is the EFI date changing following a reboot or shutdown for say 2-3 mins poweroff and powering back on the server?

Regards
Sujit

[jaap prenger]

My 2c...

The format of the date/time settings might be different for OpenVMS compared to EFI. After setting the correct time in EFI, OpenVMS detects an invalid timeformat during boot and asks you to enter the correct information.
I have seen the same issue on older (Alphaserver) systems were the difference in time format of OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix was causing the same issue.

If you set the time in VMS and force the update of the Real Time Clock hardware registers with the "set time" command without any time options, you should be ok.

It's of course possible that your problem is caused by a hardware issue but as you see the same problem on different systems, this is less likely.

Regards,

Jaap Prenger

[Ahmed Noor]

Date/Time in EFI is saved...it only asks date/time when OpenVMS boot.

Date/Time Format in EFI and VMS is different, each has its own Date/Time Format.....Both System were running fine for last 2 years. problem is still there even battery has been replaced on both.

The Command "set Time" did'nt help.

Any further sugguestions.

[Mark_Woodward]

Hi Ahmed,
Did you ever get an answer to this because I am having exactly the same problem on a 4640 after replacing the battery ?

The Date&Time is saved in MP/EFI across power-ons, but whenever I try and boot VMS it prompts for the date and time on the console port.
Thanks
Mark

[Chhaya_Z]

Hi,

Could you please post the output of below command?

$product show history

On Integrity, there is a check at boot time that compares the hardware clock time with the EXE$GQ_TODCBASE provided from the SYS$BASE_IMAGE.EXE file.  If the SYS$BASE_IMAGE.EXE file has a time stamp 5 years earlier than the time we get from the hardware clock, OpenVMS will prompt for the time thinking the hardware clock may be incorrect.

[Mark_Woodward]

Hi,

The output you requested is shown below - this does show that more than 5 years have elapsed since VMS was updated, but I thought that EXE$GQ_TODCBASE  was always updated when the system time is set with $SET TIME and this has been done.

Why should the installation date have any effect on the integrity of the clock?

Thanks

Mark

DPSR1>
DPSR1>$product show history
----------------------------------- ----------- ----------- --------------------
PRODUCT                             KIT TYPE    OPERATION   DATE AND TIME
----------------------------------- ----------- ----------- --------------------
HP I64VMS FORTRAN V8.0-1            Full LP     Install     05-JUN-2006 10:20:20
HP I64VMS C V7.2-1                  Full LP     Install     05-JUN-2006 10:17:59
HP I64VMS TCPIP V5.5-11ECO1         Full LP     Install     04-MAR-2006 15:32:54
HP I64VMS TCPIP V5.5-11             Full LP     Remove      04-MAR-2006 15:32:54
HP I64VMS VMS821I_PTHREAD V1.0      Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 15:18:37
HP I64VMS VMS821I_WEBL V1.0         Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:58:00
HP I64VMS VMS821I_XFC V1.0          Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:53:50
HP I64VMS VMS821I_LIBRTL V1.0       Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:48:43
HP I64VMS VMS821I_IPMI V1.0         Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:44:19
HP I64VMS VMS821I_DDTM V1.0         Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:40:09
HP I64VMS VMS821I_F11X V1.0         Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:35:49
HP I64VMS VMS821I_FIBRE_SCSI V1.0   Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:28:45
HP I64VMS VMS821I_SYS V1.0          Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:24:11
HP I64VMS VMS821I_MUP V1.0          Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:18:31
HP I64VMS VMS821I_IPC V1.0          Patch       Install     04-MAR-2006 14:14:21
HP I64VMS RTR V5.0-401              Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:39:19
HP I64VMS VMSI18N V8.2-1            Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:35:51
HP VMS AVAIL_MAN_COL V2.4-1         Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:30:28
HP I64VMS VT V2.1-K                 Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:23:03
HP I64VMS FTAM V3.1-P               Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:15:36
HP I64VMS OSAK V3.0-T               Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:05:24
HP I64VMS V82_MGMTAGENTS V3.2-1     Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 19:00:59
HP I64VMS DCPS V2.5                 Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 18:53:36
HP I64VMS DCE V3.2                  Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 18:49:09
HP I64VMS CSWS V1.3-1               Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 18:43:32
HP I64VMS JAVA142 V1.4-23           Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 18:21:21
HP I64VMS SSL V1.2                  Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 17:46:16
HP I64VMS CSWB V1.7-11              Full LP     Install     03-MAR-2006 17:33:39
HP I64VMS DECNET_PLUS V8.2-1        Full LP     Install     26-JUL-2005 11:01:18
HP I64VMS AVAIL_MAN_BASE V8.2-1     Full LP     Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS CDSA V2.1-355             Full LP     Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS DWMOTIF V1.5              Full LP     Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS KERBEROS V2.1-75          Full LP     Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS OPENVMS V8.2-1            Platform    Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS TCPIP V5.5-11             Full LP     Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS TDC_RT V2.1-78            Full LP     Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
HP I64VMS VMS V8.2-1                Oper System Install     25-JUL-2005 22:42:21
----------------------------------- ----------- ----------- --------------------

[Chhaya_Z]

Hi,

On Integrity servers, OpenVMS does NOT write the time stamp to the system disk when the SET TIME command is issued with no arguments. On Integrity servers, OpenVMS depends on the hardware clock provided on the platform. SET TIME on Integrity updates the EXE$GQ_TODCBASE and EXE$GQ_SAVED_HWCLOCK cells in memory, but nothing gets written out to the system disk.

"$ PRODUCT SHOW HISTORY" output shows that no SYS or UPDATE patches had been installed. The SYS$BASE_IMAGE.EXE looks to be the original one that was shipped with OpenVMS V8.3 back in June 2006. If you try performing a dump of SYS$BASE_IMAGE and examining EXE$GQ_TODCBASE, it mught reveal a value of 00A4F1EEC5960000 which is 1-JAN-2006 00:00:00.00. The difference in this date compared to the hardware clock time will be greater than 5 years and therefore OpenVMS is prompting for the time at boot.

Applying a recent UPDATE kit (or SYS kit that replaces SYS$BASE_IMAGE) should correct the problem since the new SYS$BASE_IMAGE will have EXE$GQ_TODCBASE set to 1-JAN-2010 00:00:00.00 or possibly 1-JAN-2011 00:00:00.00.

Another workarround is to set TIMEPROMPTWAIT to zero in SYSGEN.

Depending on the value specified for the TIMEPROMPTWAIT parameter, the system acts in one of the following ways:

       o  If TIMEPROMPTWAIT is 0, no prompt or wait occurs; the system
          boots immediately, using the time of the last boot as the
          system time.

       o  If TIMEPROMPTWAIT is a positive number less than 32768, one
          prompt is issued and the value dictates how many seconds you
          can take to respond with a time. If you do not provide a time
          before TIMEPROMPTWAIT elapses, the system boots, using the
          time of the last boot as the system time.

       o  If TIMEPROMPTWAIT is a number in the range of 32768 through
          65535, the prompt for the time is issued at intervals starting
          with 2 and doubling until 256 seconds is reached. If no
          response is received, the prompts restart, with the 2-second
          interval. This prompting process repeats indefinitely, until
          you specify a time.

Hope this helps you to solve the issue.