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Asset ID: 1-72-1002179.1
Update Date:2009-12-08
Keywords:

Solution Type  Problem Resolution Sure

Solution  1002179.1 :   The diag-out-console OBP setting  


Related Items
  • Sun Fire V480 Server
  •  
Related Categories
  • GCS>Sun Microsystems>Servers>Entry-Level Servers
  •  

PreviouslyPublishedAs
203088


Symptoms
A customer's Sun Fire[TM] 480 had a number of fatal resets. Even with console logging enabled via the ttya port, no diagnostic information appeared on the console either before or after the reset. The only clue to the fact that a fatal reset was indeed happening was:
System booting after fatal error FATAL Sys Hardware
Additionally, POST data was not appearing on the console, unless the keyswitch was placed in the diagnostic position.


Resolution
After examining the eeprom settings it was discovered that the customer had changed
diag-out-console=false  (this is the default setting)
to
diag-out-console=true
The problem is that if this parameter is 'true' then fatal reset diagnostic data
will be sent to the rsc, not the ttya port.  The same is true for POST data unless you force it via the keyswitch.
The customer changed this parameter back to false, and the next fatal reset
had the necessary diagnostic data.
It is easy to misunderstand this parameter since one may logically assume 'false' means 'no output to console' and true means 'send output to console'.  In fact false means 'send to ttya' and true means 'send to rsc'.
In summary:  if a customer is NOT using the rsc card and needs to use the older method of console logging via the serial port, then the proper obp settings for machines with rsc capability are:
Redirecting Console Server to TTYA(serial)
OK  setenv diag-out-console false
OK  setenv input-device  keyboard (or TTYA)
OK  setenv output-device screen (or TTYA)
OK  reset-all
If on the other hand they do decide to use RSC, the proper OBP settings are:
Redirecting Console to RSC
OK setenv diag-out-console true
OK setenv input-device rsc-console
OK setenv output-device rsc-console
OK  reset-all


Product
Sun Fire V480 Server

Internal Comments
Audited/updated 12/03/09 [email protected], Entry Level SPARC Content
Team Member

For internal Sun use only.

Charles Forgues assisted in determining the root cause for this issue.
diag-out-console, rsc, console logging, fatal reset, 480
Previously Published As
81471

Change History
Date: 2007-07-10
User Name: 71396
Action: Approved
Comment: Performed final review of article.
No changes required.
Publishing.
Version: 8
Date: 2007-07-09
User Name: 71396
Action: Accept
Comment:
Version: 0

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