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Solaris SPARC Operating System
 

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Solaris will assign controller numbers based on the order in which it sees the slots/devices while booting. There is a set order in which Solaris[TM] 8 Operating System will recognize the devices and assign these values. This order can be used to predict the controller numbers. On an initial boot off of a Solaris 8 cdrom the OS will create controller numbers in the following order:

/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3     >   internal 4 slot disk backplane
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@2     >   RMA and external scsi port
/pci@1f,4000/device@4 >   slot 10
/pci@1f,2000/device@1 >   slot 5
/pci@4,4000/device@2   >   slot 9
/pci@4,4000/device@3   >   slot 8
/pci@4,4000/device@4   >   slot 7
/pci@4,2000/device@1   >   slot 6
/pci@6,4000/device@2   >   slot 3
/pci@6,4000/device@3   >   slot 2
/pci@6,4000/device@4   >   slot 1
/pci@6,2000/device@1   >   slot 4

For example, if we had 5 pci cards installed: 2 Sun StorEdge[TM] A5000 fibre controllers, 2 dual channel Single-Ended scsi controllers connected to internal 8 slot Backplanes and 1 SunSwift[TM] scsi/ethernet controller, you would see the following behavior:

With fibre controllers in slots 4&5, dual channel scsi in slots 2&3 and the SunSwift in slot 8

c0 -> internal 4-slot disk backplane
c1 -> Removable media access tray and external onboard scsi port
c2 -> fibre card in slot 5
c3 -> SunSwift in slot 8
c4&c5 -> dual channel scsi in slot 3
c6&c7 -> dual channel scsi in slot 2
c8 -> fibre card in slot 4

If you wanted to make sure that the two internal 8 disk backplanes got the lowest controller numbers (2,3,4&5) and the internal disk bays had controller numbers in order (2 on the bottom and 5 on the very top), you would need to make sure that the dual channel cards were installed in slots that got probed before the others and that they were cabled to the correct backplanes. For example:

With fibre controllers in slots 4&6, dual channel scsi in slots 5&7 and the SunSwift in slot 1

c0 -> internal 4-slot disk backplane
c1 -> Removable media access tray and external onboard scsi port
c2&c3 -> dual channel scsi in slot 5, cabled to bottom 8-slot backplane
c4&c5 -> dual channel scsi in slot 7, cabled to top 8-slot backplane
c6 -> fibre card in slot 6
c7 -> SunSwift in slot 1
c8 -> fibre card in slot 4

If you require that the cards be ordered in a different manner than what you see Solaris assigning controllers, it is recommended that you install the OS first without the cards installed and then add the cards in one at a time in the order in which you wish them to be recognized and do a boot -r each time so that the controller numbers are assigned in the order that you wish.

You can also check for and/or assign skip list for the PCI slots. To check for PCI slots to be skipped, type the following at the OK prompt:

         ok> pci-slot-skip-list

To skip slots, at the ok prompt type:

         ok> pci=slot-skip-list 1236

Slots 1,2,3, and 6 will now be skipped over during recognition of the PCI slots/devices while booting.

Note: This information was documented using Solaris 8 and OpenBoot Prom (OBP) version 3.22.0

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