| Asset ID: |
1-71-1019727.1 |
| Update Date: | 2011-05-26 |
| Keywords: | |
Solution Type
Technical Instruction Sure
Solution
1019727.1
:
How to verify your boot media exists and is bootable on Sun Fire[TM] X6220, X6250 and X6450 systems
| Related Items |
- Sun Blade X6220 Server Module
- Sun Blade X6450 Server Module
- Sun Blade X6250 Server Module
- Sun Blade 6048 System
|
| Related Categories |
- GCS>Sun Microsystems>Servers>x64 Servers
- GCS>Sun Microsystems>Servers>Blade Servers
|
PreviouslyPublishedAs
244706
DescriptionThis document provides some pointers on how to verify your boot media exists and is bootable on Sun Fire(TM) X6220, X6250 and X6450 Blade Servers
Symptoms:
- system will not boot
- boot fails
- can't power up
Purpose/Scope:
This
document provides some pointers on how to verify your boot media exists
and is bootable on Sun Fire(TM) X6220, X6250 and X6450 Blade
Servers. It will cover identifying the various boot media that exist
for the above systems.
Steps to FollowOverview
After the BIOS phase and when the POST is finished without error, the system will try to boot from the boot media.
Boot devices are many and varying:
CD-/DVD-ROM connected to the USB port at front of Blade.
a virtual CD-/DVD-ROM or Floppy redirected via Java Remote KVM Console
an internal hard disk or raid device on the internal SAS controller
an external storage via additional PCI-EM or NEM
a PXE boot configuration over the network.
As there are varying bootable choices, this document will only consider the basic steps to verify.
References for Blade specific documentation are provided.
Checking your bootable device is in the boot list
To check if the device you want to boot from is accessible, you can look for it in the boot list.
After blade power on, at the very beginning of the blade POST, immediately after the video initialization,
you are prompted to press F2 to enter BIOS or F8 to select the boot device.
Pressing F8, you'll get a menu like below (BBS popup), with a list of the available bootable devices.
Example (Blade X6250)
****************************************
* Please select boot device: *
****************************************
* USB:AMI Virtual Floppy *
* USB:AMI Virtual CDROM *
* RAID:ASR-5445 PCI-E RAID Contro *
* Network:IBA GE Slot 0600 v1242 *
* Network:IBA GE Slot 0601 v1242 *
* *
* *
****************************************
* * and * to move selection *
* ENTER to select boot device *
* ESC to boot using defaults *
****************************************
If your boot device is not in the popup window, check to see if the device is seen by BIOS:
Reboot the blade and enter BIOS using F2 via the console device. Then using the cursor keys, go to the Boot tab. Select Boot Device Priority.
Verify that the device you wish to boot from is at level 1.
The devices will be displayed similar to those below.
********************************************************************************
* Boot Device Priority * Specifies the boot *
* *************************************************** * sequence from the *
* 1st Boot Device [RAID:ASR-5445 PCI-] * available devices. *
* 2nd Boot Device [Network:IBA GE Slo] * *
* 3rd Boot Device [Network:IBA GE Slo] * A device enclosed in *
* 4th Boot Device [USB:AMI Virtual Fl] * parenthesis has been *
* 5th Boot Device [USB:AMI Virtual CD] * disabled in the *
* * corresponding type *
* * menu. *
* * *
* * * Select Screen *
* * ** Select Item *
* * +- Change Option *
* * F1 General Help *
* * F10 Save and Exit *
* * ESC Exit *
********************************************************************************
Checking your DVD-/CD-ROM media
If you insert a DVD-/CD-ROM media from which you wish to boot, and the boot fails, check out the following:
Make sure you setup the right boot media order in the BIOS of the system
When the drive is blinking all the time, it's indicating that the media isn't readable (e.g. broken or empty media).
In this case please check the media and try to boot from a different media.
The media will be ignored and the boot process selects the next boot media, e.g. hard disk or network.
If the media isn't bootable, e.g. just contains data but no bootable block, the DVD-/CD-ROM media will be ignored
and the system try to start from a different media, e.g. hard disk or network.
Checking your PXE boot configuration
If you are trying to boot your system over the network, e.g. to install an Operating System on the server, you use PXE boot for this process.
If you select the network interface as boot device, you will see the following during the startup process
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.2.31
Copyright (C) 1997-2005, Intel Corporation
CLIENT MAC ADDR: 00 14 4F 0D B6 DE GUID: 080020FF FFFF FFFF FFFF 0003BAF16026
DHCP../
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this point the PXE boot agent tries to get the TFTP server address and boot image information from the DHCP server.
Checking your internal/external storage configuration
Because of the many different kinds of controllers, storage models and their combination, this can be a difficult task.
First of all you must be sure of the model of your blade and collect as many info as possible about your storage architecture.
Different blades come with different onboard controllers and storage options.
Sun Blade X6250
X6250 server module has four drive slots for 2.5 inches SAS or SATA drives. All drives are front accessible and hot-replaceable.
Customers can opt to have either SAS drives or SATA drives. The support of SAS drives requires the addition of a RAID
expansion module to replace the on-board SATA controller.
RAID expansion module (REM) is a mezzanine card that can be added to provide high performance RAID protection to system disks.
It replaces the standard on-board SATA controller to enable the support of SAS drives.
It provides RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 6 protection as well as 256MB write cache with battery backup.
To check your disk configuration and status pay attention to the POST phase after the system power on.
Every bootable device will be initialized and will prompt for a key combination to access its BIOS.
Eg. for the X6250 REM, you will get a screen like the following:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adaptec RAID BIOS V5.2-8 [Build 15595]
(c) 1998-2007 Adaptec Inc. All Rights Reserved.
<<< Press <Ctrl><A> for Adaptec RAID Configuration Utility! >>>
Waiting for Controller to Start....Controller started
Controller #00: Sun STK RAID REM at PCI Slot:20, Bus:13, Dev:00, Func:00
Waiting for Controller to Start....Controller started
Controller monitor V5.2-0[15595], Controller kernel V5.2-0[15595]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
You just need to press CTRL+A to access the REM configuration menu.
Once inside, you will be able to check the status of your raid volumes... if they are enabled, disabled, in optimal status or degraded.
Sun Blade X6220
X6220 server module has four drive slots for 2.5 inches SAS or SATA drives. All drives are front accessible and hot-replaceable.
They are managed via onboard LSI 1068E SAS disk controller
To check your disk configuration and status pay attention to the POST phase after the system power on.
Every bootable device will be initialized and will prompt for a key combination to access its BIOS.
Eg. for the X6220 onboard LSI 1068E, you will get a screen like the following:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LSI Logic Corp. MPT SAS BIOS MPTBIOS-6.14.08.00 (2007.02.05) Copyright 2000-2007 LSI Logic Corp.
Press Ctrl-C to start LSI Logic Configuration Utility.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Press CTRL+C when prompted to access the controller configuration menu.
Once inside, you will be able to check the status of your raid volumes.
Sun Blade X6450
The Sun Blade X6450 is a diskless server. This means that you cannot install the operating system on a local disk because it does not have one.
Instead, you have other choices. These include:
Installing the operating system on the onboard compact flash, which shares characteristics with a hard drive, and which can support some operating systems.
Installing the operating system on the SSD, or Solid State Disk device.
Configuring a diskless network boot, which boots the server module from a boot image on another server.
Installing the operating system on a remote drive, which might be in the chassis (connected through the SAS-NEM module to a Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module)
or outside the chassis, in a storage device such as a SAN.
Boot from SAN
If you are trying to boot in a SAN using an additional HBA i.e. an PCI-EM, refer to the HBA documentation.
If your SAN boot device is not in the boot list, try to enter the HBA firmware menu using the prompted key sequence during system power on
and HBA initialization, as described before.
Boot from Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module
If your boot device resides on a Sun Blade 6000 disk module, there are some extra checks to perform.
This disk module is not a simple passive disk container. It does not contain a CPU or Service Processor.
It does, however, contain SAS expanders, which are switching circuits that can connect disks in complex patterns.
A fully loaded Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module consists of eight SAS disks, with each disk connected to SAS expanders
The SAS expanders, in turn, connect to a Sun Blade 6000 Modular System chassis' SAS-NEMs.
The disk module works only with a SAS-NEM. It does not work with a NEM that lacks SAS connectivity.
For the disk module to function, there must be a SAS-NEM in at least slot NEM 0.
Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module can be controlled by a SAS host bus adapter on the server module.
This adapter can be either an on-board chip or a RAID Expansion Module card. The SAS host bus adapter on the server module controls its own disks
as well as disks on the disk module.
The disks on the disk module are connected to the SAS host bus adapter through two SAS-NEM modules, providing a dual path to each SAS disk
If you have troubles booting from an SB6000 Disk Module, you must per form the same checks described in
Checking your internal/external storage configuration and your Disk Module too.
See References section for detailed SB6000 Disk Module documentation.
References
