Sun Fire X2100 Server
 

GCS>Sun Microsystems>Servers>x64 Servers
 

Summary:

This document addresses issues you may run in to during the boot process on a SunFire[TM] X2100 server, from power on the system until the operating system starts to boot.

Symptoms:

- system will not boot
- boot fails
- can't power up

Please validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. The steps will provide instructions or a link to a document, for validating the step and taking corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Please do not skip a step.

Step 1. Verify system power

This is maybe an obvious step, and very easy to do if you are stood next to the platform - not as easy if the platform is remote.

The Documentation in the following links provides details what things should be checked and how to do so using the different platform management tools.

• Refer to <Document: 1002939.1> "How to check if the platform is system powered on, on Sun Fire[TM] X2100 Servers"

If after you have checked for power and find that the system is powered off refer to the following Document, which explains how and what to check if your system is found to be powered off or will not power-on when checked.

• Refer to <Document: 1011591.1> "How to check why the system is powered off , on Sun Fire[TM] X2100 Servers"

When the system is still powered off or you find any indicator for issues which causes the system to be powered of, please log the data as described in the document above and proceed with step 5 in this document to contact Sun Support.

If you checked and the system has power, please go to the next step.

Step 2. Check for any errors on the system

If you are local to the system, check out the Service Indicator LED as shown in the attached.

Alternatively, you can interrogate the system remotely via IPMI as outlined in <Document: 1009698.1> "How to collect data from a x86/x64 platform using Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)"

If you find any abnormal conditions, raise a a service request as outlined in Step 5.

Step 3. Verify boot media exists and is bootable

When you see the following screen appear, press <F2> to enter BIOS:

                          System Configurations
+==============================================================================+
| CPU ID/ucode ID   : 0F32/4D             Base Memory       : 640K             |
| CPU Clock         : 2211MHz             Extended Memory   : 2095104K         |
|                                         L1 Cache Size     : 128K X 2         |
|                                         L2 Cache Size     : 1024K X 2        |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Diskette Drive A  : None                Display Type      : Auto             |
| Diskette Drive B  : None                Serial Port(s)    : 3F8              |
| Pri. Master Disk  : DVD,ATA 66          Parallel Port(s)  : None             |
| Pri. Slave  Disk  : None                DDR DIMM at Rows  : 2 3 6 7          |
| Sec. Master Disk  : None                                                     |
| Sec. Slave  Disk  : None                                                     |
+==============================================================================+

The screen above details 2 x diskette drives and 4 x IDE hard disk drives.
By default, most platforms will only show these details because diskette drives are not installed on x2100 platforms and hard disk drives are SATA devices and not IDE. Therefore the only device that shows in this list is the DVD drive which is normal.

Once you enter BIOS you will be able to select the "Boot" menu and list your installed SATA drives.
If a SATA drive is responding to BIOS probes, the drive will be listed in the boot menu and will be available to move up and down the boot priority list.
Make sure your boot disk is listed first in the boot scan order to correctly boot to this device.
If your SATA disk is not responding to BIOS probes and does not appear in the boot list then attempt to re-seat the disk before contacting a Sun representative for a replacement.

Step 4. Confirm that the OS starts to boot

If you are able to see the boot loader of your system, e.g. GRUB for Sun Solaris or Linux, LiLO for Linux or the MS Windows boot loader, than you have confirmed that the OS is starting to boot

• When starting the GRand Unified Bootloaded (GRUB) on a system running Linux or Solaris[TM], and you do not see the GRUB menu for selecting the image to boot, you may have an issue with a corrupted boot archive. In this case please refer to <Document: 1018947.1> "Boot problem because of corrupted boot_archive file"

• You may also find <Document: 1005352.1> "Configuring and understanding GRUB" useful

Step 5. Raise a Sun service request

At this point, if you have validated that each troubleshooting step above is true for your environment, and the issue still exists, further troubleshooting is required. For additional support contact Sun Support.

NOTE: Since you can't boot your server, the amount of data you can gather is limited. For example, if you are running solaris, you will not be able to complete an explorer data capture.

However, please capture any fault LEDs or other error messages to assist with further diagnosis

At this point, if you have validated that each troubleshooting step above is true for your environment, and the issue still exists, further troubleshooting is required. For additional support contact Sun Support.

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