Sun Netra CP2160 Blade Server
 
Sun Netra CT810 Server
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>SPARC>Usx/Blade/Netra>SN-SPARC: Netra Cxxxx
 

In this Document

Symptoms

Cause

Solution

References

Created from <SR 3-5352386063>

Applies to:

Symptoms

Customer environment configuration
- Netra CT810
- Satellite blades CP2160 (Sputnik+), p/n 375-3129 with different HW Revision / Dash level

- 2 mezzanine cards installed into the satellite: Peritek Argus AD6-00729-A501 (graphics PMC card) and ACT Technico 8043-BFP (audio PMC card)
- Solaris 9 Update 8 (Solaris 9 9/05), NHAS 3.0, JLL 12.1

Original problem description
We had to replace a faulted satellite, restoring the video and audio card funcionalities

Cause

Problems encountered during the activity

Initially we replaced the faulted hw with the alternative satellite, p/n 375-3394, also re-mounting the original mezzanine cards.
Then customer downgraded the fw installed from the factory (1.0.21) on the new satellite to the older release (1.0.20), because Sun certified in 2007 that fw level on the customer sw layer and to align all the fw satellite releases into the CT chassis.
At the end we correctly set the OBP variables for the Netconsole enabling (Doc ID 1004140.1, see also note 1 and 2 at the end of the document), but the satellite stopped to work, no longer reaching the OBP and displaying error like this

We tried all the possible actions to restore the functionality of the board, without success:

• directly placing a serial console into the front panel mini DIN connector, the <shift> ~# key sequence (note that the escape sequence depends on the console input device and the terminal emulator you are using with that device) did not help

N.B.: examples of escape sequence are ~b, ~.,~g, ~t, ~n  obviously tried with the goal to not only reset the OBP values, but also to test the board response and the MCNet-IPMI mode switching; all the escape sequences correctly worked on the other satellites, not on this one

• hitting the abort button (note that things will be very slow in this state since the abort button disables all CPU caches, so, to issue 'icache on' to speed things up is a good further action) on front board panel did not help
• holding down <control> n from the serial port, quickly after power on (note that you cannot send this sequence anytime, this must be done very shortly after the blade is reset because the firmware probes the input device shortly after it starts to initialize and, if the n sequence is detected, the firmware resets the NVRAM parameters to default), did not help
• setting the switch sw4101, on the board, to the opposite setting it currently is at (if by chance there is an alternate image in the user flash from which you will boot off), did not help
• swapping the satellite slot did not help

Unfortunately, the board has been corrupted.

Solution

Correct procedure followed in this case to avoid useless corruption and replacement

• replaced the satellite with new p/n 375-3394, because the first one was been corrupted
• installed the mezzanine cards
• set the OBP variable following the official documentation
• installed the dropin (see Dropin section to understand the meaning and how to install it)

N.B.: we also tried to replace the satellite with a new p/n 375-3129, because we supposed to have a sort of "“backward compatibility” at fw level with the newest p/n 375-3394, but this was an erroneous hipothesys that, instead, delayed the resolution and it did run into another issue, the DOA of the new 375-3129 tested

Conclusions and recommendations

• there are not functional changes in the HW for CP2160's p/ns 375-3129 and 375-3394
• never downgrade a firmware release that comes from the factory. The only time we update the factory installed firmware is when there is either a critical bug fix or a new hardware requirement

It is also not logical to think we would ship a blade with a new flash device installed with firmware that does not support that device.  No one should ever downgrade a firmware version installed in the factory unless they have confirmation it is safe to do so.   
In this case there is a new flash device that the old firmware driver does not support so these new boards were essentially broken as soon as you downgraded the firmware.

• the changes made on the latest fw release are independent of the running OS, 375-3394's PCN has nothing which can affect also NHAS support

The customer had to re-qualify his environment/applications at 1.0.21, because 1.0.20 is not compatible with the new flash PROM; it's the responsibility of the customer to view the changes made via PCN and/or release notes (see attachments) then certify the changes themselves

• proactively testing, before installing the dropin, manually enter the dropin commands by setting the auto-boot? to false, resetting and entering the commands.  Then boot.  If all is ok, install the dropin.

Dropin

In 2006 Sun engineering made a script in order to fix a bug, to correct intermittent cPCI bus errors (Simba panic/error). The dropin hard codes PCI configuration addresses and disables all the devices on the second PLX bridge on the Peritek PMC found as the cause of the random panic.

Manual installation instructions

Set the auto-boot? environment variable in OBP to false and reset the CP2160.

From the ok prompt enter the following OBP commands.  You may want cut and paste as the forth programming language is very syntax sensitive:

The system should boot without resetting.  Note that the above changes are lost if you subsequently reset the system so please keep this in mind when we gather the data for this experiment.

Permanent dropin script installation instructions

Notes

1> A graphics device has never been officially supported as one of the mux devices so although this may have worked in the past.

It has never been officially supported. In other words, you can run a graphics device but there is no support for having that graphics device part of the console mux.  

Note that does not mean it does not or will not work it just means that the QA group does not test that functionality.

2> Customer OBP settings example

References

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