Getting rx2800 i2 to boot from MSA 2050 SAN

[tomwade]

Hi,

[also posted to comp.os.vms]

Hoping to hear from anyone who has got an rx2800 i2 booting from an MSA SAN using 16 Gb/s fiber HBAs. I am trying to clone a system disk from another rx2800 booting from an EVA SAN.

Hardware Details.

HP Integrity rx2800 i2 1.60GHz/6.0MB 8 CPU
B9F24AR Fiber HBA
MSA-2050 SAN

Software
VSI OpenVMS 8.4-2L1.
Update 1.0 installed.
Unclustered.

---
OpenVMS installed on internal SCSI drive from VSI DVD OK.
When booted from the internal drive, VMS can see the SAN $1$DGA disks, and perform I/O to them.

I restored an /IMAGE saveset of the source machine (same hardware type and O/S version) onto one of the fiber disks. I then added a boot entry using SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM for this disk and added it to position 1.

efi$bcfg: $1$dga3021: (Boot000A) Option successfully added
efi$bcfg: $1$dga3021: (Boot000B) Option successfully added

Option 2 (List) shows

Entry Description Options
----- ----------------------------------------------------------

-------------
1 OpenVMS 8.4 on SAN $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2070-00C0-FF52-E296
$1$DGA3021 PCI(0|a|0|0) Fibre(207000C0FF52E296,LunF000000000000)
2 OpenVMS 8.4 on SAN $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2470-00C0-FF52-E296
$1$DGA3021 PCI(0|a|0|0) Fibre(247000C0FF52E296,LunF000000000000)
3 OpenVMS on DKA0: PKA0.0
DKA0 PCI(0|1|0|0) Scsi(Pun0,Lun0)

When I try to boot from the SAN device, I get

Booting OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2470-00C0-FF52-E296
Boot Failed. OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2470-00C0-FF52-E296
Booting OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2070-00C0-FF52-E296
Boot Failed. OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2070-00C0-FF52-E296

I originally tried it with the unpatched DVD installed operating system.

When that failed, I removed the boot entries, applied Update 1.0 to VMS on the internal SCSI drive, rebooted (from the internal drive), and re-added the SAN boot options. I did this because of information contained in a PDF document on the DVD, which suggested Update 1.0 was required. A link to the document on the VSI web site is

https://docs.vmssoftware.com/docs/ENABL ... R_BOOT.pdf

This made no difference.

I then did an /IMAGE copy of the patched SCSI system disk onto another SAN drive, created new boot entries for this, and attempted to boot from that drive. I did this to make sure the version of OpenVMS on the SAN was fully patched to Update 1.0.

Again, the same boot failure.

The document describes booting into the EFI shell and the device manager, which I also did. The EFI shell was unable to see any file systems on fiber SAN:

> EFI Shell list (fs entries)
>
> fs0 :Removable HardDisk - Alias hd9a0b blk0
> PcieRoot(0x30304352)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Scsi

(0x0,0x0)/HD(1,GPT,291986A1-20CC-11EE-A1D6-AA000400FEFF)
> fs1 :Removable HardDisk - Alias hd9a0d blk1
> PcieRoot(0x30304352)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Scsi

(0x0,0x0)/HD(3,GPT,291986A0-20CC-11EE-A1D7-AA000400FEFF)
>
> VMS_SHOW EFI output
>
> fs0:\> \EFI\VMS\VMS_SHOW
>
> Searching 6 NET Device entries...
> Searching 7 UEFI Device entries...
> Searching 66 PCI Device entries...
> Searching 65 VMS Device entries...
>
> VMS: DKA0 EFI: fs0 Vol: V8_4_2L1 DevInfo: HP LOGICAL

VOLUME 6.64
> fs0:\>

No files found on fs1:

The Device Manager was also unable to see the SAN adapters
Device Manager output
/--------------------------------------------------------------------------

----\
| Device Manager

|
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

----/

Devices List Configure the iSCSI
iSCSI Configuration parameters.
Emulex 10G NIC: Bus:Dev:Func 09:0:0 -
E4:11:5B:62:80:8A
Emulex 10G NIC: Bus:Dev:Func 09:0:1 -
E4:11:5B:62:80:8C

The various scenarios described in the document refer to i4 or i6 servers (this server is an i2). The only scenario mentioned using i2 servers, was an example ("Use Case 2") whereby the customer was attempting to replace i2 servers by i4 or i6. The inference from this is either that i2 servers don't need any such special steps, or that i2 servers cannot boot from an MSA 2050 SAN using an B9F24AR HBA.

Customer opened a support call, and apparently the i2 is compatible, but since the HBA can't be seen from the EFI environment, it must be a hardware fault, despite the fact that once booted, VMS can see the drives.

Any suggestions/experiences/comments gratefully received.

---
Tom Wade
OpenVMS Consultant and Enthusiast
tom dot wade at tomwade dot eu

[jeremybegg]

Hi Tom,

I have no direct experience with the MSA2050 but given you can access it once VMS is booted from SCSI you should have some confidence the hardware is OK.

I found this document which might be helpful> https://vmssoftware.com/docs/MSA2050_Imp_Notes.pdf

Regards,

Jeremy Begg

[m_detommaso]

B9F24A HPE SN1000Q 2-port 16Gb (Qlogic) HBA is supported on rx2800i2 integrity platform :

OpenVMS includes support for 16 Gb Fibre Channel on VSI OpenVMS Integrity V8.4-2, V8.4-2L1, and V8.4-2L3.
Supported Host Bus Adapters are HPE SN1000Q single or dual port 16 Gb HBAs, HPE part numbers B9F23A and B9F24A.

Minimum required software kits for OpenVMS:

VMS842I_FIBRESCSI-V0200 (V8.4-2)
VMS842L1I_FIBRESCSI-V0200 (V8.4-2L1)

In your case B9F24AR -> where R stands for "Refurbished"

---

Did you enable Adapter Driver under Device Manager ?

Your controller was shipped with a set of images in flash memory and is ready to be used to access Fibre Channel drives as data devices. However, depending on the versions of images in flash, you may have to perform one-time configuration procedure for each port to enable booting.

As the system boots, enter D (not case sensitive) to launch the Device Manager before the timeout value expires, then follow the instructions in the "VSI OpenVMS 16 Gb Fibre Channel HBAConfiguration Guide" manual at https://docs.vmssoftware.com/docs/ENABL ... R_BOOT.pdf (staring from pag. 11).

If the HBA adapters are not visible in device manager then you might have a hw problem. Try to install the HBA module into a different PCI-e slot and check also the system and HBA firmware :

Code: Select all

rx2800i2 SYSREV

 Revisions        Active    Pending
 -------------------------------------
 iLO FW         : 02.03.02
 System FW      : 01.96
 MHW FPGA       : 02.02
 Power Mon FW   : 02.09
 PRS HW         : 02.06
 IOH HW         : 02.02
 Power Supply 1 : 02.01
 Power Supply 2 : 02.01

Code: Select all

The firmware image for the B9F23A and B9F24A used in VSI testing:

    EFI: 6.37
    ROM: 8.01.80

If you installed V8.4-2L1 first and then applied vms842l1i_update-v0100, don't forget also to update the EFI partition on the OpenVMS system disk by executing the following command procedure :

$ @SYS$UPDATE:UPDATE_IPB_IN_EFI

Note: VSI released also a remastered kit VMS V8.4-2L1UPD1 (I640842L1U1.ISO)

When I try to boot from the SAN device, I get

Booting OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2470-00C0-FF52-E296
Boot Failed. OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2470-00C0-FF52-E296
Booting OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2070-00C0-FF52-E296
Boot Failed. OpenVMS 8.4 SAN disk $1$DGA3021 FGA0.2070-00C0-FF52-E296

I'm sure this is only a cosmetic error "OpenVMS V8.4", is it ?

/Maurizio

[tomwade]

Hi,
[cross posted to comp.os.vms]

Thanks for all the responses to my query. Just to summarize:

The rx2800 i2 with the MSA2050 and the B9F24A(R) HBAs is a supported combination, and should be able to boot from the SAN, once Update 1.0 is installed with 8.4-2L1.

Tech support believe it to be a hardware problem, even though the SAN disks work fine once VMS has booted.

The extensive document referred to in the link below, describes the various steps required to get VMS to boot over those HBAs (by default it can't). Unfortunately one of the early steps is to activate the Device Manager ('d' during the pre boot sequence), then selecting the HBA, and the HBAs don't appear at this point.

The suggestion that looks most likely to me at this stage is that a UEFI driver for the relatively new HBAs is missing from the Integrity. Since I am only providing the VMS expertise for this project, I'm letting the hardware purveyors take this issue up with HP.

Customer is running from the internal RAID disk and using the SAN as application to get up and running. If we find a subsequent solution, I will post it here.

Regards, and again thanks to all.

---
Tom Wade
OpenVMS Consultant and Enthusiast
tom dot wade at tomwade dot eu