[Info-vax] booting from newer SANS

[pcoviello at gmail.com]

On Monday, December 14, 2020 at 4:09:23 PM UTC-5, pcoviello at gmail.com wrote:
> On Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 2:35:11 PM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote: 
> > On 2020-12-11 15:36:11 +0000, pcov... at gmail.com said: 
> > 
> > > On Friday, December 11, 2020 at 10:24:29 AM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote: 
> > >> On 2020-12-11 15:11:49 +0000, pcov... at gmail.com said: 
> > >> 
> > >>> On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 8:00:55 PM UTC-5, pcov... at gmail.com wrote: 
> > >>>> ... Loading.: SSD Boot Device $1$DGA3010: FGA0.2031-0002-AC02-6B0D 
> > >>>> ... Load of SSD Boot Device $1$DGA3010: FGA0.2031-0002-AC02-6B0D 
> > >>>> failed: Not Found 
> > >>> ... $ SET BOOTBLOCK /PRESERVE=SIGNATURES /I64 $1$DGA3010: 
> > >> 
> > >> That command doesn't do what you think it does. 
> > >> ... 
> > > oh! interesting! I had found it the 8.4-2l1 install documentation and 
> > > thought it might help if there was an issue with the backup/image I did, 
> > That command is intended to preserve the usefulness of an existing boot 
> > alias, by preserving the existing signature. If the existing signature 
> > wasn't working, preserving it is moot. 
> > 
> > EFI prefers that the operating system to assign a new signature for 
> > each device and for each partition. EFI boots partitions. OpenVMS knows 
> > not of partitions and boots devices, whether newly installed or 
> > restored. OpenVMS doesn't align with EFI expectations there, and 
> > OpenVMS users tend to get cranky about having to remove and re-add boot 
> > aliases, that either from EFI directly, or from BOOT_OPTIONS.COM tool. 
> > 
> > With no partitioning support, OpenVMS hacks up a whole device by 
> > creating between three and five partitions depending on file 
> > alignments. This to avoid console-level operations clobbering storage 
> > based on the expected partitioning map stored within GPT. 
> > 
> > BACKUP, BTW, calls SYS$SETBOOTSHR, which is the underpinnings of SET 
> > BOOTBLOCK, and of the SYS$SETBOOT tool. 
> > 
> > To see some more information, invoke SYS$SETBOOT as a foreign command. 
> > There's a simplistic partition-viewing and partition-reporting tool 
> > available there, too. There are four interfaces available underneath; 
> > CLD, RUN, foreign command, and callable API. 
> > 
> > TL;DR: When EFI-based bootstraps go sideways, remove and re-add the 
> > boot alias entry, and try again. 
> > -- 
> > Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC
> deleting it and adding it back in didn't make a difference, VSI now believes that the so called AH400 HBA is not a true AH400. Vendor is checking on this. 
> I've also asked the vendor to put on hold in bringing anything else in since this nay be the issue and nothing to do with the actual SAN. 
> 
> thanks every one

update:
well after many attempts we are trying another HBA tonight.  not sure it matters but in the EFI shell I was able to run "info all -a" "devtree"  "pci"   I don't see any mention of the 8Gb HBA,  the 4Gb one is seen.