[Info-vax] Integrity rx2800 i2 trying to boot from MSA2050

[Norbert Schönartz]

Am 24.07.2023 um 11:20 schrieb Tom Wade:
> Hi,
> 
> 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/ENABLING_16GB_FC_HBAS_FOR_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

I think in order to boot from the MSA2050 you there must be an EFI 
bootdriver installed on the rx2800 for the specific FC card. It seems 
that this driver is missing on your system, so you do not see the MSA 
disks in EFI. As far as I know you could install this driver on the 
rx2800 yourself IF you have it somewhere. Some years ago I managed a 
rx2800 i6 system with an MSA2050. Unfortunately I do not have access to 
this system anymore, so I cannot help with details.
-- 
Norbert Schönartz