Setup ALOM networking with jumpstart begin script

When jumpstarting a server you want to see the console output to make sure nothing bad happens,
this can be accomplished by logging into the ALOM over the network so you can follow your installation
from your desk in stead of the noisy datacenter.

First when the server is powered up we want to go into the ALOM/SC
when you are in the ok prompt type:

{1} ok #.
sc>

The first thing to do is to set the admin password

sc> password
password: Changing password for admin
Enter new password: *****
Re-enter new password: *****
sc>


Removing a driver that panics the kernel during boot

I had the unfortunate experience dealing with a system that panics on boot. I added the Emulex lpfc package which loads the driver during the installation. Then the V490 panics, dumps the system core, and reboots. At which point it panics again since it is trying to load the lpfc driver. In order to figure out what is wrong I need the dump, but the machine won’t boot. To fix the problem I perform a network boot into single use mode, I mounted up the OS, chroot and removed the driver with the rem_drv(1M).

# mount /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0 /mnt
# chroot /mnt /bin/bash
# rem_drv -b / lpfc
# init 6

More Authors Needed

In last month since I started this blog, I have had over 1000 views.  Which is great considering I only have about five posts.  But it is hard for me to keep the content flowing and fresh.  I am seriously looking for a lot of authors to join the ranks and contribute their own articles.  Even if you think you aren’t a great writer I will work with you.  Send me an email and considering adding some of your own content.  The more people we have the better this blog will be.

boot net:speed=100,duplex=full – install

This is a gem for jumpstarting, usually people have a begin script that sets the interface to 100M Full. But this sets the interface immediately at boot time. It speeds this up a bit, and makes it easier to configure your jumpstart server. For more information see EXAMPLES in boot(1m).

Setting ce driver parameters with ce.conf

I am starting to run into a situation where I need both a 100M Full Duplex set on one ce interface, but 1000M Auto Negotiate on another. To put it bluntly this is a chore. I have done it a few times over the last year, but never remember the steps. I am sure there are some descent docs out there but I have pieced this together from looking at the documentation, which was wrong at one point. What you need to do is unambiguously identify the exact PCI device to supply different parameters. Otherwise it is easy you just add the following to /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/ce.conf:

adv_autoneg_cap=0 \
adv_1000fdx_cap=0 \
adv_1000hdx_cap=0 \
adv_100fdx_cap=1 \
adv_100hdx_cap=0 \
adv_10fdx_cap=0 \
adv_10hdx_cap=0;

Of course you can use ndd in an rcX.d script to set these parameters, but SUN is quick to point out in the documentation that it is not supported. Plus I always viewed the conf files as the best practice.

NOTE: The following should work exactly the same for bge devices