SC Alert: DHCP negotiation failed

I started getting these annoying errors on the console from the the V445 I am building, they log about once every couple of minutes:

SC Alert: DHCP negotiation failed, perhaps misconfigured or no DHCP server available

Searching for an answer you don’t get very much. But reading up on the ALOM that ships with the Sun Fire V445, I found the following:

All initial configuration must [be] done through the serial management port on the Sun Fire V210, V240, V250, and V440 servers and Netra 210, 240, 440 servers. Some servers (Sun Fire V215, V245, and V445) support DHCP by default on the network management port. These servers can be configured from the serial management port or network management port, if the attached subnet has a DHCP server. The default network configuration allows a Secure Shell session to be started.

So starting with the Sun Fire V215, V245, and V445 servers, it tries to associate with a DHCP server. If you are not currently using this feature you probably want to turn it off. So here is what you do.

First you need to get to the sc>, prompt. It stands for system controller.

Hit #. (pound-period)

Then you need to change some settings to turn off the the network portion of the SC. The following settings are the defaults for the other servers that ship ALOM:

sc> setsc if_network false
Change will not become active until the SC is reset.
sc> setsc if_connection none
Change will not become active until the SC is reset.
sc> setsc netsc_dhcp false
Change will not become active until the SC is reset.
sc> resetsc -y
User Requested SC Shutdown

ALOM - min post no output

ALOM POST 1.0

Dual Port Memory Test, PASSED.

TTY External - Internal Loopback Test
TTY External - Internal Loopback Test, PASSED.

TTYC - Internal Loopback Test
TTYC - Internal Loopback Test, PASSED.

TTYD - Internal Loopback Test
TTYD - Internal Loopback Test, PASSED.

Memory Data Lines Test
Memory Data Lines Test, PASSED.

Memory Address Lines Test
Slide address bits to test open address lines
Test for shorted address lines
Memory Address Lines Test, PASSED.

Boot Sector FLASH CRC Test
Boot Sector FLASH CRC Test, PASSED.

Return to Boot Monitor for Handshake
ALOM POST 1.0
Status = 00007fff

Returned from Boot Monitor and Handshake

Loading the runtime image...

Full VxDiag Tests

BASIC TOD TEST
Read the TOD Clock: WED MAY 09 14:26:02 2007
Wait, 1 - 3 seconds
Read the TOD Clock: WED MAY 09 14:26:04 2007
BASIC TOD TEST, PASSED

ETHERNET CPU LOOPBACK TEST
50 BYTE PACKET - a 0 in field of 1's.
SC Alert: SC System booted.
done.

50 BYTE PACKET - a 1 in field of 0's. done.

900 BYTE PACKET - pseudo-random data.
done.
ETHERNET CPU LOOPBACK TEST, PASSED

Full VxDiag Tests - PASSED

Status summary - Status = 7FFF

VxDiag - - PASSED
POST - - PASSED
LOOPBACK - - PASSED

I2C - - PASSED
EPROM - - PASSED
FRU PROM - - PASSED

ETHERNET - - PASSED
MAIN CRC - - PASSED
BOOT CRC - - PASSED

TTYD - - PASSED
TTYC - - PASSED
MEMORY - - PASSED
MPC885 - - PASSED

Please login: admin
Please Enter password: *****

sc> console
Enter #. to return to ALOM.

After that the message stops loggging. You could probably just set netsc_dhcp to false. I wanted to have the same defaults settings as I do on all the other machines.