From: Cohen, Andy (Andy.Cohen@cognex.com)
Date: Mon Jul 18 2005 - 08:52:53 EDT
ORIGINAL QUESTION
================
All,
We've got an Alphaserver 800 5/500 running T64 5.1A pk4. I believe that
the last time I built the kernel (2/2004) I chose to include all the
options. Now we want to add an HBA to the machine. We're in receipt of
part number DS-KGPSA-Cx (or is -CA?) and want to install it. No
instructions came with this whatsoever. How do I find out if I need to
do anything after I've physically put it into the machine? How do I
find out if we have the drivers installed already or if we need to
download them?
Any help/suggestions is appreciated!
Thanks!
Andy
SUMMARY
=======
Basically the answer was -- shut down the machine, install it (64-bit
slot if available), fire it back up. It may be necessary to add a line
into /sys/conf/HOSTNAME and rebuild the kernel (it was for us). Btw --
I was mistaken - we were already at PK6 (not PK4).
Details
=======
To see if the fibre adapter driver (the "emx" driver) is in the running
kernel do:
$ nm /vmunix | grep emx
If you see many symbols, you're all set (just install the hardware and
boot). If nothing is returned, the driver is not installed.
To install the driver, edit /sys/conf/HOSTNAME and add the line:
config_driver emx
to the driver section. Then rebuild and install the kernel ('doconfig
-c HOSTNAME'; cp /sys/HOSTNAME/vmunix /) and reboot.
That's it!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The latest firmware version should include the current Fibre adapter
firmware. Current FW is always available from:
http://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/firmware/
Firmware version information is logged to the /var/adm/messages file by
the kernel at boot time.
> How about PK release? Is there a recommendation for that? Somebody
> thought we should go to PK6 since we'll be connecting to a SAN.
The latest patch kit is highly recommended. It includes many fixes to
prevent known system problems and the latest EMX driver (which prevents
known SAN/system hangs). The current kit is available from:
You should also read through the available Early Release Patches
(ERPs) - these are also on ITRC and address problems that have been seen
often by other customers.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is what I normally do .
I boot the system with genvmunix and it surely will detect the card in
question ( My experience is limited to popping in SCSI cards, I have
never done this with HBAs). Else look for NHD .
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Drivers for the HBAs should be part of the OS, the only trick is to make
sure that the hardware is seen for the new kernel build. You should not
need a new hardware disk for this.
Halt to the SRM console.
Boot using the genvmunix kernel: b -fi genvmunix Build a new kernel:
doconfig -c <YOUR SYS NAME IN CAPS HERE> Reboot with new kernel
The SysAdmin manual should detail these same steps for adding new
hardware.
Some other things to think of:
1. This might be a good time to make sure that your AlphaServer firmware
is up to date.
2. This is also a good time to check the revision level on the board
firmware. If you have more than one card they should be at the same
level. The board firmware is on the Alpha firmware cdrom, but requires
cutting a separate CD or floppy and booting into the ARC/AlphaBIOS
console. The instructions are in the README on the firmware CDROM.
3. Consider staying at 3.82A1 for the KGPSA. The 3.9.1A1 firmware is
current and should normally be the right course. However, HP released
customer advisory OC040528_CW01 that warns about problems going to the
3.9.1A1 firmware with older servers (specifically 1200, 4000, and 4100
series). The AS800 is a contemporary of these servers, so it may be
affected as well. The recommendation is to use the older 3.8.2A1
firmware on KGPSA boards in these systems.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++
The driver is included with Tru64 UNIX so there's no need to download
anything. During installation if you don't have a specific type of
hardware installed in the machine, Tru64 is smart enough not to include
the driver in the kernel (each driver that is installed uses more
memory). So to add the new hardware, you need to build a new kernel
that explicitly has support for this new adapter. When you add the line
config_driver emx
to the configuration file (/sys/conf/{HOSTNAME}) you'll ensure that all
future kernel builds will include support for fibre adapters. Then
you'll build a new kernel manually with:
# doconfig -c {HOSTNAME}
and then install this new kernel by doing:
# cp /vmunix /vmunix.old
# cp /sys/{HOSTNAME}/vmunix /
Then reboot to begin using this new kernel.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks to Jason Orendorf, Benjamin Ingwersen, Yogesh Bhanu, Tom Webster,
Dirk Kleinhesselink, and Warren Sturm.
My apologies for the delay -- it took a long time to get down time
scheduled for this machine and then it turned out that the first card we
got was bad (no WWN -- it was all zeroes!). The second card worked
perfectly.
Andy
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