p520, HMC Strangeness
David J Dachtera
AIX folks will have seen this before.
Just got brand new machines from Avnet/Sunquest: HMC and p520 (two of
each).
When atempting to use the HMC to manage the p520, ...
------------ *BEFORE* the o.s. boots ------------
... (partition standby), I'm getting this when I try to open a console
window from the HMC: it fails and says that the session is reserved for
the serial port.
HOWEVER (and there is a however!), connecting the HMC DISABLES the
serial ports! (I guess it makes sense to SOMEone at IBM, but certainly
not to me.)
As a result, there is no way to get to the console window until AFTER
the o.s. boots (of course, by then, it's too late - what I need to do
has to be done BEFORE the o.s. boots!).
I know - not really an AIX query. Again, I'm just hoping someone else
has seen this before and knows how to fix it.
IBM is stumped, and/or gets too mired up in the whole AIX thing to
understand that I'm talking about ...
------------ *BEFORE* the o.s. boots ------------
Any and all insights are indeed most welcome!
I spent two hours on the phone with IBM's p520 support last week, and we
did actually get past this, but we did so many things no one knew which
one was the "silver bullet". Resetting the machine to factory defaults
"broke" it again, and now no one knows what to do, including me.
D.J.D.
Hajo Ehlers
wrote:
> Apologies - there may be a better group to post this in, but I'm hoping
> AIX folks will have seen this before.
>
> Just got brand new machines from Avnet/Sunquest: HMC and p520 (two of
> each).
>
> When atempting to use the HMC to manage the p520, ...
>
> ------------ *BEFORE* the o.s. boots ------------
>
> ... (partition standby), I'm getting this when I try to open a console
> window from the HMC: it fails and says that the session is reserved for
> the serial port.
>
> HOWEVER (and there is a however!), connecting the HMC DISABLES the
> serial ports!
That is correct. The serial connections are only used for terminal
access or modem (in/out). In case a HMC is connected the serial pots
gets deactivated. So HACMP can not used these ports.
>
> As a result, there is no way to get to the console window until AFTER
> the o.s. boots (of course, by then, it's too late - what I need to do
> has to be done BEFORE the o.s. boots!).
??? You can open a terminal window from your HMC. The console of the
OS should be set to /dev/vty0 of cource.
Quick Installation Guide of the p520
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/topic/iphaf/sa41516604.pdf
ASMI Guide
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/topic/iphbp/iphbpbook.pdf
So for trouble shooting:
* Your HMC level should higher then 6.1.2
* HMC should be configured as a DHCP server
- disconnect the HMC
- disconnect any serial connection
- login via web ASMI and
- Remove HMC connection data - ASMI Guide - Page 11
- Reset the system to factory default. - ASMI Guide - Page 34
- Shutdown system and disconnect power cord.
- connect HMC ( check that you are usng the correct port ) but NOT any
serial dervice
- Connect power cord again
- Startup server
Verify on the HMC that you can manage the p520
Verify that you can open a terminal session to the managed system from
the HMC
In case it is not working try to use the web ASMI and check in which
state the managed system is.
hth
Hajo
David J Dachtera
>
> ??? You can open a terminal window from your HMC.
No, I can't. As noted in the original post, "it fails and says that
the session is reserved for the serial port".
> The console of the
> OS should be set to /dev/vty0 of cource.
Irrelevant. The o.s. is not booted yet (partition standby), and in this
case, the console needed to be /dev/vty2.
As it turns out, this is an issue with the factory default configuration
of the p520, though IBM won't admit it. In the factory default
configuration the p520 is "broken" with respect to the console window
from the HMC. The procedure to fix it requires blowing away the existing
partitioning data by re-Initializing it and then building a new default
partition.
I spent (another) two hours on the phone with IBM this morning. I'll
be posting a How-To for fixing it under separate cover.
D.J.D.
