Solaris Patching/SAN Boot

I have just created an ABE on a SAN device, upgraded it and then booted from it.
Its been a long journey, and involved a SR with oracle.
I was new to it and am astonished at how hard it has been. Not hard in the sense that anything was over complicated, but the tangle mess of patch levels and gathering information on server firmware, SAN boot, HBA firmware, patches etc has been a nightmare. Not sure whether its me just new to patching solaris 10 etc, but I have literally trawled through a couple of dozen documents, countless web browsing and a few grey hairs just to achieve this.
I will hold my hand up, some of it was of our own making - I was patching a system that had not been touched in a number of years.
Anyone had a similar experience or does it get easier?!?!?

I really don't like san boot for operating system. You have too many points of failure for the basic operation.
Anyway, during installation, ensure that you access the disk using just one path (using zoning for example). After you enable and configure MPxIO, you could enable other paths.

Similar Messages

Solaris 10 SAN Boot issue

During Solaris 10 Installation on a SAN Based disk, SUN Fire V10 was not rebooting after the first CD installation. It does memory dump...

I really don't like san boot for operating system. You have too many points of failure for the basic operation.
Anyway, during installation, ensure that you access the disk using just one path (using zoning for example). After you enable and configure MPxIO, you could enable other paths.

XenServer 6.1 SAN boot on B200M2

I'm new to XenServer. We have UCS with B200M2's with the M81KR CNA in them. We primarily use VMware ESXi and we SAN boot all of those machines. We have had no issue SAN booting ESXi servers. I've created a new serivce profile template for the XenServer's and brought up a couple machines. I've allocated the storage and when I got to install XenServer it doesn't see the boot LUNs. I know the storage is allocated properly. I can see the LUNs when the blade is booting and I can install ESXi onto the boot LUNs without issue. The issue is with XenServer seeing the LUN. I did the F2 > mulitpath option that it says to do in the Appendix of the install guide for XenServer but that makes no difference. What needs to be done to have XenServer see a boot LUN on a B200M2?

6.0
Please see the UCS Support Matrix tool for further info:
http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/ucs/interoperability/matrix/matrix.html
Support is coming in the upcoming UCSM 2.1 release before the end of the year (tentatively). I'm just confirming if support will be included in a future 2.0.x patch or not.
Regards,
Robert

UCS 1.4(3M) BIOS Issue ? no network/san boot when diskless

Recreated faithfully on multiple blades and chassis with VIC cards. Have many SAN boot nodes in production and testing and after upgrading firmware this week anytime I apply my store policy of "diskless" to a blade I lose the ability to boot from network. After much effort to work around comes down to no matter what I do with diskless storeage policy, the configured boot order will never become the actual boot order. In the BIOS all network boot options/reference are invisible, cannot enable nor add to options. Upon removing diskless storeage profile and applying "any other that I have" I see in FST that it's powering up internal storage, starting up and updating pre-boot environments, and other things related that connected the dots. Returning to BIOS all reference and options have returned as I expected due to actual boot order screen updating to match configured order and hba's of course login the fabric right away, boot is fine. While I can faithfully replice across many, many blades, they are all the models with same mezz running 1.4.3 so curious if anyone else is seeing, particuaraly now with new version out, as I have done last few weeks without issues leading me towards the firmware.
In a nut shell I see that when going diskless this is actually shutting down the storage/raid controller. i can see that clearly but no bios access to it and not sure what else is or why it's affecting network and hba also since I cannot see, it's shutting more down than low powering drive side raid. I use different profiles due to some blades having disks removed, some retain them. moving a san boot service-profile dynamically around multiple chassis will fail to associate with errors on some due to disk setup and all that. some i have disks pulled and diskless based on documentation and best practices as this customer needed several san boot only blades in that pool. But yes if I use a storage profile allowing "any disk config" for association whether it has disks, no disks, raided drives, replaces the diskless policy in same service profile it faithfully follows my boot order and boots via hba's across multiple blades, up to about 8 or 10 as of today.....b200-m2's with vic's
thx
dave

My UCS manager firmware and Adapter is 1.3.1p,
the boot policy has been set to Boot to SAN,
I checked "Hardware and Software Interoperability Matrix for UCS System Release 1.3.1"
It seems the 1.3.1 only can support the "windows 2008 r2 x64 w/Hyper-v",
so, I updated the UCS manager Bios and the adpter firmware to 2.0, but the I/O module still is 1.3.1p
I can install the "windows 2008 r2 x64" successfuly...
Now, my concern is I have a mix component software versions on my ucs blade(I used the UCS manager 1.3.1, IO module 1.3.1, the UCS Bois 2.0.1 and the adapter 2.0.1)
will the mix component software versions cause some other issues? Dose anyone can give me some suggestion?
Thanks a lot

Solaris 10 x86 Boot Issue

Hi,
I've installed Solaris 10 for x86 into my P4 machine. It has three partitions - two of them are being used by Win2K Advanced Server and in the 3rd one Solaris 10 was installed. Installation was successful and the Boot manager is working fine. I can boot windows from the Boot Manager. But Solaris is not booting. It is freezing afer I give enter in proceed with Default booting. The 'SunOS.....' Message is coming and that's it. Even no Erro message came also.
Need some help.
Thanks

Solaris makes one of the partitions active , Take a note of that.
Once you are done tinkering with the partitions/ loading say Windows/Linux follow this step.
Grab any Linux distro's boot CD and start the rescue mode. type grub and do this
root (hd0, X) X the partiton that has linux partition minus 1
setup (hd0)now open fdisk and change the label of the Solaris Partition to 80.
Add an entry in /boot/grub/menu.1st on the same lines like Windows, If unsure google .
Reboot and you are done.
Never I said never make any other partition active other than what Solaris installation does for you.

HTTP error while downloading solaris patches using wget

Hello,
I am getting a HTTP error while downloading solaris patches using wget.
'Downloading unsigned patch 113096-03.
--2010-06-18 03:51:15-- http://sunsolve.sun.com/pdownload.pl?target=113096-03&method=h
Resolving sunsolve.sun.com (sunsolve.sun.com)... 192.18.108.40
Connecting to sunsolve.sun.com (sunsolve.sun.com)|192.18.108.40|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://sunsolve.sun.com/pdownload.do?target=113096-03&method=h [following]
--2010-06-18 03:51:15-- http://sunsolve.sun.com/pdownload.do?target=113096-03&method=h
Reusing existing connection to sunsolve.sun.com:80.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 401 Unauthorized
Unknown authentication scheme.
Authorization failed.
Problem downloading 113096-03.
What am i missing here... The credentials to login to sunsolve are correct and are updated in the downloadpatch.sh script.
Please assist
Thanks
Sunny

Try download via browser url:
[http://sunsolve.sun.com/pdownload.pl?target=113096-03&method=h]
You need a valid support contract not just Sunsolve account for many patches.

SAN boot disk in a cluster node?

As far as I remember, SC requires local boot disk.
Is it possible to use the SAN boot disk? Can this configuration work being just not supported by SUN or there is some technical limitation ?
I am thinking of low price configuration with two diskless X2100s + HBAs and SAN storage. Possible?
thanks
-- leon

As far as I remember, SC requires local boot disk.
Is it possible to use the SAN boot disk? Can this
configuration work being just not supported by SUN or
there is some technical limitation ?The rule for boot disks gos like this:
Any local storage device, supported by the base platform as a boot device, can be used as a boot device for the server in the cluster as well. A shared storage device cannot be used as a boot device for a server in a cluster. It is recommended to mirror the root disk. Multipathed boot is supported with Sun Cluster when the drivers associated with SAN 4.3 (or later) are used in conjunction with an appropriate storage device (i.e. the local disks on a SF v880 or a SAN connected fiber storage device).
So your boot disk can be in a SAN as long the base platform supports it as a boot disk and it is not configured as a shared lun in the SAN (i.e. visible to other nodes than the one that uses it as boot disk).
I am thinking of low price configuration with two
diskless X2100s + HBAs and SAN storage. Possible?You need to check the support matrix of the storage device you plan to use, if it is supported as a boot device for the X2100 + HBA. If the answer is yes, you just must make sure that this lun is only visible to that X2100.
Greets
Thorsten

B230-M2 - MK81KR - Win 08 R2 San Boot

Chaps.
I need to SAN boot this server with Win 08 R2 on the metal.
Service profile works with VMware, so the Zoning/Masking is correct.
On install from 08 Disk, no Hard Drives shown, I loaded the Cisco Storage Driver, now I see the Lun twice, Disk1
Unpartitioned space and Disk2 Unpartitioned space.
There is a Bios not enabled warning when I try to install.
UCS Version 1.4.3Q
Driver Disk : 1.4.1
Please assist
Danie

No change on either option.
On the CD sequence.
I clicked load driver, mounted the 1.4.3 Drivers cd, browsed to Windows\Storage\Cisco\MK81KR\Win08R2\64
I listed the driver.
I then mounted the Win08 cd, and clicked next to load the driver, it could not find the path, as I had un-mounted the driver disk, so remounted 1.4.3, clicked next, green bas flashed a couple of times, and I got to the Where do you want to install screen. My 40GB disk showed as offline.
Mounted the Win08 Disc, and clicked refresh, twice....
Disk stayed offline, show details on the error allowed me to bring the disk online.
Now the error stated that the BIOS is not setup for booting of this controller, ignored the warning, and clicked next.
Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition.
I can create and delete partitions manually.
EFI disabled and the same install sequence, same results
Thanx

San Boot Win2K8 R2 SP1 x64 on UCS blades B with M81KR installation issue

I am trying to install a storage San Boot Win2K8 R2 SP1 x64 on UCS blades,(There are only 1 path to the OS installation drive during the installation.)
I loaded drivers for the M81K2 following the "UCS Windows Install Guide" , and I can see the LUN I mapped from XIV. I was able to create and format partitions, make it online, but when
I try to install, windows gives the error:"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."
any one know this issue?
Thanks

My UCS manager firmware and Adapter is 1.3.1p,
the boot policy has been set to Boot to SAN,
I checked "Hardware and Software Interoperability Matrix for UCS System Release 1.3.1"
It seems the 1.3.1 only can support the "windows 2008 r2 x64 w/Hyper-v",
so, I updated the UCS manager Bios and the adpter firmware to 2.0, but the I/O module still is 1.3.1p
I can install the "windows 2008 r2 x64" successfuly...
Now, my concern is I have a mix component software versions on my ucs blade(I used the UCS manager 1.3.1, IO module 1.3.1, the UCS Bois 2.0.1 and the adapter 2.0.1)
will the mix component software versions cause some other issues? Dose anyone can give me some suggestion?
Thanks a lot

Solaris Patch Manager gets status:302 behind Proxy

Hi Colleagues,
I am trying to get Solaris Patch Manager on my Solaris 8 up and running.
But if I say "smpatch analyze", the smpatch just reports a "Response code was 302" I think this means something like: "temporary moved".
I think my problem is, that the proxy doesn't follow the moved object.
Can anybody tell me where I can manualy download the detectors.jar and patchdb.zip?

Any news on this posting? I'm trying to do the same thing, as I dont want to use a caching proxy to download patches, I just want to use
a local source to perform analysis, downloads, and updates.
Cheers.

M5K SAN Boot Question.

If i have a 3rd domain on a m5k. and it is supposed to boot from SAN. how can I go about doing it?
If thats the case like if my storage got 2 controllers and each has a fc path to the domain 3,
wun there be 2 luns seem on system side?
how would I be able to do the stmsboot? Even if i do a stmsboot after OS, won't the system be unable to boot after?.
or do I map 2 individual luns to server, then raid @ server side? or do we only do mapping on switch side?
Thank you all for your kind attention.

Hi Tejas,
We are going to need some further details to help narrow down the problem.
1) Was this Boot from SAN working previously for the ESX blade, you then upgraded to 2.0(1s) and are now having the issue?
or
Is this a new Boot from SAN setup on 2.0(1s)?
2) You mentioned that you can see the WWPN of your blade in your Fiber Channel switch. Have you verified that the WWPN of the EMC VNX is also visible in your Fiber Channel switch?
3) Have you checked your zoning configuration on the Fiber Channel switch, ensuring that the WWPN of your blade is permitted to communicate with the EMC VNX storage array?
4) Have you also checked your LUN masking on the EMC storage array? Ensure that you have configured the storage group to allow the WWPN access to the LUN
5) Depending on if the array is active/active or active/passive, it is also important to verify which storage processor currently owns the LUN and ensure that the vHBA communication is hitting the appropriate storage processor
6) Generally most operating systems will boot from LUN ID 0. So you can compare the presented LUN ID in EMC to what you configured in your UCSM Boot policy
7) Also ensure that you have correctly configured the order of your Boot from SAN targets (primary vHBA - primary target, secondary vHBA - primary target, etc...)
Other tips available via the following:
Troubleshooting SAN Boot and SAN Connectivity Issues
Hope that helps. Let me know how you go.
Cheers,
Michael

SAN Boot Policy Clarification

I would like some clarification regarding the SAN Boot policy. I was always under the impression you were suppose to use the WWPN of the storage port. But what if you have many storage ports coming from the array (16 for example), this would not be possible.
Is the purpose of this policy to simply force the HBA to login into the SAN fabric?
If so, I can use one from my actual array or just make one up, correct?
Since all the zoning is being done by the SAN switch (Brocade/MDS/Nexus) and LUN masking at the array level, I would think putting the actual WWPN of a storage port is not necessary.
Thanks for any clarification.

My thought was you could just throw a valid wwpn in (any valid wwpn, doesn't have to be the array) again just to log in to the fabric. The it would scan the bus and off you go.
When I tried that with our try and buy setup and a NetApp array, doing windows 2008 r2 san boot, I could never get the luns to show up. We put in the arrays 4 wwpns and that got it to show up.
im not sure why it matters, and I think we had something else wrong. if you look at blogs online almost all of them show to just throw a wwpn in there to start flogi and that's it.
If you have 16 wwpns that could be an issue. As you probably know the boot policy only lets you put a primary and secondary for each HBA. I would try placing a random wwpn in and see if it works.

SAN Boot Target-Cisco folks, please advise

Hi:
Just want to know the difference of the following 2 configurations for SAN Boot for UCS with 2 WWPNs being presented from SAN Storage
Array: I know 1 will work, but how about Option 2????
Cisco UCS manual DOES NOT go into the details needed.
1.
SAN Primary, SAN Target Primary- vHBA-A - Fabric A
SAN Secondary, SAN Target Primary - vHBA-B - Fabric B
VS
2.
SAN Primary, SAN Target Primary - vHBA-A - Fabric A
SAN Secondary, SAN Target Secondary - vHBA-B - Fabric B
Thanks.
KP Sim

I don't think the system will let you introduce a secondary target on the second vHBA if you haven't defined a primary target for that vHBA.
SAN boot works as follows if you have a policy with 4 targets and 2 vHBAs:
1. try primary vHBA, first (primary) target
2. if that doesn't work, try secondary target on primary vHBA
3. if that doesn't work, switch to secondary vHBA, primary target
4. if that doesn't work, try secondary target on secondary vHBA

Solaris Patch 117846-20

Hi there,
Where can I download this Solaris patch?
I have found it here but am unable to download it.
http://wesunsolve.net/patch/id/117846-20
Many thanks,

Have you tried at https://support.oracle.com ? To download patches, you will need a vailid CSI
HTH
Srini

How do I find the latest Critical Sun Solaris Patches on Oracle site

Hello
How do I find the latest critical Solaris Patches available to the users. I was searching the list on Oracle's site it's hard to determine which patch is critcal or not. When I type uname -a this is what returns Generic_142909-17.
Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

Sorry, I wrote "Monthly" when I meant to write "Quarterly". Apologies for the confusion. My bad.
From - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html
They are released on the Tuesday closest to the 15th day of January, April, July and October. Starting 2011, the scheduled dates for the release of Critical Patch Updates will be on the Tuesday closest to the 17th day of January, April, July and October. The next four dates are:
* 19 April 2011
* 19 July 2011
* 18 October 2011
* 17 January 2012
The CPU for the Solaris Operating System is a rebranded snapshot of the Recommended OS Cluster. The rebranding involves only superficial changes to the patch cluster, with the actual patch content remaining unchanged. The patches contained in this patch cluster are considered the most important and highly recommended patches for Solaris 10. They provide the least amount of change required to address known security, data corruption and availability issues.
If there's a particular CVE Alert which you're vulnerable to or interested in, then the fix will be released within the patch that corresponds to the area of code the vulnerability affects. You can then apply that patch and it's requirements separate to the clusters. Next time you apply the cluster it will either install the latest rev of the patch or skip it if you have the latest installed already.
The Recommended Patch Cluster bundle is a much larger collection of patches and contains all the latest patches (at the time of release) which include Solaris updates, Security, and Sun Alert fixes. Note that we merged "Recommended Patch Cluster/Kernel Jumbo Patchset" and the "Sun Alert Patch Clusters" back in June 2010. See http://blogs.sun.com/patch/entry/merging_the_solaris_recommended_and for more information regarding what happened and why.
Of course there will be a large overlap between the "Recommended OS Cluster" and the "Critical Patch Updates" patchsets will be rolled in to the "Recommended OS Cluster" whenever it's cut and released.
There's a lot of information in the README files for each cluster so you may want to read those to understand the subtle differences.
Regards,
Steve

Solaris Patching/SAN Boot

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