Sun Bladetrademark 6000 Disk Module Service ManualTable Of Contents Previous ChapterNext ChapterBook Index



C H A P T E R  4

Replacing a Host Bus Adapter

This chapter contains information and procedures for replacing an LSI host bus adapter.

The following topics are covered in this chapter:

LSI Host Bus Adapter Failure and Replacement

If an LSI host bus adapter fails, you must replace it. In the case of the Sun Blade X6220 and T6300 server blades, the host bus adapter is embedded in the server blade so you must replace the entire blade. For other server blades that use a Sun Blade RAID 0/1 Expansion Module (REM), you need to replace the REM.


Note - The procedures below are equally valid whether you are replacing a REM or a server blade with an embedded adapter.


procedure icon  To Replace the LSI Host Bus Adapter on an x64 Server Blade Running Linux or Windows

  1. Remove the server blade that contains the damaged host bus adapter.

  2. Replace the host bus adapter (or the entire blade for X6220 servers) and reinsert the server blade.

  3. Boot an OS.

    There are two possibilities:

    • (Preferred method in all cases) Boot from an external source. Use a bootable thumb drive or a network boot.

    • If the OS is installed on the server blade (on a single disk in the server blade or in a RAID volume where at least one of the member disks is in the server blade), you can boot from the server’s boot drive. If the boot drive is a RAID volume, during the BIOS boot process you must activate the RAID volume using the LSI RAID configuration utility (see Activating LSI RAID Volumes).

  4. During the BIOS boot process, enter the LSI RAID configuration utility and activate all foreign RAID volumes. (see Activating LSI RAID Volumes).

procedure icon  To Replace the LSI Host Bus Adapter on Any Server Blade Running the Solaris OS

Prerequisites:

  • You must have a saved snapshot of your old host bus adapter’s persistence table and the snapshot file must be available to the OS that you boot initially.

  • The OS that you boot initially in the following procedure must have the lsiutil application installed.

  1. Remove the server blade that contains the damaged host bus adapter.

  2. Make sure that there is a SAS-NEM in slot NEM 0 and that it is functioning properly (the Fault LED is off).


    caution icon

    Caution - Make sure that multipathing at the OS level is enabled on all server blades that remain active in the chassis before you execute step 3. This ensures that the primary path to disks is not lost, which can cause an OS panic. For servers running Windows 2003, which does not support multipathing, shut down IO to all disks on the disk module that are not in hardware RAID volumes.


  3. Remove the SAS-NEM in slot NEM 1, if there is one.

    This step is required to make RAID volumes return with the same target ID.


    Note - If you have a plain NEM, without SAS capability, in slot NEM 1 you can leave it there.



    caution icon

    Caution - Unplugging the SAS-NEM causes the loss of all secondary network connections and the secondary paths to SAS disks.


  4. Replace the host bus adapter (or the entire blade for X6220 and T6300 servers) and reinsert the server blade.

  5. Boot an OS.

    There are two possibilities:

    • Boot from an external source. Use a bootable thumb drive (x64 only) or a net boot.

    • If the OS is installed on the server blade (on a single disk in the server blade or in a RAID volume where at least one of the member disks is in the server blade), you can boot from the server’s boot drive. If the boot drive is a RAID volume, during the BIOS boot process you must activate the RAID volume using the LSI RAID configuration utility (see Activating LSI RAID Volumes).

  6. Run lsiutil in interactive mode (see To Restore a Snapshot of Your Host Bus Adapter Persistent Mappings). Type 1 and press Enter to open the main menu.

  7. Type 15 on the main lsiutil menu, "Change persistent mappings," and press Enter.

    The persistence menu opens.

  8. Type 8, "Load persistent mappings from a file," and press Enter.

    It prompts you for the filename.

  9. Enter the filename and path of your saved snapshot file.

    The persistent map is loaded into the new blade.

  10. Reboot the server blade with its own OS.

    Rebooting the blade causes it to use the persistent mapping information.

  11. Activate all RAID volumes (see Activating LSI RAID Volumes).

    At this point, the blade has been replaced, and all drives and RAID volumes have been configured correctly, thus the blade will be able to boot the OS.

  12. Reinsert the Multi-Fabric NEM in slot NEM 1.

Replacing an Adaptec Host Bus Adapter

The procedure outlined for LSI host bus adapters is not needed for Adaptec host bus adapters.

procedure icon  To Replace an Adaptec Host Bus Adapter

  1. Install the new RAID 5 Expansion Module.

  2. Power on the server blade.

  3. During boot the Adaptec configuration utility indicates that foreign arrays (volumes) are found.

  4. Press Enter to accept the configuration change.

    The boot process continues. No further steps are required.



Sun Bladetrademark 6000 Disk Module Service Manual820-1703-13Table Of Contents Previous ChapterNext ChapterBook Index

Copyright © 2009, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.