Sun Fire(TM) 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Firmware 5.15.3 Release Notes

Sun Fire

6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Firmware 5.15.3 Release Notes

This document provides information on new and revised features, as well as late-breaking news, for firmware release 5.15.0 and the 5.15.3 patch release on Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 systems. These Release Notes contain the same information as the 5.15.0 Release Notes, plus information about the 5.15.3 release added and clearly marked.

This document contains the following information:

General Information - Patch 5.15.3

Features Introduced in 5.15.0

General Information - 5.15.0

Known Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Limitations

General Information - Patch 5.15.3

Be sure to review the README file that accompanies the 5.15.3 patch. These release notes supplement the information provided in the 5.15.3 README file.

Required Solaris Updates and Patches

The 5.15.3 release requires that the following Solaris kernel updates and patches be installed on your system domains:

For domains running the Solaris 8 operating environment, apply both S8 KU24 (patch 108528-24) and Solaris patch 110373-05.

For domains running Solaris 9 operating environment or a Solaris 9 update earlier than Solaris 9 12/03, apply S9 KU9 (patch 112233-09) and Solaris patch 116009-01.

For domains that will run the Solaris 9 12/03 update once it is available, note that no additional patches are currently required.

Domain Diagnosis Events

Starting with the 5.15.3 release, certain non-fatal domain hardware errors are identified by the Solaris operating environment and reported to the system controller. The system controller does the following:

Records and maintains this information for the affected domain resources as part of the component health status.

Reports this information through domain diagnosis [DOM] event messages displayed on the domain console or domain loghost, provided that domain loghosts have been configured.

The next time that POST is run, POST reviews the health status of affected resources and if possible, deconfigures the appropriate resources from the system.

CODE EXAMPLE 1 shows a domain diagnosis event message for a non-fatal domain error. When you see such event messages, contact your service provider so that the appropriate service action can be initiated.

[DOM] Event: SF6800.L2SRAM.SERD.2.f.1b.10040000000091.f4470000 CSN: 044M347B DomainID: A ADInfo: 1.SF-SOLARIS-DE.build:05/29/03 Time: Mon Jun 02 23:34:59 PDT 2003 FRU-List-Count: 1; FRU-PN: 3704125; FRU-SN: 090K01; FRU-LOC: /N0/SB3/P3/E0 Recommended-Action: Service action required

CODE EXAMPLE 1 Domain Diagnosis Event Message - Non-Fatal Domain Hardware Error

[DOM] Event: SF6800.L2SRAM.SERD.2.f.1b.10040000000091.f4470000

      CSN: 044M347B DomainID: A ADInfo: 1.SF-SOLARIS-DE.build:05/29/03

      Time: Mon Jun 02 23:34:59 PDT 2003

      FRU-List-Count: 1; FRU-PN: 3704125; FRU-SN: 090K01; FRU-LOC: /N0/SB3/P3/E0

      Recommended-Action: Service action required

The diagnosis event message includes the following information:

[DOM]- Beginning of the domain diagnosis message. [DOM] indicates that the Solaris operating environment on the affected domain generated the automatic diagnosis event message.

Event - The event code, a dash-separated alphanumeric text string that uniquely identifies an event type. This code is used by your service provider to obtain further information about the event and the platform involved.

CSN - Chassis serial number, which identifies your Sun Fire midrange system.

DomainID - The domain affected by the hardware error.

ADInfo - The version of the auto-diagnosis message, the name of the diagnosis engine involved (in this case the Solaris operating environment, SF-SOLARIS-DE) and the version of the diagnosis engine (the version of the Solaris operating environment in use).

Time - The day of the week, month, date, time (hours, minutes, and seconds), time zone, and year of the auto-diagnosis.

FRU-List-Count - The number of components (FRUs) involved with the error and the following FRU data:

If a single component is implicated, the FRU part number, serial number, and location are displayed, as CODE EXAMPLE 1 shows.

If multiple components are implicated, the FRU part number, serial number, and location for each component involved are reported.

In some cases, be aware that not all the FRUs listed are necessarily faulty. The fault may reside in a subset of the components identified.

Recommended-Action: Service action required - Instructs the platform or domain administrator to contact their service provider for further service action. Also indicates the end of the auto-diagnosis event message.

Capacity on Demand (COD) - Instant Access CPUs as Hotspares

You can now temporarily enable an available, instant-access CPU (also referred to as headroom) to replace a failed non-COD CPU. In this case, the instant access CPU is considered as a hotspare, which is a spare CPU that can be used immediately to replace a failed non-COD CPU. However, once you replace the failed non-COD CPU, you must deactivate the instant access CPU as explained in the "Capacity on Demand" chapter of the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Platform Administration Manual (part number 817-0999-10). Contact your Sun sales representative or reseller to purchase a COD RTU license for the instant access CPU in use if you want to continue using it.

Features Introduced in 5.15.0

This section provides a brief description of new features in 5.15.0. For detailed information on 5.15.0 features, refer to the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Platform Administration Manual (part number 817-0999-10) and the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 System Controller Command Reference Manual (part number
817-1000-10).

Automatic Diagnosis and Domain Restoration

The following automatic diagnosis and domain restoration capabilities are enabled by default:

Auto-diagnosis (AD) engine

The AD engine detects and diagnoses hardware errors that affect the availability of a platform and its domains. The AD engine analyzes a hardware error and if possible, identifies the field-replaceable units (FRUs) associated with the hardware error. The AD engine records the diagnosis information for the affected components and maintains this information as part of the component health status (CHS).

Auto-diagnosis information is reported through platform and domain event messages. When you see auto-diagnosis event messages, contact your service provider so that the appropriate service action can be initiated.

Auto-restoration of paused domains

After auto-diagnosis, a domain that was paused due to a hardware error will be automatically rebooted. If possible, any components associated with the hardware error are also disabled (deconfigured) from the system.

For further information, see the "Diagnosis and Domain Restoration" chapter in the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Platform Administration Manual.

Automatic Recovery of Hung Domains

The system controller automatically monitors domains for hangs in which a domain does not respond to interrupts or a domain heartbeat stops within a designated timeout period. When the hang policy parameter of the setupdomain command is set to reset, the system controller automatically performs an externally initiated reset (XIR) and reboots the hung domain. For additional information, see the "Diagnosis and Domain Restoration" chapter in the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Platform Administration Manual.

Component Location Status

The physical location of a component, such as slots for CPU/Memory boards or slots for I/O assemblies, can be used to manage hardware resources that are configured into or out of the system. A component location has either a disabled or enabled state, which is referred to as the component location status. You can enable or disable components based on their physical location in the system. You change a component location status through the setls command.

The setls command replaces the disablecomponent and enablecomponent commands, which were previously used to disable and enable components, respectively.

Note - Sun recommends that you use the setls command rather than the disablecomponent and enablecomponent commands, even though those commands are still supported in 5.15.0.

For additional information, see the "Introduction" chapter in the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Platform Administration Manual.

Domain HostID/MAC Address Swap

A new setupplatform parameter called HostID/MAC Address Swap, enables you to swap the HostID/MAC address of one domain with another. This feature is useful when host-licensed software is tied to a particular domain HostID and MAC address, but you need to run that host-licensed software on another domain. You can swap the domain HostID/MAC address with that of an available domain and then run the host-licensed software on the available domain, without encountering license restrictions tied to the original HostID/MAC address.

Note - If you swap the HostID/MAC addresses between a pair of domains, but you need to downgrade to an earlier firmware release, you must restore the original domain HostID/MAC addresses before performing the downgrade. For details, refer to the "General Administration" chapter in the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Platform Administration Manual and the Install.info file included with the firmware.

Commands New for 5.15.0

The setls command replaces the enablecomponent and disablecomponent commands, which have been deprecated starting with the 5.15.0 release. For details, refer to the setls command description in the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 System Controller Command Reference Manual.

Commands Modified for 5.15.0

The following SC commands were changed in 5.15.0:

disablecomponent - Deprecated but still supported. Use the setls command instead.

enablecomponent - Deprecated but still supported. Use the setls command instead.

setupdomain - Removed the error-diagnosis parameter. The error diagnosis feature is now enabled by default.

setupplatform -p hostid - New HostID/MAC Address Swap parameter.

showcomponent - The POST status includes a new value called chs (component health status). The chs value for a disabled component indicates that further service action is required by your service provider.

showdomain - Removed the error-diagnosis parameter.

showplatform -p hostid - New HostID/MAC address mapping mode parameter.

General Information - 5.15.0

Sensor Status Messages

In 5.15.0, the following types of status messages are displayed on the platform console when sensors detect an abnormal condition for a component:

An over limit status message indicates that the value is outside the acceptable range for the component. For example:

/NO/SB0, sensor status, over limit (7,1,0x201000d00050000)

An under limit status message indicates that the value is within the acceptable range for the component. For example:

/NO/SB0, sensor status, under limit (7,2,0x201000d00050000)

Firmware Compatibility

System boards with 5.12.x firmware are compatible with those running 5.13.0 through 5.15.x firmware; system boards running 5.11.x are not. You can check the firmware compatibility of your boards by running the
showboards -p version -v command. COD boards must run a firmware version that supports COD, which was introduced in firmware release 5.14.0.

The information displayed indicates whether the firmware for each board is compatible with the ScApp version running on the SC. For details on verifying firmware compatibility, refer to the Install.info file included with this firmware release and the showboards command description in the Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 System Controller Command Reference Manual.

To simplify system administration, update all your system boards to the same firmware version. Activate the new firmware version on your domains as soon as possible by running the setkeyswitch off and setkeyswitch on commands. For details on updating your system firmware, see the release-specific Install.info file included with each release of the firmware.

Firmware Upgrade and Downgrade

Instructions for upgrading firmware are provided in the Install.info file included with this firmware release. The Install.info file also contains instructions for downgrading to an earlier version of the firmware.

Caution - If you have a redundant system controller (SC) configuration, you must first upgrade the firmware on the spare SC, then on the main SC, as explained in the Install.info file.

Power Supply Failures

In some cases powering off or powering on a power supply after you upgrade to firmware version 5.15.x can cause a power supply fault. The power supply failure might exhibit the following characteristics:

Only the amber fault LED of the power supply is illuminated.

The showboards command output identifies the Status for the power supply as Failed or the Component Type as No Grid Power.

Use the following workarounds to resolve the power supply failure. Start with
Workaround 1. If this workaround is unsuccessful, perform Workaround 2. If the second workaround is unsuccessful, perform Workaround 3.

Workaround 1 - Turn the power supply switch off and then on. However, if you have a Sun Fire 6800 system, perform Workaround 2 instead, as the power supplies do not have a switch.

Workaround 2 - Remove the failed power supply from the system, wait 20 seconds, then put it back in. If its green activated LED is not the only LED illuminated, repeat the procedure until only the green activated LED is illuminated. Several attempts may be necessary.

Workaround 3 - Reboot the SC, then use the power on command to turn on the power supply.

Known Sun Fire 6800/4810/4800/3800 Systems Limitations

This section describes only those bugs with potentially significant impact. The README file lists all bugs, including those seen only internally at Sun.

SC Hangs After Automatic `setkeyswitch off` (RFE 4454599)

Manual reset of the SC has no effect.

Workaround: Do the following:

1. Connect to each active domain through a network connection, such as telnet or rlogin.

2. Shut down each domain, if possible.

3. Power down the Sun Fire system, then power it up again.

No LED Fault Indicator on System Board After the Board Fails POST (RFE 4454623)

Workaround: Run the showlogs or showboards command (from the platform shell) to show errors and the test status of a faulty system board.

`setls enable` Does Not Work Immediately After Installing the Solaris Operating Environment (BugID 4902782)

If you perform a setls operation immediately after installing the Solaris operating environment on a domain, the operation may not take effect at the next domain reboot, board power cycle, or execution of POST.

Workaround: After the setls operation, run the setkeyswitch off and then setkeyswitch on commands.