Firmware Issues

This section describes issues related to the system firmware.

Proving Physical Presence When Recovering a Lost Oracle ILOM SP Password

The Oracle ILOM documentation includes instructions for recovering a lost SP password. During the procedure, you are instructed to log in to the SP over a serial connection using the default user account. You will then be asked to prove that you are physically at the system.

To prove physical presence, insert an unbent paperclip into the pinhole to the left of the NET0 Ethernet port.

After proving that you are physically at the system, continue with the procedure to recover the lost SP password. Refer to the Oracle ILOM documentation for the complete instructions.

Oracle ILOM break Followed By OBP sync Will Result in an Aborted Panic Dump (CR 6923763)

If you shut down the system using the following Oracle ILOM break command:

-> set /HOST send_break_action=break

And then try to force the system to create a crash dump file using the OpenBoot PROM sync command, you will timeout and you will see a dump aborted error message. A crash dump file will not be saved.

Workaround: Use the following Oracle ILOM command to shut down the system and save a crash dump file:

-> set /HOST send_break_action=dumpcore

sas2flash Utility Fails When Six or More Sun Storage 6 Gb SAS RAID PCIe HBAs, External, Are Installed (CR 6983246)

The LSI Corporation sas2flash utility fails when there are six or more Sun Storage 6 Gb SAS RAID PCIe HBAs, External, installed in the system. For example, when attempting to list the HBAs using the sas2flash -listall command, you might see the following error message:

6   SAS2008(??)         ERROR: Failed to Upload Image!
-----------  ---------- ERROR: Failed to Upload Image!

Workaround: Install five or less Sun Storage 6 Gb SAS RAID PCIe HBAs, External, in the system.

Oracle Solaris OS Fails to Update EEPROM for Automatic Rebooting When diag-switch? is Set to true (CR 6982060)

When installing the Oracle Solaris OS to a device when the OPB diag-switch? parameter is set to true, the Oracle Solaris OS installer fails to update the boot-device parameter with the new device path where the OS was installed. Therefore, this new device path will not be used during the subsequent automatic system reboots.

When attempting to install the Oracle Solaris OS to a device when the diag-switch? parameter is set to true, the server will display the following error message and you will not be able to reboot from the device:

Installing boot information
        - Installing boot blocks (cxtxdxsx)
        - Installing boot blocks (/dev/rdsk/cxtxdxsx)
        - Updating system firmware for automatic rebooting
WARNING: Could not update system for automatic rebooting

On previous systems, the OBP diag-device parameter used to set the new device path to the boot device when the diag-switch? parameter was set to true. On SPARC T3 systems, the diag-device parameter is no longer supported and the Oracle Solaris OS installer warns that setting the OBP boot-device parameter is not possible.

Workaround: From the Oracle ILOM prompt, set the OBP diag-switch? parameter to false:

-> set /HOST/bootmode script="setenv diag-switch? false"

Alternatively, you can set this parameter at the OBP ok prompt:

ok setenv diag-switch? false

Four or Fewer Sun Dual 10 GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapters Are Supported (CR 6977073)

On servers with more than four Sun Dual 10 GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 Low Profile adapters, the 10 GbE driver (ixgbe) cannot attach all of the available 10 GbE ports. The ixgbe driver currently uses too much direct memory access (DMA) memory and input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) space per driver instance. Therefore, on systems with more than four 10 GbE cards, the ixgbe driver runs out of memory and will fail to attach all of the available 10 GbE ports.

Workaround: Install four or fewer Sun Dual 10 GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 Low Profile adapters into the server.

Additionally, you must install the Sun Dual 10 GbE SFP+ PCIe 2.0 Low Profile adapters into specific server PCIe2 slots. Install no more than two adapters in the following even-numbered PCIe2 slots: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8. Install no more than two additional adapters into the odd-numbered PCIe2 slots: 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9.

Memory Allocation Issues With Multiple Emulex 8 Gb FC HBAs in an Attached Magma EB7-X8G2-RAS I/O Box (CR 6982072)

When four or more Sun StorageTek 8 Gb FC PCI-Express HBAs, Emulex, are used with a Magma EB7-X8G2-RAS I/O expansion box, memory allocation errors might occur. The following examples show the types of messages that might be logged in the /var/adm/messages file when experiencing these memory allocation issues.

date time machinename emlxs: [ID 349649 kern.info] [13.02D8]emlxs19:
NOTICE: 200: Adapter initialization. (Firmware update not needed.)
date time machinename emlxs: [ID 349649 kern.info] [13.02D8]emlxs24:
NOTICE: 200: Adapter initialization. (Firmware update not needed.)
date time machinename emlxs: [ID 349649 kern.info] [13.02D8]emlxs22:
NOTICE: 200: Adapter initialization. (Firmware update not needed.)
date time machinename emlxs: [ID 349649 kern.info] [13.02D8]emlxs20:
NOTICE: 200: Adapter initialization. (Firmware update not needed.)
date time machinename emlxs: [ID 349649 kern.info] [ B.1CE4]emlxs22:
ERROR: 301: Memory alloc failed. (ddi_dma_addr_bind_handle failed: 
status=ffffffff count=1 size=400 align=20 flags=11)
date time machinename emlxs: [ID 349649 kern.info] [ B.1CE4]emlxs20:
ERROR: 301: Memory alloc failed. (ddi_dma_addr_bind_handle failed: 
status=ffffffff count=1 size=400 align=20 flags=11)

Workaround: Install no more than three Sun StorageTek 8 Gb FC PCI-Express HBAs, Emulex in a Magma EB7-X8G2-RAS I/O expansion box connected to the system.

System Hangs During Boot Process (CR 6956116)

Under rare conditions, the system might hang during the boot process after only displaying the SunOS 5.10 banner message. The SunOS banner message is similar to the following:

SunOS Release 5.10 Version 6956116_142909-17 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Workaround: Reboot the system. If another hang occurs, contact your service representative for assistance.

cdrom Device Alias Missing From OpenBoot PROM (CR 7019439)

The cdrom device alias is missing from the SPARC T3-2 server OpenBoot PROM (OBP). You cannot currently use the boot cdrom OBP command to boot a disk in the server's DVD drive. The cdrom device alias will be added in a future firmware update.

Workaround: You can use the dvd device alias to boot either a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM:

ok boot dvd

You can also use the nvalias OBP command create a new cdrom device alias:

ok nvalias cdrom  /pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@e/scsi@0/disk@p7
ok boot cdrom