Creating a Bootable Array With the Sun Blade RAID 5 Expansion Module

A P P E N D I X B

As an installation option, you can choose to create a bootable array (bootable logical drive) and then install the Solaris operating system and the HBA driver onto that array (logical drive). This chapter describes how to set the Sun Blade T6340 to be the boot controller, and how to create a bootable array on a SPARC system.

Note - This appendix assumes that you are experienced with Solaris network installs.

Topics include:

About Creating a Bootable Array on a SPARC System

Creating a Bootable Array Task Map

Modifying the Miniroot Directory On the Install Server

Modifying the Product Installation Directory on the Install Server

Building a Logical Drive on Which to Install the Solaris OS

B.1 About Creating a Bootable Array on a SPARC System

These instructions describe how to use the Sun Blade RAID 5 Expansion Module to create boot disks for a SPARC system that will run the Solaris 10 OS with a network install server. Instructions for creating a bootable array with just the Live CD and no install server are also included. Creating a bootable array using an install server is suggested for larger sites.

The SUNWaac driver, which is required by Solaris to communicate with logical drives created on the Sun Blade RAID 5 Expansion Module, is not present on the install image. Because of this, you must manually add the driver. Manually adding the SUNWaac driver is necessary only if you want to boot directly off logical drives that are presented by the Sun Blade RAID 5 Expansion Module. Disks attached through a REM must be presented as logical volumes. They cannot be accessed directly.

B.2 Creating a Bootable Array Task Map

To create a bootable array for a SPARC system that will run the Solaris 10 OS, do the following:

1. Install and connect the HBA and disk drives.

See Replacing and Installing the Sun Blade RAID 5 Expansion Module.

2. Obtain the Live CD from the HBA ship kit or go to: http://support.intel.com/support/go/sunraid.htm

3. To create a bootable array using just the REM and Live CD (no install server), go to To Create a Logical Drive Without a Network Install Server.

To create a bootable array using the REM, Live CD, and install server (suggested for larger sites), continue with Step 4.

4. Install and configure a network install server, as described in Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Network Based Installations.

You can obtain this document by performing a search at:

http://docs.sun.com

5. Obtain the following packages from the Live CD or from http://support.intel.com/support/go/sunraid.htm,and copy them into a working directory on the install server:

SUNWaac

StorMan

SUNWgccruntime

Note - When you copy these packages to a working directory, ensure that you use the recursive copy command (cp -r). The packages are structured in a directory/file system format, so you need to copy the entire contents.

6. Modify two locations on the network install server:

The miniroot - The directory on the install server that is mounted as the root directory on client machines during the client machines’ installation process. See Modifying the Miniroot Directory On the Install Server.

The product installation directory - The directory on the network install server in which all other Solaris products will be installed during the network install. See Modifying the Product Installation Directory on the Install Server.

7. Build a logical drive on which to install the Solaris 10 5/08 OS.

See Building a Logical Drive on Which to Install the Solaris OS.

B.3 Modifying the Miniroot Directory On the Install Server

The miniroot is the Solaris image mounted on / during a network installation, and is used to provide a Solaris environment to run installation programs within.

To enable configuration of logical drives on the Sun StorageTek SAS RAID Internal HBA card and to enable booting via the logical drives, you must add three packages to the miniroot directory:

SUNWaac - The SUNWaac driver, which is required by the Solaris 10 5/08 OS to access logical drives.

SUNWgccruntime - The gcc runtime libraries, which are required by the command-line interface and the Sun Storagetek RAID Manager graphical user interface (GUI).

StorMan - The Sun StorageTek SAS RAID Internal HBA utilities package, which contains the command-line interface and Sun StorageTek RAID Manager GUI.

For information about obtaining these packages, see Creating a Bootable Array Task Map.

To Modify the Miniroot Directory

The examples in this procedure use install_dir_path to refer to the location where the network install image is located. This is the same directory path that you use with the setup_install_server command, as described in the Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Network Based Installations.

1. If the install server is running a version of the Solaris OS prior to Solaris 10 5/08, update the server with the appropriate Solaris patch:

Solaris 10 - patch 137321 (SPARC) or 137322 (x64)

Solaris 9 - patch 137477 (SPARC) or 137478 (x64)

You can download the patches from http://www.sunsolve.com.You must install the patch because the SUNWgccruntime package,which is one of the required packages on the miniroot directory, requires the presence of the p7zip compression program on the install server. This compression program is included in the Solaris 10 5/08 OS and in the patches described in this step.

2. Obtain the required packages, as described in Creating a Bootable Array Task Map.

3. As a root user, log into a SPARC architecture host (install server) from which you can run the pkgadd commands.

4. If you are installing the packages directly from the Live CD from the HBA ship kit, mount the Live CD and use the cd command to change to the Live CD directory.

# cd /cdrom/raid_live/s0/Raid_card

5. Use the pkgadd -R command to install the SUNWaac, SUNWgccruntime, and StorMan packages in the install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot directory.

Note - In the following example, the -R flag is directing the pkgadd command to use an alternate root so that the packages will be installed correctly onto the miniroot image. When you substitute your own directory path for install_dir_path, be sure to begin with a / to provide an absolute path name. Also note that -d. (dash d dot) syntax before the package names.

# pkgadd -R install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot -d. SUNWaac
# pkgadd -R install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot -d. SUNWgccruntime
# pkgadd -R install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Tools/Boot -d. StorMan

B.4 Modifying the Product Installation Directory on the Install Server

The product installation directory is the directory into which all other Solaris products will be installed during the network install. On the network install server, the directory is install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Product.

You must place a copy of the SUNWaac package in this product installation directory. Doing so enables you to add the SUNWaac driver to the client machine after other Solaris packages have been installed. Without the SUNWaac driver, logical drives, including boot drives, will not be accessible to the operating system, and booting the newly installed machine will fail.

To Modify the Product Installation Directory

1. Obtain the SUNWaac package, as described in Creating a Bootable Array Task Map.

2. Use the cp -r command to copy the SUNWaac package from the working directory to the install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Product directory on the install server.

# cp -r SUNWaac install_dir_path/Solaris_10/Product

The cp command places the package on a network-mounted directory that will be available to the install client. However, the command does not install the package. Installing the package is a manual step that you will perform after the installation of other Solaris software.

B.5 Building a Logical Drive on Which to Install the Solaris OS

Before you can install the Solaris OS, you need to build the logical drive (array) on which to install it. This section contains these topics:

To Create a Logical Drive Using a Network Install Server

To Create a Logical Drive Without a Network Install Server

To Delete a Logical Drive on the REM

To Label the Newly Created Logical Drive

Note - The following procedures provide basic examples of the command-line interface (CLI). For detailed information about using the CLI, see the Uniform Command-Line Interface User’s Guide, located at:
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/prod/stortek.raid.hba

To Create a Logical Drive Using a Network Install Server

Note - To create a logical drive using just the REM and Live CD, go to: To Create a Logical Drive Without a Network Install Server.

Note - The following procedure requires having a Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module installed and configured for RAID. To create a simple volume on just one hard drive, see To Create a Simple Volume Using Just One HDD.

1. Create a bootable array task map, see Creating a Bootable Array Task Map.

2. From the system console, boot over the network into single user mode.

ok boot net -s

3. At the system prompt, access the command-line interface (CLI), and use the ./arcconf GETCONFIG command to print a list of the complete configuration of card 1 on the system.

In the following example, note that the CLI is located in the /opt/StorMan directory, and the name of the CLI is aarconf. All commands must start with ./ unless you have altered the path to include /opt/StorMan in it.

# cd /opt/StorMan
# ./arcconf GETCONFIG 1

Note - Ignore any “failing to write to log files” messages that might be displayed after running the command. The command will run successfully and will provide a list of physical disks, card status, and logical disks. The list might be long if you have many physical disks.

4. Create a logical drive on the REM, using RAID 5 and all space on disks 0,2 0,3 and 0,4.

Run the CREATE command as shown in the following example.

# ./arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 5 0 2 0 3 0 4

Note - After using the CREATE command, you will see error messages like the one shown in the next example. This is because you are working on a read-only file system and certain links cannot be created. However, if the last message says “Command completed successfully”, the logical drive is created.

Creating logical device: Device 2
	devfsadm: mkdir failed for /dev 0x1ed: Read-only file system
	WARNING: /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/scsi@0/sd@2,0 (sd2):
	        Corrupt label; wrong magic number
 
	devfsadm: inst_sync failed for /etc/path_to_inst.117: Read-only file system
	devfsadm: WARNING: failed to update /etc/path_to_inst
 
	Command completed successfully.

5. Perform the necessary tasks to configure the drive. Such tasks might include the following:

Labeling the drive

Partitioning the drive

Preparing a file system

Installing data from backups or recovering data from RAID capabilities

Bringing the drive online

These tasks are covered in the Solaris OS administration documentation. For additional drive verification, use SunVTS. Refer to the SunVTS and Solaris documentation at http://docs.sun.com for details.

To Create a Logical Drive Without a Network Install Server

1. Using ILOM, obtain the IP address of the system console from the blade server:

sc> shownetwork
SC network configuration is:
IP Address: 10.6.214.63
Gateway address: 10.6.214.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Ethernet Address: 00:14:4F:E5:AD:6B

2. Type the IP address in the browser interface and select the Remote Control tab and the Launch Redirection option.

3. Insert the Live CD in the blade server you are working on, then select Devices/CDROM.

4. Insert the path to your CDROM drive.

5. On the host system, type the following from the OpenBoot PROM prompt and follow the directions:

ok boot cdrom

6. At the system prompt, access the command-line interface (CLI), and use the ./arcconf GETCONFIG command to print a list of the complete configuration of card 1 on the system.

# cd /opt/StorMan
# ./arcconf GETCONFIG 1

7. Create a logical drive on the REM, using RAID 5 and all space on disks 0,2 0,3 and 0,4.

Run the CREATE command as shown in the following example.

# ./arcconf CREATE 1 LOGICALDRIVE MAX 5 0 2 0 3 0 4

Creating logical device: Device 2
	devfsadm: mkdir failed for /dev 0x1ed: Read-only file system
	WARNING: /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/scsi@0/sd@2,0 (sd2):
	        Corrupt label; wrong magic number
 
	devfsadm: inst_sync failed for /etc/path_to_inst.117: Read-only file system
	devfsadm: WARNING: failed to update /etc/path_to_inst
 
	Command completed successfully.

8. To label the logical drive, see To Label the Newly Created Logical Drive.

To Label the Newly Created Logical Drive

Before the Solaris OS can install software onto the newly created logical drive, you must label the drive.

1. Use the ./arcconf GETCONFIG card-number LD command to display the logical drives on the REM.

# ./arcconf GETCONFIG 1 LD

2. Use the devfsadm command to find the newly created drive and load its drivers.

# devfsadm

3. To label the newly created drive, use the format command and select the logical drive.

You can distinguish the logical REM drives in the output by looking at the vendor/product ID string. The Sun Blade RAID 5 Expansion Module is displayed as “Sun-STKRAID.” The last part of the string will display “EXT” (for external) or “INT” (for internal), depending on the type of card you have.

# format
Searching for disks...done
 
 
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c0t0d0 <SUN72G cyl 14087 alt 2 hd 24 sec 424>
          /pci@780/pci@0/pci@9/scsi@0/sd@0,0
       1. c0t1d0 <SUN72G cyl 14087 alt 2 hd 24 sec 424>
          /pci@780/pci@0/pci@9/scsi@0/sd@1,0
       2. c2t0d0 <Sun-STKRAIDINT-V1.0 cyl 17818 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/scsi@0/sd@0,0
       3. c2t1d0 <Sun-STKRAIDINT-V1.0 cyl 8907 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/scsi@0/sd@1,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 2

4. When the format process displays the Disk not labeled. Label it now? prompt, type y and press Enter.

5. Exit the format process by typing quit and pressing Enter.

You now have a labeled logical drive.

6. Use the init 0 command, switch to the ok prompt, and use the boot net command to reboot the system for normal network-based installation.

# init 0
	# syncing file systems... done
	Program terminated
	r)eboot, o)k prompt, h)alt?o
	ok boot net

To Delete a Logical Drive on the REM

You might need to free up some space in order to create the logical drive on which the Solaris OS will be installed. You can do so by deleting existing logical drives.

Caution - Using the command in this procedure will destroy all data on the specified logical drive. Be very careful when using this command to prevent unintentional data loss.

To delete a logical drive on REM, use the DELETE card-number LOGICALDRIVE drive-number command.

In this example, x is the number of the logical drive that you want to delete.

# ./arcconf DELETE 1 LOGICALDRIVE x

B.6 Next Steps

Install the Solaris OS and the HBA driver onto the bootable array, as described in Appendix C.

B.6.1 Additional Information

For more information, refer to the following documents at: http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/dsk-cntrl

Uniform Command-Line Interface User’s Guide, 820-2145

Sun StorageTek RAID Manager Software User’s Guide, 820-1177

Sun StorageTek RAID Manager Software Release Notes, 820-2755

Sun StorageTek SAS RAID HBA Installation Guide Eight-Port, Internal HBA
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/820-1847-17

For Sun RAID controller drivers, firmware, and utilities including Sun StorageTek RAID Manager for SPARC (8/4/2008) Version 5.50, go to: http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sunraid/