C H A P T E R 8

Controlling the Booting Behavior of a Server Blade

This chapter contains the following sections:

Section 8.1, Introduction

Section 8.2, Boot Modes Available

8.1 Introduction

Note - You must have r-level user permission on the System Controller to use the bootmode command. For information about user privileges, see Chapter 3.

You can control the booting behavior of a server blade by using the bootmode command at the sc> prompt on the System Controller. The functionality of this command is similar to the functionality available on Sun keyboards via the L1 key combinations. However, the bootmode command is provided because the L1 key combinations are not available for server blades.

The syntax for the bootmode command is as follows:

bootmode [reset_nvram|diag|skip_diag|normal|bootscript="string"] {blade list}

where the blade list is a space-separated list of the blades (each identified by the character `s' followed by a slot number) whose booting you want to configure.

The command-line options (reset_nvram, diag, skip_diag|normal, and bootscript="string") are as described in Section 8.2, Boot Modes Available.

8.2 Boot Modes Available

If you use the bootmode command without arguments, the System Controller reports the current boot mode for each blade and the time that it will expire.

Note - If you use the bootmode command to make any change to the booting behavior of a blade, you must reset the blade or blades concerned within 10 minutes of running the bootmode command. Otherwise the boot mode for the blade or blades will revert to the parameter setting normal. For information about resetting a server blade, see Chapter 2.

The boot modes available are listed in TABLE 8-1.


Mode	Description
`normal`	If you run `bootmode` with this parameter, the server blade or server blades specified will boot using the settings that are currently configured for their OpenBoot^TM PROM parameters or BIOS parameters. For the command to take effect, you must reset the blade or blades within 10 minutes of executing the command (to reset blades, see Chapter 2).
`reset_nvram`	If you run `bootmode` with this parameter, the server blade or server blades specified will have their nvram or CMOS settings restored to their factory default settings. The command is equivalent to the L1-N key combination for Sun keyboards. For the command to take effect, you must reset the blade or blades within 10 minutes of executing the command (to reset blades, see Chapter 2).
`diag`	If you run `bootmode` with this parameter, the server blade or server blades specified will perform full self-diagnostics as part of the boot process. With Solaris, the command is equivalent to the L1-D key combination for Sun keyboards. For the command to take effect, you must power cycle the blade or blades within 10 minutes of executing the command (to reset blades, see Chapter 2).
`skip_diag`	If you run `bootmode` with this parameter, the server blade or blades will skip the diagnostics part of the boot process. For the command to take effect, you must reset the blade or blades within 10 minutes of executing the command (to reset blades, see Chapter 2).
bootscript=scriptboot net boot disk boot hdd0 boot snet0 boot snet1	If you run `bootmode` with this parameter, you must specify a string containing the OBP commands that you want the blade or blades to execute before starting to boot. In the following example, the `bootscript` parameter is used to make the blades in slots s0, s1, and s2 boot from the network: `sc>bootmode bootscript="boot net - install" s0 s1 s2`sc>poweron s0 s1 s2 For blades running Linux or Solaris x86, only the following bootscript parameters are supported: boot net boot disk boot hdd0 boot snet0 boot snet1