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C H A P T E R  2
Platform-Specific Considerations

This chapter explains specific system considerations, requirements and limitations that apply when installing and using Sun Management Center on Netra systems.

The chapter contains the following sections:


Note - There are additional specific considerations for the Netra t 1120/1125 and the Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 servers. See Netra t 1120/1125 Considerations and Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 Considerations for further information.


Alarms Notifications

You must install the Netra-specific alarms software and other platform-specific packages to ensure that the complete functionality of the Sun Management Center Supplement for Netra Servers is available. If this software is not installed, rule rcr4u228 will trigger a critical alarm, and the Netra-specific alarms will not be available.

Rule rcr4u228 supports a single parameter that enables you to specify whether an alarm should be raised when this software has not been installed. Refer to FIGURE 2-1.

If this alarm is triggered, you must re-install the alarms or other prerequisite software as described in the appropriate Installation Guide as listed in the Preface.


Note - The tsalarms software (Netra t 1120/1125) is referred to within Sun Management Center as LOM.


This rule supports a single parameter that enables you to specify whether you want an alarm to be raised on missing alarms and other platform-specific packages.

You can set the parameter using the Alarm tab of the Attribute Editor. Launch this by right-clicking on the Module Status property in the System table (refer to FIGURE 2-1), as described in chapter 9 of the Sun Management Center 3.5 Users Guide.

 FIGURE 2-1 Setting the Rule rcr4u228 Parameter

Screenshot of the Attribute Editor showing how to set the Rule rcr4u228 parameter.

Known Limitations of Alarms Notifications For Netra Servers

Lights Out Management (LOM) Reporting

The LOM event log lists the oldest event as event(0).

Power Supply Reporting

On Netra servers, power supplies (PSUs) are checked only internally for integrity. A loss of input power is reported as such, but the PSUs are flagged as OK because they do not actually have a fault themselves. There is no differentiation between AC and DC power supplies.

Netra t 1120/1125 Considerations

This section contains considerations relating specifically to the Netra t 1120/1125.

Checking the OpenBoot PROM

Some Netra t 1120 and Netra t 1125 systems require an upgrade to the OpenBoot PROM. If the Sun Management Center extension for Netra servers is installed on a system that requires such an upgrade, significant functionality will be unavailable, including the physical and logical hardware views, or the platform will be misidentified as an Ultra 60 workstation.

If the physical and logical hardware views are not available on a Netra t 1120 or 1125, or the platform is misidentified as an Ultra 60 workstation, check the OpenBoot PROM as described below to ensure that the correct version is used and that it is configured correctly.


procedure icon  To Check the OpenBoot PROM

single-step bulletAs root, type: 

# eeprom banner-name

  • If the result is: 

    • banner-name=Netra t 1120/1125

you need take no further action and can proceed directly to the installation process as described in Chapter 3.
  • If the result is: 

    • banner-name=<message>

where <message> can be anything else, including nothing at all, type:
# eeprom banner-name='Netra t 1120/1125'

# reboot

You must restart the system as shown before installing Sun Management Center as described in Chapter 3.
  • If the result is: 

    • banner-name: data not available

you must upgrade the PROM. Refer to the documentation accompanying the system for instructions, or contact your local Sun representative.

Known Limitations For The Netra t 1120/1125

PSU Fan Status Reporting

The status of the PSU fans is reported as OK when the tsalarms software has been configured to ignore the status of the PSU fans.

You should check the file /kernel/drv/tsalarm.conf. If there is a line in this file reading monvalidmask=255, the PSU fans will be monitored correctly. If there is no such line in the file, or the line exists but the number is different, change or add the line to read monvalidmask=255. A reboot or modunload(1M) and then modload(1M) is required for the change to become effective. See tsalarm(7D).


Note - On early Netra t 1120/1125 systems, the PSU fan status is not monitored. For these systems, setting tsalarm.conf as described above can cause the PSU fans to be reported as faulty. If, on setting tsalarm.conf as described above, both PSU fans are reported as faulty and the fans are visibly spinning, it is likely that you have an older Netra t 1120/1125. You should set tsalarm.conf back to its previous settings. In this case, the PSU fans are always reported by Sun Management Center as OK.


Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 Considerations

This section contains considerations relating specifically to the Sun Fire V1280/
Netra 1280 server.

Known Limitations For The Sun Fire V1280/
Netra 1280

Sun Management Center FRUID Information Updates Are Slow

The implementation for the Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 retrieves FRUID information from the Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 service controller using a communication channel that has limited bandwidth. The implementation makes use of a caching mechanism that retrieves this information periodically once startup is complete. During startup, the FRUID information might not yet be available, in which case the relevant information will appear as "Reading...". The time to complete retrieval of all FRUID information for the entire platform depends on the configuration of the platform, and might take up to two hours.

IO Devices and IO Controllers Tables Are Handled Differently From Other Platforms

The Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 implementation differs from other platform implementations in the following ways:

  • The IO Controllers table is not used.

  • The IO Devices table is used to list PCI cards but the disk, tape and network count attributes are not used.

  • External devices, such as disks and tapes that are not physically in the
    Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 chassis, are not monitored by the add-on.

Hardware Information is Not Available While Dynamic Reconfiguration is in Progress

See the Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 System Administration Guide for details of the command line interface for dynamic reconfiguration. The dynamic reconfiguration add-on included in the Sun Management Center product is not supported on the
Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 server.

The implementation for Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 retrieves hardware status information from the Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 service controller using a communication channel that can only have one request pending at any time. This communication channel is used both for dynamic reconfiguration requests and hardware status requests, so no hardware status information is available during reconfiguration.

When the dynamic reconfiguration request completes, the communication channel is available again and the Sun Management Center browser, logical and physical views will be displayed again.

A Built-in Tape Drive Fails to Appear in
Sun Management Center 3.5 Views

Solaris loads and unloads device drivers dynamically when they are needed. If the tape device driver is not loaded when the agent queries the underlying Solaris instrumentation interfaces, Sun Management Center will not find the tape drive.



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