C H A P T E R 3 |
Sun Advanced Lights Out Manager |
This chapter gives an overview of the Sun Advanced Lights Out Manager (ALOM) software. The chapter contains:
Both the Sun Fire V210 server and the Sun Fire V240 server are shipped with Sun Advanced Lights Out Manager (ALOM) 1.5.4 or a subsequently compatible version of ALOM software preinstalled. The system console is directed to ALOM by default and is configured to show server console information on startup.
For the latest up-to-date documentation about ALOM see the following web sites:
http://www.sun.com/server
http://docs.sun.com
Always download and use the latest version of ALOM that is compatible with the version of OpenBoot PROM you are using.
ALOM enables you to monitor and control your server through a serial connection (using the SERIAL MGT port), or Ethernet connection (using the NET MGT port).
Note - The ALOM serial port, labelled SERIAL MGT, is for server management only. If you need a general purpose serial port, use the serial port labeled 10101. |
ALOM can be configured to send email notification of hardware failures and other events related to the server or to ALOM.
If you have alerts configured for email delivery, ALOM waits for success or failure confirmation from email delivery before sending the next alert. This affects event alerts sent to the ALOM shell and to syslog. If mail alerts are incorrectly configured, this could result in significant delays. These delays do not occur if email alerts are not configured.
If you are experiencing delays in alerts, check to see that the values you entered for the mgt_mailhost and mgt_mailalert configuration variables are correct. For more information refer to ALOM online help.
Note - When a mail alert occurs and the mail host is unable to communicate with the network's naming service (for example, NIS), ALOM stops generating and logging messages. |
The ALOM circuitry uses standby power from the server. This means that:
See TABLE 3-1 for a list of components monitored by ALOM and the information it provides for each.
Presence, temperature, and any thermal warning or failure conditions |
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Ambient temperature and any thermal warning or failure conditions |
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Note - When you issue the showfru command from the ALOM command shell, the command does not read the layout of the DIMMs. |
Note - Automatic Server Restart is not the same as Automatic System Recovery (ASR), which the Sun Fire V210 and V240 servers also support. For additional information about Automatic System Recovery see, Section 6.11, Automatic System Recovery. |
Automatic Server Restart is a component of ALOM. It monitors the Solaris OS while it is running and, by default, synchronizes the file systems and restarts the server if it hangs.
ALOM uses a watchdog process to monitor the kernel only. ALOM does not restart the server if a process hangs and the kernel is still running. The ALOM watchdog parameters for the watchdog patting interval and watchdog time-out are not user configurable.
If the kernel hangs and the watchdog times out, ALOM reports and logs the event and performs one of three user-configurable actions.
For additional information see: http://docs.sun.com, search ALOM for the ALOM documentation.
The default management port is labeled SERIAL MGT. This port uses an RJ-45 connector and is for server management only--it supports only ASCII connections to an external console. Use this port when you first begin to operate the server.
Another serial port--labeled 10101-- is available for general purpose serial data transfer. This port uses a DB-9 connector.
In addition, the server has one 10BASE-T Ethernet management domain interface, labelled NET MGT. To use this port, ALOM configuration is required.
For additional information see: http://docs.sun.com
Search for ALOM to find the ALOM documentation.
When you switch to the ALOM prompt after initial power on, you are logged in as the admin user and prompted to set a password. You must set this password in order to execute certain commands.
If you are prompted to do so, set a password for the admin user.
Once the password is set, the admin user has full permissions and can execute all ALOM CLI commands.
This section covers some basic ALOM functions.
Tip - For additional information see: http://docs.sun.com. Search for ALOM to find the ALOM documentation. |
Note - When you switch to the ALOM prompt, you are logged in with the userid "admin". See Section 3.3, Setting the admin Password. |
More than one ALOM user can be connected to the server console stream, but only one user is permitted to type input characters to the console.
If another user is logged on and has write capability, you will see the following message after issuing the console command:
To take console write capability away from another user, type:
If two users are running ALOM at the same time and one user issues the scadm resetrsc command for Solaris OS while the other user is updating ALOM firmware using either the scadm download command or the ALOM shell command flashupdate, the firmware could become corrupted and cause ALOM to be unusable.
If you have your console set to TTYB (10101) rather than to TTYA (the ALOM serial port, labeled SERIAL MGT), you may not see all the output from the console. This is because both OpenBoot PROM and Power-On Self-Test (POST) send diagnostic output to TTYA by default.
Copyright © 2004, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.