Overview of Creating a Bootable Drive in a Preboot Environment

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As an installation option, you can choose to install the HBA into a system that does not yet have an OS installed. With this installation option, if you plan to use the HBA as your boot device, you can optionally create a RAID volume for the HBA. You can then install the OS onto a physical drive or onto that RAID volume to enable you to boot from the HBA. On a SPARC system, you would perform these actions through the FCode utility. On an x86 system, you would do so either through the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Drive Control menu of the BIOS Setup utility (UEFI booting) or through the BIOS Configuration utility (Legacy BIOS booting).

This section contains the following topics:

Utilities Overview

You can specify the HBA to be your boot device by using one of these utilities:

FCode utility - A utility that you can run on a SPARC system and that is accessible through the Open Boot PROM (OBP) environment. This utility consists of a set of special commands to display targets and manage RAID volumes.
UEFI menu of the BIOS Setup utility - A utility that you can run on an x86 system only if you have set your system BIOS to boot in UEFI BIOS mode (which you can specify through the Boot menu of the BIOS Setup utility). You can access this utility by pressing F2, when prompted, during bootup, and then using the right arrow key to navigate to the UEFI Driver Control menu at the top of the screen. The UEFI Driver Control menu provides a standard environment for booting an operating system, managing physical disks and RAID volumes, and running pre-boot applications.

Note - Some operating system versions do not support UEFI BIOS mode. For information about whether your operating system supports UEFI BIOS mode, see your system and operating system documentation.
BIOS Configuration utility - A legacy booting utility that you can run on an x86 system only if you have set your system BIOS to boot in legacy mode (which you can specify through the Boot menu of the BIOS Setup utility). You access this utility by typing Ctrl+C, when prompted, during bootup. This utility consists of a text-based user interface that enables you to manage physical disks and RAID volumes.

Note - Entering the BIOS Configuration utility (even if you make no changes in the utility) might cause the system boot order list, provided by the system BIOS, to reset. To ensure that the boot order is accurate after exiting the utility, access the server mainboard BIOS during the next reboot of the system. Review the boot order list to verify that the order is correct, and make any changes, if necessary. This will occur each time you enter the utility.

Methods For Creating a Bootable Drive

Based on the type of system in which you are installing the HBA (SPARC or x86), follow the procedures in one of these sections:

If you are installing the HBA into a SPARC system, go to Creating a Bootable Drive (SPARC).
If you are installing the HBA into an x86 system, go to Creating a Bootable Drive (x86).