Chapter 7 Sun Enterprise 10000 Release Notes

This chapter contains the release notes for the following features on the Sun Enterprise 10000 server: SSP 3.5, dynamic reconfiguration (DR), InterDomain Networks (IDNs), and the Solaris operating environment on Sun Enterprise 10000 domains.

SSP 3.5 Open Issues

For an overview of updated functionality in SSP 3.5, including open and fixed bugs, refer to the SSP 3.5 Installation Guide and Release Notes.

Check the SunSolve website on a regular basis for the SSP patches available for SSP 3.5:

http://sunsolve.Sun.com

If you need to install SSP software patches, be sure to install the patches on both the main and spare SSP, as explained in the SSP 3.5 Installation Guide and Release Notes.

For the Solaris 8 2/02 release, be aware that SSP Patch 112178-01 has been applied to the SSP 3.5 software. This patch fixes bug 4505031, which involves the repeated display of a prompt that asks whether the system is to be configured as an SSP for the Sun Enterprise 10000 server. This prompt appears after the installation of the Solaris operating environment. The patch does not affect basic SSP 3.5 software functionality.

machine_server Memory Leaks during multiple hpost Operations (Bug ID 4493987)

Memory leaks related to the machine_server daemon can occur after multiple hpost processes.

Workaround: If SSP performance is affected by this memory leak, stop and start SSP daemons. As superuser on the main SSP, type:

ssp# /etc/init.d/ssp stop
ssp# /etc/init.d/ssp start

showdevices Does Not Display Base Memory Address for System Board (Bug ID 4495747)

This bug causes the showdevices command to display incorrect memory base address information. See also BugID 4497243.

Workaround: Use rcfgadm along with the -av options to display memory base address information.

Dynamic Reconfiguration

Release notes and other technical information in this section apply only to the Solaris 8 2/02 version of the Sun Enterprise 10000 dynamic reconfiguration (DR) feature.

General Issues

This section contains general issues that involve DR on the Sun Enterprise 10000 server. You should read this section before you attempt to install or configure DR.

DR and Bound User Processes

For Solaris 8 2/02, DR no longer automatically unbinds user processes from CPUs that are being detached. Users are now required to perform this operation themselves before initiating a detach sequence. The drain operation fails if CPUs are found with bound processes.

Problem with oprom_checknodeid() during DR (4474330)

A panic can occur under certain circumstances when the /dev/openprom interface accesses the PROM device tree after a DR disconnect. The openprom driver caches node information that can become invalid after a DR disconnect. As a result, OpenBoot PROM can be passed a bad node address.

Workaround: To minimize the possibility of encountering this situation, discontinue using applications, such as prtconf, that use the /dev/openprom interface during or immediately before or after a DR disconnect operation. Note that picld(1M) uses the /dev/openprom driver.

QFE Fails to Resume After DR Detach (4499428)

After the qfe driver is suspended during a DR operation quiesce of the Solaris operating environment, the qfe driver might not resume correctly. This results in a loss of network connectivity. If this condition occurs, the domain will still be accessible through the network console from the SSP.

Workaround: Reset the qfe device by executing the following sequence of commands from the network console:

Where qfe_device is the affected qfe device, e.g. qfe0.

Enabling DR 3.0 Requires an Extra Step in Certain Situations (Bug ID 4507010)

If you upgrade or perform a fresh install of the Solaris operating environment on a domain before you upgrade the SSP to SSP 3.5, the domain will not be properly configured for DR 3.0.

Workaround: Run the following command as superuser on the domain, after the SSP has been upgraded to SSP 3.5. This workaround is not necessary until DR 3.0 is enabled on the domain.

# devfsadm -i ngdr

InterDomain Networks (IDN)

General Issues

For a domain to become part of an IDN, all boards in that domain that have active memory must have at least one active CPU.

Solaris Operating Environment

This section contains general issues, known bugs, patches, and notes about the Solaris 8 2/02 operating environment on the Sun Enterprise 10000 server.

General Issues

Alternate Pathing (AP), dynamic reconfiguration (DR), and InterDomain Networks are supported in the Solaris 8 2/02 release.

If you intend to use DR model 3.0 on a Sun Enterprise 10000 domain, you must install SSP 3.5 on your System Service Processor before you begin the fresh install or upgrade of the Solaris 8 2/02 operating environment on that domain. SSP 3.5 supports the Solaris 8 2/02 operating environment on Sun Enterprise 10000 domains.

Do not use the Solaris 8 2/02 Installation CD to install or upgrade the Solaris operating environment on Sun Enterprise 10000 domains. Begin installation from the Solaris 8 2/02 Software 1 of 2 CD, as explained in the SSP 3.5 Installation Guide and Release Notes.

Solaris 8 2/02 and Boot-Disk Partition Sizes

If you are upgrading the operating environment from Solaris 2.6 to Solaris 8 2/02 and you used the partition layout suggested in the SMCC Hardware Platform Guide Solaris 2.6, the partitions may not be large enough for the upgrade. For instance, the /usr partition must be at least 653 megabytes. If /usr is smaller than the size needed to perform the upgrade, suninstall uses the Dynamic Space Reallocation (DSR) mode to reallocate the space of the disk partitions.

DSR may calculate a partition layout which is not acceptable for some systems. For instance, DSR may select partitions that appear to DSR as being unused (non-UFS partitions which may contain raw data or other types of file systems). If DSR selects a used partition, data loss may occur. Therefore, you must know the current status of the partitions DSR wants to use before you allow DSR to continue with the reallocation of the disk partitions.

After DSR presents an acceptable layout and you choose to proceed with the reallocation, DSR adjusts the affected file systems, and the upgrade continues. However, if you cannot constrain the layout so that it is acceptable for your needs, then you may need to manually repartition the boot device, or you may have to perform a fresh install.

OpenBoot PROM Variables

Before you perform the boot net command from the OpenBoot PROM prompt (ok), you must verify that the local-mac-address? variable is set to false, which is the factory default. If the variable is set to true, you must ensure that this value is an appropriate local configuration.

If local-mac-address? is set to true, it may prevent the domain from successfully booting over the network.

In a netcon(1M) window, you can use the following command at the OpenBoot PROM prompt to display the values of the OpenBoot PROM variables:

ok printenv

To Set the local-mac-address? Variable

1. If the variable is set to true, use the setenv command to set it to false.

   ok setenv local-mac-address? false