1 Introduction and Installation of Sun Prestoserve

The Sun Microsystems Prestoserve product provides a new approach to accelerating system performance. It reduces the frequency of disk I/O access by caching the written data blocks in non-volatile memory. Prestoserve then flushes the cached data to disk asynchronously.

In addition to introducing you to Prestoserve, this chapter provides hardware installation procedures that are specific for the SBus Prestoserve card.

1.1 Task Map

The installation procedure differs depending on your operating system. Use the information in to determine which installation chapter is appropriate for your system.

Table 1-1 Installation Task Map

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Activity                                                               Chapter
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Introduction to the Prestoserve hardware                               1
                                                                       
Installation of Prestoserve hardware                                   1
                                                                       
Installation of Prestoserve software for SunOS 4.x operating system    2
                                                                       
Installation of Prestoserve software for Solaris 2.x operating system  3
                                                                       
Using the Prestoserve software under normal conditions                 4
                                                                       
Using the Prestoserve software under abnormal conditions               5

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1.2 Hardware Description

The Prestoserve product is implemented using an SBus card installed on the CPU board of your system.

The Sun Prestoserve SBus card is a high-performance, single-width card that is installed on the CPU board. This card provides all of the high-level functions that are associated with full-size boards, yet the card measures just 3x5-inches. An on-card PROM provides configuration support that identifies Prestoserve to the system. This SBus card is designed for operation in systems that are running SunOS version 4.x, Solaris 1.x, or Solaris 2.x.

1.3 Performance

Prestoserve provides these capabilities:

Accelerated NFS server performance

Faster selection of file systems

Write requests to disk are intercepted, and the data is stored in non- volatile memory

Write cache for synchronous I/O operations

Reliable, high-speed performance

Synchronous writes at memory speed

Reliable write caching

File definition block caching

Stable storage of Prestoserve's own structures

Sun Prestoserve is compatible with Sun-4m and Sun-4c system architectures that support OpenBoot. These architectures include:

Table 1-2 System Architecture, OS Release, Machine Type

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System        Possible OS        Possible Machine Type
Architecture  Release                                     
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Sun-4c        SunOS 4.x or,      SPARCstation 2 or
                                 SPARCstation IPX
              Solaris 1.0 or,    
                                 
              Solaris 2.x                                 
                                                          
                                                          
                                 
Sun-4m        SunOS 4.1.2 or,    SPARCserver 630MP or,
              Solaris 1.x or,    SPARCserver 670MP or, 
              Solaris 2.x        SPARCserver 690MP or,
                                 SPARCstation 10

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1.4 Electrostatic Discharge Precautions

Caution -

Circuit board components are vulnerable to damage by electrostatic discharge (ESD). An electrostatic charge can build up on the human body and then discharge when you touch a board. Such discharge can be produced by walking across a carpet and touching a board, or by other similar cause. Before handling any board, make sure you dissipate your body's charge. Touch a conductive surface of the chassis or other element connected to common earth ground to discharge the static electricity present in your body.

To minimize risk of ESD damage:

Handle the card by edges only

Store card in the anti-static bag provided

Use a grounding strap and Sun ESD mat, PN 250-1088-xx, whenever you work on a board (instructions are printed on the mat)

1.5 EMI Compliance

The SBus Prestoserve card has been tested for electromagnetic interference (EMI) compliance (USA FCC, Canada DOC, Japan VCCI, Germany VDE). When installed and operated in accordance with this Installation Guide, the EMI class marked on your Sun Workstation's label remains the same.

1.6 Hardware Installation

To use the Sun Prestoserve option you must install the Prestoserve SBus card before you install the Prestoserve software.

1.6.1 Unpacking the Shipment

Follow these steps to unpack the SBus card safely.

1. Remove the components from the packing box. In addition to this guide, the shipment should contain:

a. An anti-static bag containing the Prestoserve SBus card

b. An electrostatic discharge (ESD) kit

c. A CD containing the Prestoserve software

2. Save the packing box and packing materials in case you need to repack the hardware.

Note - Do not open the bag containing the SBus card until you are instructed to do so in .

1.6.2 Enabling the Battery

Prestoserve uses lithium batteries that are designed to protect data when the system power is off or if there is a power shortage.

The SBus card is shipped with the batteries disabled. You must enable the batteries before you install the hardware.

Caution -

Handle the SBus card with care. Do not touch any components and handle the card by its edges.

Follow these steps to enable the SBus card battery:

1. Use anti-static bags as a protective cushion for the SBus card.

2. Remove the card from the anti-static bag. Hold the card by its edges and place it, component-side-up on the bags.

3. Look for slider switch SW1.

Refer to Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 Battery Switch SW1 on the Prestoserve SBus Card

4. Move the slider switch to the down (ENABLE) position (toward the SBus connector).

1.6.3 Installing the Hardware

Use the documentation that came with your system for specific instructions on installing the Prestoserve SBus card in your system.

After the hardware is installed you must determine your operating system before you can proceed with the software installation.

1.7 Identifying the UNIX Version of Your Operating System

The Prestoserve SBus card is designed for installation in systems that are running SunOS 4.x, Solaris 1.0 Solaris 2.x. However, the installation procedure is different for each system. Therefore, you must determine which operating system you are using in order to determine which installation chapter to refer to.

Note - If you are not running version 4.1.1 or later you must install the latest version of SunOS or Solaris 2.x before you can continue.

To determine which version of the operating system you are running:

1. For either Solaris 1.x (SunOS 4.x) or Solaris 2.x (SunOS 5.x) enter:

uname -rs

2. For other operating systems, refer to the documentation for your specific operating system.

If you are running Solaris 1.x (SunOS 4.x) proceed to Chapter 2 for software installation instructions. If you are running Solaris 2.x proceed to Chapter 3 for software installation instructions.