U-Boot Diagnostic Start-Up Tests Overview

At server start-up, the U-Boot diagnostic software initializes on your server and tests aspects of the server SP prior to booting the Oracle ILOM firmware. The U-Boot diagnostic tests are designed to test as much as the hardware required to enable the server SP to boot successfully. Some of the hardware components tested by U-Boot include:

SP memory
Network devices
I/O devices
I2C devices

Server Diagnostic Test Options at Start-Up

At server start-up, a series of diagnostic tests are run on the server host and SP prior to booting the host operating system and the Oracle ILOM SP firmware. Some of these diagnostic tests are run by default, while others are optional tests that you can choose to run. To determine which start-up diagnostic tests are run by default, and which diagnostic tests are optional and are available to run, see Server Diagnostic Test Options at Start-Up .

Table 2-1 Server Diagnostic Test Options at Start-Up

Component	Start-Up Diagnostic Options	Default Test	Optional Test
Server SP	U-Boot `-Normal` mode (default mode) See U-Boot Diagnostic Test Modes - Normal, Quick, and Extended for further details.	Yes	No
	U-Boot `-Quick` mode See U-Boot Diagnostic Test Modes - Normal, Quick, and Extended for further details.	No	Yes
	U-Boot `-Extended` mode See U-Boot Diagnostic Test Modes - Normal, Quick, and Extended for further details.	No	Yes
Server Host	BIOS power-on self-test (POST) For BIOS POST details, see your service manual for your server.	Yes	No
Server Host	Pc-Check 3-minute or 30-minute test See Chapter 3, Pc-Check Diagnostics Utility for details.	No	Yes

U-Boot Diagnostic Test Modes – Normal, Quick, and Extended

U-Boot offers three diagnostic modes of operation: -Normal, -Quick, and -Extended. -Normal mode diagnostic tests are run by default each time the server starts up. Other modes of operations (-Quick or -Extended) must be selected to run at start-up.

For details about which U-Boot diagnostic tests are run for each mode, see U-Boot Component Tests at Start-Up . For details about how to select one of the three U-Boot modes to run at server start-up, see To Select a U-Boot Diagnostic Mode to Run at Start-Up.

Note - If any of the U-Boot diagnostic tests fail during start-up, the server SP will not start. See Reporting of Diagnostic Failures at Server Start-Up for additional details.

U-Boot Component Tests at Start-Up describes the U-Boot diagnostics tests for each of the three diagnostic modes of operation.

Table 2-2 U-Boot Component Tests at Start-Up

U-Boot Component Test	Normal	Quick	Extended	Purpose
Memory Data Bus Test	Yes	Yes	Yes	Checks for opens/shorts on SP Memory’s data bus.
Memory Address Bus Test	Yes	Yes	Yes	Checks for opens/shorts on SP Memory’s address bus.
Memory Data Integrity Test	No	No	Yes	Checks for data integrity on the SP Memory.
Flash Test	No	No	Yes	Checks access to Flash.
WatchDog Test	No	No	Yes	Checks the WatchDog functionality on the SP.
I2C Probe Tests¹	Yes	No	Yes	Checks the connectivity to I2C devices on standby power.
Ethernet Test	Yes	Yes	Yes	Verifies ability to read from specified Ethernet port.
Ethernet Link Test	Yes	Yes	Yes	Verifies link on specified PHY.
Ethernet Internal Loopback Test	Yes	No	Yes	Verifies Ethernet functionality by sending and receiving packets.
Real Time Clock Test	Yes	No	Yes	Checks functionality of the real-time clock on the SP.
USB 1.1 Test	No	No	Yes	Checks USB 1.1 functionality.
USB 1.1 BIST	Yes	No	Yes	Runs internal USB 1.1 built-in self-test (BIST).
USB 2.0 Test	No	No	Yes	Checks USB 2.0 functionality.
BIOS Flash ID Test	Yes	No	Yes	Verifies ability to read from the BIOS flash.
Serial Presence Detect (SPD) Access Test	No	No	Yes	Verifies DIMM SPD access along with checksum and prints SPD information.
Power CPLD Test	Yes	Yes	Yes	Verifies the correct power revision of the complex programmable logic device (CPLD).

¹For rackmount servers, the I2C tests check the connectivity to all I2C devices installed in the chassis. For Oracle’s Sun Blade 6000 or 6048 Chassis Modular Systems, the I2C tests check only the connectivity to I2C devices installed on an individual server module (blade).

Reporting of Diagnostic Failures at Server Start-Up

After U-Boot completes the diagnostic tests, the test results and a final status of the U-Boot tests are displayed on your screen. If a hardware failure is detected by U-Boot, the failure is reported in the test outputs. To view samples of the U-Boot test outputs, see Sample U-Boot Test Output.

Note - For troubleshooting purposes, a -Failed or -Passed status of the last U-Boot test performed on the server is also stored in the SP environmental variables. To view a sample output of the environmental variables showing the status of the U-Boot test, see Sample SP Environmental Variables Showing U-Boot Test Status.

When troubleshooting your server, note that the symptoms of a diagnostic failure can vary depending on whether the diagnostics at start-up have failed on the server SP or host. For additional details about how to determine where the diagnostics failed at start-up and possibly locate additional information about the failure, see Failure Status and Symptoms Reported for Start-Up Diagnostics .

Table 2-3 Failure Status and Symptoms Reported for Start-Up Diagnostics

Component

Failure Status and Symptoms

Server SP

(U-Boot)

When the component failure is detected on the server SP, the failure is typically reported in the following locations:

– U-Boot test results

For sample output of U-Boot test results, see Sample U-Boot Test Output.

– Oracle ILOM event log.

For details on how to access this log, refer to the information about the Oracle ILOM event log in the Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (Oracle ILOM) 3.0 Daily Management -- Concepts Guide.

– Fault Management tab in the Oracle ILOM web interface

For more details about access and use of fault management, refer to the information about Oracle ILOM fault management in the Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (Oracle ILOM) 3.0 Daily Management -- Concepts Guide. To determine which faults you must manually clear on your server, refer to the platform Oracle ILOM Supplement Administration Guide for your server.

If a component failed to start, the Service Action Required LED on the front panel of the server illuminates.
If the U-Boot diagnostic test failed, the server SP will not start.

Server Host (BIOS POST)

When the component failure is detected on the server host, the failure is typically reported in the following locations:

– Fault Management tab in the Oracle ILOM web interface

– Oracle ILOM event log.

For details on how to access this log, refer to the information about the Oracle ILOM event log in the Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (Oracle ILOM) 3.0 Daily Management -- Concepts Guide.

If a component failed at start-up, the Service Action Required LED on the front panel of the server illuminates.
If the BIOS power-on self-test (POST) detected a fatal error, the host operating system will not start.

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