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 create a logical drive for the HBA to enable you to boot from the HBA. On a SPARC system, you would perform these actions through the Preboot Command-Line Interface (pcli) utility. On an x86 system, you would do so either through the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) MegaRAID Configuration menu of the BIOS Setup utility (UEFI booting) or, if your system is set to Legacy BIOS booting, through BIOS Configuration Utility.
This section contains the following topics:
You can specify the HBA to be your boot device by using one of these utilities:
pcli utility - A utility that you can run on SPARC systems. You can access this utility by issuing a break at a remote console. This utility is an implementation of RAID commands that you can execute from the Open Boot Prom (OBP) environment. Creating a logical drive through the pcli utility enables the HBA to expose the drive to the system.
The command-set of the pcli utility is identical to the command-set of the storcli utility. Therefore, to help determine the syntax and structure of the pcli commands referenced in this chapter, review the equivalent storcli commands, as described in the MegaRAID SAS Software User's Guide, located at: https://www.broadcom.com/support/oem/oracle/
LSI MegaRAID Configuration Utility 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 Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Boot 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 Advanced tab and then to the LSI MegaRAID Configuration Utility menu option near the bottom of the screen. The MegaRAID Configuration Utility menu provides a standard environment for booting an operating system, managing physical disks and RAID volumes, and running preboot applications.
BIOS Configuration Utility – A legacy utility that you can run on an x86 system only if you have set your system BIOS to boot in Legacy Boot Mode. You can access this utility by typing Ctrl+R during system bootup. This utility consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables you to manage physical disks and logical drives that you have created. Use this utility to specify the boot drive for your x86 system.
You must perform different procedures in this chapter, based on the type of system in which you are installing the HBA:
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).