Sun Microsystems X4640 - Manuals

Document Description Sun Fire X4640 Server ESX OS Installation Guide How to install supported versions of the ESX OS onyour server. Sun Fire X4640 Server Diagnostics Guide How to diagnose problems with your server. Sun Fire X4640 Server Service Manual How to service and maintain your server. Sun Fir...

Sun Welcomes Your Comments Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments andsuggestions. To share your comments, go to http://docs.sun.com and click Feedback. Change History The following changes have been made to the documentation set. ■ October 2009, initial publicati...

Introduction to Sun Installation Assistant This section introduces the Sun Installation Assistant (SIA) version 2.2 and describes how to getstarted using SIA to perform deployment or recovery tasks on your Sun Fire X4640 server. Description Link Learn about requirements and tasks that can beperforme...

Getting Started With Sun Installation Assistant2.2 The Sun Installation Assistant (SIA) is a tool designed to be used with x64 Sun Fire and SunBlade servers to assist in the deployment of supported Linux operating systems (OS), as well assystem firmware upgrades. With SIA, your deployment tasks can ...

SIA Version 2.2 Features and Benefits SIA version 2.2 provides the following features and benefits: ■ Multiple media options. SIA is available on a variety of bootable media. You can boot SIAfrom either a local drive attached to the server (CD/DVD or USB flash drive), a remoteredirected network driv...

Task Description HBA Firmware Upgrade Upgrades the firmware of the server’s integrated HBA (Host BusAdapter). Displays the installed version and what version is availablefor an upgrade. Requires a server reboot to use the new version. Server Support and SIA Media Availability The SIA CD/DVD is avail...

Starting SIA and Preparing for Deployment orRecovery Tasks This section explains how to start the Sun Installation Assistant (SIA) and prepare it to performdeployment tasks, such as operating system installation or system firmware upgrades(BIOS/ILOM, HBA or disk expander), or a service processor rec...

Mouse Settings When Using SIA with ILOM Remote Console The ILOM Remote Console feature allows an administrator to redirect a server’s keyboard,video, and mouse to their management system. This feature is very convenient when the serverand management system are not at the same location. The ILOM Remo...

The Remote Update dialog appears. In the Remote Update dialog, select Yes or No to allow a remote update, and then click Next. Remote Update is used to download updates to the SIA program. These updates can includeserver device drivers and firmware from Sun. 4 Mouse Settings When Using SIA with ILOM...

The Identifying the System dialog appears. In the Identifying the System dialog, ensure that the appropriate hardware is installed and thatthere is sufficient memory for your operating system, then click Next. 6 Mouse Settings When Using SIA with ILOM Remote Console 21

SIA then scans the systems for disk drives and displays a list at the Scanning for SCSI Devicesdialog. In the Scanning for Storage Devices dialog, you will see the disks identified by SIA. Click Next toproceed. The Supported Option Cards dialog then appears. In the Supported Option Cards dialog, if ...

The Task Selection dialog appears. Note – The Task Selection dialog will only appear if your server supports more SIA tasks than OS installation. If it does not, SIA will proceed to OS installation. In the Task Selection dialog, choose a deployment or recovery task to perform. Refer to theappropriat...

The dialog lists only task options supported for your server. For example, your list may includeoperating system installation, server BIOS/ILOM upgrade, or other tasks. ■ If you need to install a supported operating system for your server, proceed to “Installing Linux With SIA” on page 25 . ■ If you...

Installing Linux With SIA This section explains how to install a supported Linux operating system using the SunInstallation Assistant (SIA). SIA assists in the installation of supported operating systems andrequires a licensed retail version of the operating system distribution media to be available...

At this dialog, you need to specify the location of your OS installation media. Choose one of thefollowing: ■ CD/DVD —This option allows you to install the OS source from: - a local CD/DVD , or - a redirected CD/DVD or ISO CD-ROM image ■ Network (Linux) —This option allows you to install the OS sour...

d. Proceed to Step 6 . If you are installing from a redirected CD/DVD or ISO CD-ROM image using the server’s LOM( Lights Out Manager remote console feature, do the following: a. In the SIA Install Media Information dialog, click CD/DVD. b. Select the virtual CD-ROM from the CD Location drop-down lis...

If you are installing from a Network share, do the following in the Install Media Informationpage: a. Click Network. b. In the address bar, specify the nfs, ftp, or http accessible network address to the Linux ISO image media. See table below for examples and restrictions. For OSes requiring multipl...

After setting up the pre-installation environment, the SIA Installing Additional Software dialogappears. In the Installing Additional Software dialog, SIA installs additional platform-specific drivers, asneeded. Review the information presented. Remove the SIA media and click the Reboot button. The ...

Using SIA to Upgrade System Firmware This section explains how to upgrade system firmware (including system BIOS, ILOM serviceprocessor, disk controller HBA and disk expander) from local or remote SIA. SIA provides system BIOS and firmware certified by Sun for your Sun x64 server. Using SIAeliminate...

Follow the on-screen instructions until the upgrade has completed. Upgraded code will not beused by the system until after a reboot. ■ “How to Upgrade HBA Firmware” on page 35 ▼ How to Upgrade HBA Firmware Host bus adapters control internal or external disks connected to the server. SIA has thecapab...

SIA displays the current version(s) and the available upgrade version for discovered HBAs. Note – If you selected the Remote Update feature (described in “How to Start SIA and Prepare for Tasks Using Local or Remote Media” on page 16 ), SIA will have obtained the latest code from the Sun software do...

After selecting the HBA/controllers to upgrade, click the Upgrade Firmware button. Follow the on-screen instructions until the upgrade has completed. Upgraded code will not beused by the system until after a reboot. ■ “How to Upgrade the System BIOS and ILOM Firmware” on page 33 4 See Also Using SIA...

Performing an SIA PXE-Based AttendedInstallation This section explains how to boot the Sun Installation Assistant (SIA) from a Preboot ExecutionEnvironment (PXE) and run it in attended (interactive) mode. SIA is a Linux-based program that can be booted from a Linux-based PXE server. You cancreate an...

Copy the vmlinuz (the bootable Linux kernel) and initrd (initial ram disk) files from the SIA CD/DVD to the suninstall subdirectory that you created. Use the correct path to the mounted CD image. This example uses /mnt/cdrom : # cp /mnt/cdrom/boot/isolinux/vmlinuz /home/pxeboot/suninstall # cp /mnt/...

Tip – The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages, as they appear on the screen for a brieftime. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars. As the system boots, do one of the f...

At the PXE boot prompt, press Enter or type: suninstall The SIA installation image downloads to the server and the dialog for “Launching the SunInstallation Assistant” appears. For further instructions about how to continue an attended installation after booting SIA from aPXE server, follow the step...

Contents of the SIA State File The SIA state file provides the scripting variables required for carrying out an unattendedsession of SIA and performing the specified SIA tasks automatically without user intervention.A copy of the state file with all of the possible parameters can be found at the roo...

Preparing for an Unattended SIA Installation of Linux The procedures presented in this section assumes the following: ■ You are familiar with RHEL or SLES Linux unattended installations. ■ You have created a RHEL Kickstart file or SLES AutoYaST file. ■ You have configured the RHEL Kickstart or SLES ...

Note – Your server must support firmware upgrades through SIA to use the firmware upgrade option. If you enable an unattended firmware upgrade and an upgrade is not required on the target server (because the upgrade firmware image is either the same or earlier than what’s onthe server being upgraded...

apit.firmware.spIP= n.n.n.n apit.firmware.spPasswd= password_for_sp [STATE_DONE noname apit] ▼ How to Create the SIA Image and Prepare for PXE Boot After you have prepared for an unattended installation as described in the previous sections,follow the steps below to set up a PXE image to boot SIA an...

Note – Type the append command line from append initrd= to siaurl= as one continuous string with no returns. initrd= must point to the location of the initrd.img on your PXE server that you copied from the SIA CD/DVD and siaurl= must point to the URL for the state file. You can also boot the install...

Observing an SIA PXE-Based UnattendedInstallation Observing an unattended network installation enables you to view the progress of theinstallation, as well as any diagnostic messages that might appear if problems are encounteredduring the installation. The four ways of observing an unattended networ...

■ rootpw= des-crypted-password The rootpw= des-crypted-password argument enables SSH remote access on a PXE boot without passing a plain text password across the network. Create des-crypted-password using the following perl script: # perl -e ’ print crypt( " password " , " 42 " ). &#...

Using a VNC Viewer When you perform an unattended network installation, virtual network computing (VNC) isenabled by default. If you perform an unattended network installation, you can enable VNC byadding display=vnc as a boot argument. ▼ To Establish Connection Using a VNC Viewer Follow these steps...

Set up the serial console through the serial port. For more information about using a serial console, see the service processor ( Lights Out Manager ) documentation . The default setup is for the service processor to be available through the serial port. Log in to the service processor and enter the...

Troubleshooting SIA This section provides information about Sun Installation Assistant (SIA) error messages, theSIA installation log file, as well as procedures for debugging an unattended PXE-based networkinstallation. Topics in this section include: ■ “SIA Error Messages” on page 59 ■ “SIA Install...

SIA Installation Log File An SIA log file is written to the root directory of the newly installed system. To review this log file, refer to the file SunInstallationAssistant.log (located at /root for Linux. ILOM Remote Console Mouse Issue With SIA The ILOM Remote Console has a mouse mode setting tha...

Problem What you will see The state file URL ( siaurl ) is incorrect. If the state file URL ( siaurl ) is incorrect, the installation appears to hang. Check the console for the following error messagethat appears after the VNC information: Unable to fetch unattended statefile: URL The InstallLoc in ...

Creating a Bootable SIA USB Flash Drive This section describes how to prepare a USB flash drive (also known as USB thumb drive, USBkey drive, etc.) for booting SIA and how to boot the SIA USB flash drive to perform SIAdeployment and recovery tasks. Preparing and booting an SIA USB flash drive is des...

▼ How to Get the Syslinux and SIA Software Note – Support for creating a USB flash drive version of SIA was introduced with SIA version 2.0.144 and is provided as a downloadable package from the Sun download site. Earlier versionsof SIA will not support running SIA from USB flash drive media. Go to ...

Caution – Be sure to confirm and make a note of the device name of the USB flash drive (A:, B:, etc.). The instructions listed here require you to delete existing partition(s) on the USB flashdisk. Making a mistake in identifying the device might cause you to erase a hard disk. Right-click on the fl...

Where path is the folder to which you extracted syslinux and X is the drive letter for your USB flash drive (for example, A:, B:, etc.) This creates a file ldlinux.sys onto the drive and make it bootable. Extract (unzip) the contents of the downloaded SIA- version .zip archive file to the USB flash ...

Note – This procedure requires the use of parted utility version 1.8.6 or later. Do not use earlier versions of parted . Note – These steps require superuser ( su - root ) access. a. If Linux has automounted the device, unmount it first. # umount /dev/sd X 1 Where X is the drive letter for the USB f...

■ (parted): print Displays the current settings for the new partition. Example output is shown below: Model: Lexar, Inc. USBdisk (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 1031MB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Minor Start End Size Type Filesystem Flags 1 16.4kB 931MB 1031MB primary fat3...

Note – In the next step you will need to specify the mount point. If autofs is running, it might have auto–mounted the drive partition to some other mount point. If this happens, unmount itby entering the command: umount /dev/sd X 1 Mount the drive to a mount point by entering the command: # mount -...

▼ How to Set the BIOS Parameters and Boot Off the SIA USB Flash Drive Check the Sun Fire X4640 Server Product Notes for any issues related to USB support. Note any restrictions before attempting this procedure. Insert the SIA USB flash drive into an available USB 2.0 port. Note – Some servers might ...