XSCF: Domain Service Processor Communication Protocol

XSCF: Domain Service Processor Communication Protocol

There appears to be another internal communication channel that can be made available called the “Domain Service Processor Communication Protocol” (or DSCP) – which can give you the IP Address of the service processor, to access from a Physical Domain.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E36784_01/html/E36871/prtdscp-1m.html

With DSCP, console to a local service processor can be conveniently made available from the OS.
 

Configuring the Service Processor

The Service Processor can be attached to from a Serial Console using 9600 baud, 8 bits, no stop bit.

The Service Processor can also be attached via a TCP/IP network cable. An article on configuring a network connection on the M4000/M5000 SP is as follows:

• http://xteams.oit.ncsu.edu/iso/m_xscf

The Service Processor can provide access through Web or CLI. The CLI is called XSCF.

 

XSCF Reference Guides

The Extended System Control Facility (XSCF) is fairly user friendly.

• [HTML] Blog Getting Help For SCF Commands  

The Extended System Control Facility (XSCF) has various guides available and can get quite extensive.

• [PDF] Fujitsu User Guide
• [PDF] Fujitsu Reference Manual
• [HTML] SPARC M-Series Server Admin Guide
• [HTML] SPARC M-Series Server Admin Guide (DSCP & XSCF Interfaces) 
• [HTML] SPARC M-Series User Guide (Overview of XSCF Command Shell) 
• [HTML] SPARC M-Series XSCF Reference Manual  

The XSCF on the SPARC Enterprise Serverscan be accessible over an internal communication channel.

DSCP Usage

The "Domain Service Processor Communication Protocol" (or DSCP) has been around for quite some time, dating back to older large SPARC systems prior the M-Series. DSCP allows for the use of TCP/IP over an internal communications channel, without the requirement of physical LAN cables.

• https://blogs.oracle.com/olympus/entry/dscp

 An example page on configuring the DSCP.

•  http://linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com/2009/02/sun-m-series-enterprise-unix-servers.html   

There are multiple ways to configure the IP Addresses for the DSCP.

• https://blogs.oracle.com/olympus/entry/dscp_ip_addresses

If the DSCP is changed, it will require a reboot of the Service Processor and Domain.

• http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19867-01/E21618/Platform.html#50503738_pgfId-1035891

That was more than enough information to start configuration.

Configuring DSCP

The DSCP is not configured on this platform:

sun9999/root# /usr/platform/SUNW,SPARC-Enterprise/sbin/prtdscp            

ERROR: SP Address lookup failed. Aborting.                                 

To configure an M4000 with 2x domains, use some private, non-routable ip addresses:

XSCF> setdscp -i 10.0.0.0 -m 255.255.255.0                                 
Commit these changes to the database? [y|n] : y                            

                                                                           

XSCF> showdscp                                                         
DSCP Configuration:                                                    
Network: 10.0.0.0                                                      
Netmask: 255.255.255.0                                                 
Location     Address                                                   
----------   ---------                                                 
XSCF         10.0.0.1                                                  
Domain #00   10.0.0.2                                                  
Domain #01   10.0.0.3                                                  

To Enable:

• The Service Processor may require a reboot (see Fujitsu Reference Guide page 173.)
• The Physical Domains may require a reboot, in order to communicate with the SP.

 They should be ready to communicate.

Communicating with the Service Processor

Once this is done, you may be able to “reach in & out” of the service processor using TCP/IP… to list the addresses:

sun9999/root# /usr/platform/`uname -i`/sbin/prtdscp                        

Domain Address:      10.0.0.2                                              

SP Address:          10.0.0.1                                              

After this configuration is done, you should be able to get into the XSCF from Solaris:

sun9999/root # ssh `prtdscp -s`                                            

or

sun9999/root # telnet `prtdscp -s`                                         

From there, you may be able to log into XSCF from the sun9999 Solaris OS, get the flash image using FTPD hosted on sun9999.

XSCF> ping 10.0.0.2                                                       

XSCF> getflashimage -u root ftp://10.0.0.2/home/sm250241/FFXCP1113.tar.gz 

This procedure above was not tested in a lab, just researched for someone in need.