Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 - USB Boot

 

Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 - USB Boot

Abstract

UNIX Systems Manufacturers originated their markets as workstations, during a time when they used 32 bit systems and the rest of the PC market was concentrating on 8 and 16 bit systems, and some CPU vendors like Intel use segmentation to keep their 16 bit software alive while struggling to move to 32 bit architectures. Some of the original servers were stacked workstations on a rack in a cabinet. The former high-powered video cards were merely ignored, as remote management needed command line interfaces. Engineering quickly determined that console access needed to be built into a new class of systems: rack mounted servers. These early servers offered boot functionality from Network and Disk. One such boot capability was from USB Disk..

Sun Enterprise T5120

The Sun Enterprise T5120 is a server with a second generation OpenSPARC processor. It comes with a Lights Out Management (LOM) capability referred to as Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM.) The Advanced Lights Out Management (ALOM) shell may be it's default. Most remote systems management work can be done from the LOM. The system, when looking at the front of the chassis: the T5120 has 2x USB ports next to the DVD drive on the right and 2x USB ports located in the back left corner.

DVD Drive USB Ports

When a SanDisk USB Flash Sticks are plugged into the USB ports located to the right of the DVD drive, they can be seen at the OpenFirmware prompt, and can be selected into a copy-paste buffer, for easy use.

{0} ok show-disks
a) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@8/pci@0/pci@9/SUNW,emlxs@0,1/fp@0,0/disk
b) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@8/pci@0/pci@9/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/disk
c) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/disk
d) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk
e) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@1/disk
f) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/storage@2/disk
g) /iscsi-hba/disk
q) NO SELECTION
Enter Selection, q to quit: d
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk has been selected.
Type ^Y ( Control-Y ) to insert it in the command line.
e.g. ok nvalias mydev ^Y
         for creating devalias mydev for /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk
{0} ok 

Note: the USB stick in position "d" (this lettered position may change as new USB sticks are plugged or unplugged) has it's device name copied into a "copy-paste" buffer by selecting "d"

Failed Boot from a USB Stick

It looks like this when one boots from a USB stick with no operating system & boot environment on it:

{0} ok boot ^Y
{0} ok boot /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk
Boot device: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk  File and args:
The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
{0} ok

Creating a USB Boot Stick

The USB port can be used to create boot environment that the chassis is compatible with or even not compatible with! For example, creating a Solaris 11.4 USB Boot Stick from Solaris 11.3 after inserting a SanDisk USB stick into the front port next to the DVD Drive:

T5120/root# echo | format -e | grep -i SanDisk
       4. c7t0d0 <SanDisk'-Cruzer Fit-1.00 cyl 1945 alt 0 hd 255 sec 63>
       5. c8t0d0 <SanDisk'-Cruzer Fit-1.00 cyl 1945 alt 0 hd 255 sec 63>

T5120/root# ls -al *usb
-rw-r--r--   1 dh127087 staff    1217341440 May  3 19:38 sol-11_4-text-sparc.usb

T5120/root# time dd bs=16k if=sol-11_4-text-sparc.usb of=/dev/rdsk/c7t0d0s2
74300+1 records in
74300+1 records out

real    8m57.25s
user    0m0.47s
sys     0m13.99s

T5120/root# echo "par\nprint\n" | format -e c7t0d0 | tail -14 | nawk '$NF!="0" && !/partition/'
Total disk cylinders available: 148 + 0 (reserved cylinders)

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders       Size            Blocks
  0 unassigned    wm       0 - 147        1.13GB    (148/0/0) 2377620
  2 unassigned    wm       0 - 147        1.13GB    (148/0/0) 2377620

T5120/root#

This USB stick can now be tested from, from OpenBoot Firmware

Test Boot Solaris 11.4

After shutting down the OS, while on the console port, attempt to boot from 11.4, which is too new:

T5120/root# cd / ; sync ; sync ; init 0

svc.startd: The system is coming down.  Please wait.
svc.startd: 137 system services are now being stopped.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
ChassisSerialNumber BEL07492JB

SPARC Enterprise T5120, No Keyboard
Copyright (c) 1998, 2017, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.33.6.h, 16256 MB memory available, Serial #78384094.
Ethernet address 0:14:4f:ac:b:de, Host ID: 84ac0bde.

{0} ok show-disks
a) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@8/pci@0/pci@9/SUNW,emlxs@0,1/fp@0,0/disk
b) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@8/pci@0/pci@9/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/disk
c) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/disk
d) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk
e) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@1/disk
f) /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/storage@2/disk
g) /iscsi-hba/disk
q) NO SELECTION
Enter Selection, q to quit: d
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk has been selected.
Type ^Y ( Control-Y ) to insert it in the command line.
e.g. ok nvalias mydev ^Y
         for creating devalias mydev for /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk

{0} ok boot ^Y
{0} ok boot /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk
Boot device: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/pci@0/usb@0,2/hub@4/storage@2/disk  File and args:

'cpu:SUNW,UltraSPARC-T2:SUNW,sun4v-cpu:sun4v' is not supported by this release of Solaris.
Program terminated
ChassisSerialNumber BEL07492JB

SPARC Enterprise T5120, No Keyboard
Copyright (c) 1998, 2017, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.33.6.h, 16256 MB memory available, Serial #78384094.
Ethernet address 0:14:4f:ac:b:de, Host ID: 84ac0bde.

{0} ok

Note: The OpenSPARC T2 processor is not supported by Oracle Solaris 11.4, but Sun Microsystems Solaris 10, OpenSolaris, and Oracle Solaris 11.0 - Solaris 11.3 are all supported on the chassis.