No network or block devices available after PCI+ Upgrade on a Sun Fire[TM] V1280 or E2900

Asset ID:	1-72-1011115.1
Update Date:	2010-07-20
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1011115.1 : No network or block devices available after PCI+ Upgrade on a Sun Fire[TM] V1280 or E2900

Applies to:

Sun Fire V1280 Server
Sun Fire E2900 Server
All Platforms

Symptoms

{SYMPTOM}

Problem description:

After upgrading a PCI version of the IB_SSC to its PCI+ equivalent, and after POST has executed on the Sun Fire[TM] V1280/E2900 with the new PCI+ IB_SSC installed, an error message at the OK prompt indicates that there is:

    No usable device to boot Solaris

In addition, warning messages will indicate that the system could "

    Find no network devices

or

    Find no block devices

Further, probe-scsi will not find anything.

Changes

{CHANGE}

Cause

{CAUSE}

The cause of this error is that the first system board within the V1280 or E2900 (from which the OBP is loaded into memory after POST) is below the minimum required ScApp revision of 5.19.3 to support a PCI+ IB_SSC.

Solution

Resolution

The PCI+
IB_SSC will come with 5.19.3 (Minimum) pre-installed but the customer's
system might be below this revision and will result in the errors described
in the following example...

[...]
WARNING: Find no network devices.
WARNING: Find no block devices, e.g. disks, CD-ROM, etc.
ERROR: No usable device to boot Solaris!
{0} ok

lom>showb -p version

Component      Compatible    Version
---------      ----------    -------
SSC1           Reference     5.19.3 Build_01
/N0/IB6        Yes           5.19.3 Build_01
/N0/SB0        Yes           5.18.2 Build_01 <<----
/N0/SB2        Yes           5.18.2 Build_01 <<----

Although there are "no network devices" found, the LOM's ethernet
port is available and so you can flashupdate the system boards to
5.19.3. Once the system's hardware is fully compatible with PCI+,
the above warning and error messages will not return and the system
can boot from DVD or the net.

See <Document 1012388.1> and <Document 1006281.1> for a reminder of how to execute
flashupdate from the lom> prompt, but it will be of the form...

lom>flashupdate -f  sb0 sb2

Relief/Workaround

There are no workarounds for this condition. A minimum firmware
revision of 5.19.3 is required in the system or it will fail to install
Solaris from disk, DVD, or the net.

Additional Information

Note:

For proper operation, you must re-install the Solaris Operating System once the PCI+ IB_SSC (IO Controller) is installed.

For the Solaris[TM] 9 OS, re-install using Solaris[TM] 9 9/05 (U8) or a later version.
For Solaris[TM] 10, use Solaris[TM] 10 3/05 HW1 or a later version.

For more details, see page 1 of the E2900 & V1280 PCI+ Product Notes available at

http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/hardware/docs/pdf/819-4657-10.pdf

Internal Comments
Internal information and resources:

See FAB <Document 1000952.1> E2900/V1280 systems that have the PCI+ IB_SSC IO Assembly will not be able to install or boot from Solaris 9 9/05 DVD or CD@ See FAB <Document 1001327.1> The new PCI+ IB_SSC IO Assembly is not properly supported by any release of Solaris 8.

See the Sun Fire V1280 Quick Reference Guide (pdf) for a more thorough understanding of flashupdate.

This document is Normalized and is managed by the MidRange Server Group's Content Team.

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Product
Sun Fire E2900 Server
Sun Fire V1280 Server

Product_uuid
63ff680d-0598-11d8-84cb-080020a9ed93|Sun Fire E2900 Server
6a74b2f9-bbd8-4b2c-870d-b6b73d6e224f|Sun Fire V1280 Server

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