Re: OpenBSD on Sun Netra X1

>
> Here I put a little bit of details on how to setup that box from scratch. I
> guess I spend a little bit of time putting it together because I also I
> remember my first one, years ago, where I did plenty of Google before I
> could set one up.
>
> It wasn't a 5 minutes process then, but it is sure not hard either. So, to
> save you time and may be for the next guys as well to make life easier for
> them here it is.
>
> First question you may have is.. Where do I plug my keyboard, or monitor.
> Or if you are an MCSE, where do I plug my mouse. (;> OK, just a joke, but
> surprisingly many can't do much without GUI.
>
> Anyway, joke aside.
>
> You do everything from a console access on these boxes. T1-105, AC200, X1,
> V100, V120, etc, etc. There isn't monitor port, or keyboard, or mouse ports
> there. (;> Nor there is a need for it either.
>
> On the back you have the serial A that is also use for LOM. That's what you
> need to use to have console access to that box. Use any software you want,
> doesn't matter as long as you set it up VT100 emulation and use 9600-8-N-1
> for the setting communications. Plain old serial cable, like any Cisco
> console cable do just fine, or what ever you have available as long as the
> connector is RJ-45 to go to the Sun box.
>
> Now, one command that is very useful and that I had to dig on Google is how
> to switch to LOM and the console from that terminal. Well, it's very simple,
> but I had to dig it up.
>
> To access the LOM:
> #.
>
> To go back to the console:
> console
>
> To get of of the console:
> ~.
>
> Simple command, but when you don't know them, well, you can search a long
> time. (;>
>
> Next, to stop the booting process as who know the stage in witch you will
> get the box.
>
> It may try to boot from the network all the time, or what not.
>
> So, when the box is plug in the AC, but actually off. The console will give
> you the LOM access by default.
>
> The following steps may or may not be needed, depending on what stage the
> box was ship to you, but as a rule of thumb, I like to reset everything to
> defaults, just to know where I am, so:
>
> From there, make sure the box will not try to boot, but give you the #
> prompt so that you can access the box hardware.
>
> So, first is to stop the auto boot:
>
> lom>bootmode help
> Usage: bootmode [[-u] forth|reset_nvram|diag|skipdiag|normal]
>
> So, just do bootmode forth
>
> This will simply stop the normal boot process and when the box goes to the
> usual hardware check, it will then give you the OK prompt.
>
> And a side note, in case you haven't seen that before, or use Sun before,
> you can turn on/off the box from the console, reset it and all, witch can be
> useful at time specially if you have two of these boxes connected together
> via a simply flat cable between the console port and the serial port of the
> other box, but will get back to that later.
>
> So, turn on the box:
>
> lom>poweron
>
> Then when you get the # prompt may be one minute later or so.
>
> init 0
> ok setenv auto-boot? false (This is so that it doesn't try to reboot all
> the time yet)
>
> #depending on which Hardware and OBP Version you are running it is
> either or ( I do both in order to be sure on my SunFire)
>
> ok reset
>
> ok reset-all
>
> Each step above, like the reset and the reset-all will, well like it said
> reset the box.
>
> Then, when the OBP is back you can run eg
> ok probe-scsi-all (for the SCSI type server, T1, AC200, V120, etc)
>
> or
>
> ok probe-ide-all for the IDE servers type, like the V100, X1, etc.
>
> I do both anyway on all boxes, it doesn't create any problem and even on
> system without and SCSI drives, the probe-scsi-all will actually find the
> drives oppose to the probe-ide-all one. (;< It may be related with the LOM
> version, I can't say really and I am sure better mind then me would know.
>
> I never find a way to upgrade the LOM anyway without having Solaris running
> on these boxes. I would love to know how, or even if possible, but really, I
> haven't got a clue on that!
>
> If anyone actually know how, I would really, really love to know how!
>
> Anyway, lets move one.
>
> It detect the hardware you have in case hardware was changed between the
> real last run and what was ship to you. (;> Not always needed, but good
> practice anyway. In some cases it will save you lots of time specially wen
> you get the "processor miss align errors" I can't recall exactly the error
> message right this moment, but when you see it if you do, you will know
> right away. (;>
>
> Then when all is done as you wish, don't forget to make it boot normally
> again with:
>
> setenv auto-boot? true (or your box will stop at the # and you will not
> know why, or if you reload the OS, it will not come back to life, witch may
> be a problem if you don't have access to the console and you may not know
> why (;>)
>
> Also, at the console prompt, the #, sometime I also reset the nvram to the
> factory defaults as well, witch is a good thing to do and reset the box once
> more as requested when you do so.
>
> Now it's time to load OpenBSd on the box, the real fun part.
>
> The easiest way really by far is just find any old IDE CD-Rom you have an
> just plug it on the IDE controler of that box. You have two IDE controller
> ports there and you can put two IDE drives in that box, so for now, just use
> one and plug your CD-Rom.
>
> Put the CD-Rom SPARC64 in the drive and reset your box.
>
> When you did the "probe-ide-all", you see where your CD-Rom was, so if the
> box doesn't boot by itself, you can just type the command manually to boot
> it.
>
> boot disk0:, boot disk1: boot disk2:, boot cdrom: etc depending what you
> have, etc.
>
> Then the install will start as usual and you install your box as you want.
>
> One thing here is that Sun, for what ever reason, when you have two drives
> connected to it, the boot drive for example may have been the drive 1, but
> if you connect a second drive, may be the drive 2 now. So, if you add an
> other drive later and your box doesn't boot, it's not like it is broken, but
> that Sun may simply try to access the wrong drive and you can change that in
> the boot process at the # prompt.
>
> Example:
>
> ok help system
> devalias - Display all device aliases
> devalias - Create or change a device alias
> printenv Show all configuration parameters
> numbers are shown in decimal
> setenv Change a configuration parameter
> changes are permanent but only take effect after a reset
> Examples:
> setenv input-device ttya - use ttya input next time
> setenv screen-#rows 0x1e - use 30 rows of display ( hex 1e )
> setenv boot-device net - specify network as boot device
> setenv auto-boot? false - disable automatic boot
> set-defaults Revert to factory configuration
> See also: nvramrc
> ok
>
> You can force to use one drive or the other if you have two. The best is to
> leave everything at default really, but if you have issue you can force one
> you want, just a side not. Or move the physical drive inside, etc.
>
> What you can use are as follow:
>
> ok devalias
> rtc /pci@1f,0/isa@7/rtc@0,70
> usb /pci@1f,0/usb@a
> flash /pci@1f,0/isa@7/flashprom@1f,0
> lom /pci@1f,0/isa@7/SUNW,lomh@0,8010
> i2c-nvram /pci@1f,0/pmu@3/i2c@0,0/i2c-nvram@0,aa
> net1 /pci@1f,0/ethernet@5
> dload1 /pci@1f,0/ethernet@5:,
> dload /pci@1f,0/ethernet@c:,
> net0 /pci@1f,0/ethernet@c
> net /pci@1f,0/ethernet@c
> cdrom /pci@1f,0/ide@d/cdrom@2,0:f
> disk /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@0,0
> disk3 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@3,0
> disk2 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@2,0
> disk1 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@1,0
> disk0 /pci@1f,0/ide@d/disk@0,0
> ide /pci@1f,0/ide@d
> floppy /pci@1f,0/isa@7/dma/floppy
> ttyb /pci@1f,0/isa@7/serial@0,2e8
> ttya /pci@1f,0/isa@7/serial@0,3f8
>
>
> So, when you install it, just at the # prompt, you need to do
>
> boot cdrom
>
> To get the install going.
>
> Make sure you DO NOT try to allocate more then the 137GB should you use a
> bigger drive then that in that box. It will NOT boot. Don't even try it. One
> thing I would do as well here if your drive is bigger then the 137GB is to
> try to use full cylinder oppose to try to use the full maximum number of
> sector possible. Minor details here, but you may have notice when you
> install OpenBSD, if you enter for example 512M as a size partition for
> example, then it actually do the partitions, it doesn't alway use the exact
> size you want, but round it up to a complete number of cylinder. May be you
> never notice that, or you did. Anyway, I am not saying it will or will not
> give you problem, but long ago I learn that nothing is done for no reason in
> OpenBSD, so if they fell it's important to have full cylinder, then i would
> do the same here when you use a drive bigger then what the system support
> and waste the rest of the sectors that you may loose. Not that many anyway!
> (;>
>
> I can send you by partition for the Seagate 160GB if that help you and
> that's what you use, but in the end, it's not hard to find out for your own
> drives anyway. Just a side note here. But just remember "DO NOT USE MORE
> THEN 137GB, or 73 GB on SCSI model" or you will regret it. Be warned.
>
> Now, when all this is done and you have your box going, the best thing is
> to continue and add as second one! (;>
>
> Yeap, setup PF with CARP so you have hardware backup and all.
>
> Then you plug each one into the other. What I mean by that is plug the
> serial 2 into the serial one of the first box and do the reverse for the
> second box. You use a simple flat cable with normal RJ-45 normal cable, the
> only thing to remember is twist the cable so that pine one on one side is
> pin 8 on the other side, that's all there is to it.
>
> Plug it in and then you have SSh access to the console of your other box
> via the first one. You can reset it, power it off, on, reinstall the OS from
> scratch, what ever you want really. Just remember not to reset the box with
> an incomplete OpenBSD install, or you will need to go back to the CD-Rom
> install, or a network install if you want, but then you need to setup an
> tftp, server and all, witch is not that hard, but takes time and I am lazy
> and never tried it, so I can't tell you. I always thought there is a way to
> do it with the boot ofwboot via tftp or something like that, but never find
> how yet either. This I would love to know as well, just as a reference, but
> I don't know and in all fairness, I did research it some, but didn't digg it
> up as much as I should have. Part of it is that I wasn't successful to find
> details on it and just got myself going without it, so it become a nice to
> know, but not required to know. I think the boot process should allow it,
> but I can't say knowingly how and if that's true or not. Just a hitch. (;>
>
> Here as well if anyone actually know how, it would be nice to know, I would
> love it anyway.
>
> Anyway, back on track here.
>
> If you connect two of these together and have the cable between them. The
> only thing you still need to setup is a way to actually access the console
> of your second servers via the SSH access on the first one.
>
> What I do here is also very simple.
>
> I added this at the bottom of /etc/remote
>
> # Access to Sun directly connected server on Serial port to console.
> sun1:\
> :dv=/dev/tty01:tc=direct:tc=unixhost:br#9600:
>
>
> Then from the first servr, I access the second one with simply:
>
> tip sun1
>
> # tip sun1
> connected
>
> And if you type the then you have the console access prompt, just
> like you would have directly connected via a keyboard and monitor to that
> server.
>
> Switch to the LOM via "#.", back to the console via "console", or
> disconnect via "~."
>
> That's all there is to it.
>
> Also, a side note as well, if the #., the ~. command do not work right
> away, that 's because you have something in the buffer of the console
> already, so just start by follow by ~. and it will always work. (;>
>
> Now you have two small little boxes, 1U size and 13 inch or 33 cm deep that
> weight only 13 pound, or 6kg. A little bit noisy with the default fans, but
> easy to correct and that takes no power really. The specs say 81W, that's
> the rating of the power supply, but that box in real life and I jave plenty
> of them take 13 W. All depend on the drive you use really and if you put one
> or two of them. it will not break your electrical bill like many of the new
> 600 to 900 Watts boxes these days, not does it have the same RAW power to be
> fair, but it comes down to what you use that box for and for a firewall,
> with CARP, even web server, DNS, mail, what ever you want, you will be
> surprise what it can do.
>
> I hope this step by step help you get it going. I think I cover it all, if
> not fell free to asked, but this will definitely get you going for sure
> unless you are MCSE and absolutely needs a GUI, witch I will not be able to
> help with! (;;>
>
> Anyway, joke aside I hope this help you some, or others as for lots of the
> stuff here, I had to dig it on google and at time, it did take me a good
> amount of time.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Daniel


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Re: OpenBSD on Sun Netra X1

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