ES40's won't boot!

Long story made longer...

Customer bought a pair of used ES40's for in-cabinet upgrades of a
pair of AlphaServer 4100's. They're having scheduling difficulties, so
they want to get the new equipment tested before the 30-day warrantee
from the dealer expires next week.

They also got a pair of MSA1000's, about 40 72GB disks, a pair of
fiber switches and a pair of DS-KGPSA-DA fiber host interfaces for
each ES40, which they would also like to test.

They have an old, unused AlphaServer 4100 (VMS 7.3-2) that they
wanted to use as a testbed. (Production systems are also 7.3-2.)
Everything patched through UPDATE V11 (we could install UPDATE V12
if needed, but at another site they've been running with MSA's
and, until recently, much older patch levels, without any obvious
problems.)

I'm trying to diagnose this from 3000 miles away, and I'm on
vacation, supposedly, starting today.

Anyway, I walked the customer through configuring the MSA's,
temporarily, as a pair of 1.5TB RAID5 sets partitioned into
4 units of 750GB each. They installed 2 of the 4 HBA's in
the AS4100, which sees them, but doesn't see the MSAs and
produces an error on each FGA device at boot time. From
some HSG80 docs I found at HP, it looks like the KGPSA-DA's
aren't supported on AS4100's. Does anyone know for sure?
At the dead sergeant, the AS4100 says the HBA's have an
NVRAM formatting problem, and wwidmgr doesn't see any of
the units.

The ES40's power up and look okay at the console, and when
they cabled the MSAs into one of them, ">>> show device"
and wwidmgr show all 4 of the units, so I think that part's okay.

But the ES40's (neither of them) will boot. They each
have a KZPCM (dual SCSI plus Ethernet) in them, and using
a spare external storageworks shelf, they've tried booting
a copy of the AS4100's system disk, the actual AS4100
system disk, and on the internal IDE CD drive, the
VMS V7.3-1 distribution CD (they couldn't find V7.3-2,
didn't look very hard), and the V6.x or V7.x (not sure what
version they were trying, but something plenty recent enough
to include ES40's) of the Alpha firmware CD.

All 8 cases say something like "transferring to bootstrap"
and then just hang. (Waited up to 20 minutes.) It sounds
like they think they are successfully loading the boot
from the disk (APB.EXE?) and then are getting stuck. They
have to press the halt button to get the >>> back.

So what stupid misconfiguration could be causing this? Or
are both ES40's identically broken?

(Every console variable I could think of seems to be okay.
console is set to "serial". os_type is "OpenVMS". Boot
flags, etc. seem to be correct. Memory seems to be okay
(passes power-on self-test.)

About 2 weeks ago, they upgraded another ES40 at another
site (in-box upgrade of CPUs from 667MHz to 833MHz), added
a new pair of MSA1000's to an existing pair, and had some
weird CPU problems before they actually started, and HP
had to reload the SROM from a floppy (fail-safe loader?)
System had been up for many months, rebooted fine, but
when HP tried a power-down and reboot, it broke. (This was
before they touched anything.) The customer had HP do that
upgrade; I have no idea why they decided to do this one
themselves. Anyway, having the experienced HP guys onsite
to do it dodged a major disaster in that case! Is this
a common ES40 problem? Do we need to do the same thing
to both the new ones?


Could there be something (backplane jumper, etc.) putting
them in "test mode" that just needs to be cleared or removed
or reset?


Some dumb configuration problem with the console terminal
they are attempting to use (some kind of Wyse supposed
VT320 emulator that they have zillions of?) They did
report seeing some backwards question marks, which I would
interpret as a parity or framing or character size problem,
but it seems to be working okay in console mode. There
were some console variables that seemed to reflect terminal
characteristics, but they were 9600 baud, 8-bit, no parity,
no modem control, I.e. pretty standard.


If they could get one of the ES40's to boot, we could
run some disk bashing tests on the MSA's before the
warrantee expires. (Apparently their current H/W
maint. vendor, not HP, won't put the new hardware under
their maintenance agreement until it is demonstrated to
be installed and working, and the clock is ticking on
the seller's warrantee. Arggh!) (And why didn't they
do this two or three weeks ago, before my vacation??)


I'll try to check in over the next week, supposedly the
vacation house (holiday house as my Aussie niece calls
it) has WiFi...


--
John

In article <MPG.211570258044af02989765@news.bellatlantic.net>,
John Santos <john.santos@post.harvard.edu> wrote:

....
[color=blue]
> So what stupid misconfiguration could be causing this? Or
> are both ES40's identically broken?
>
> (Every console variable I could think of seems to be okay.
> console is set to "serial". os_type is "OpenVMS". Boot
> flags, etc. seem to be correct. Memory seems to be okay
> (passes power-on self-test.)[/color]

So the CONSOLE environment variable is SERIAL. Are you sure they are
connected to the serial console port?

Newer alphas (and I think this includes the ES40) have multiple serial
ports. The console FW can talk to any of them. But only one of them is
the "real" console that VMS will use.

If there is another serial port on the system, have them try it. Maybe
VMS is running perfectly well, and they just can't see the output.

-- Robert

In article <MPG.211570258044af02989765@news.bellatlantic.net>, John Santos <john.santos@post.harvard.edu> writes:[color=blue]
> Long story made longer...
>
> Customer bought a pair of used ES40's for in-cabinet upgrades of a
> pair of AlphaServer 4100's. They're having scheduling difficulties, so
> they want to get the new equipment tested before the 30-day warrantee
> from the dealer expires next week.
>
> They also got a pair of MSA1000's, about 40 72GB disks, a pair of
> fiber switches and a pair of DS-KGPSA-DA fiber host interfaces for
> each ES40, which they would also like to test.
>
> They have an old, unused AlphaServer 4100 (VMS 7.3-2) that they
> wanted to use as a testbed. (Production systems are also 7.3-2.)
> Everything patched through UPDATE V11 (we could install UPDATE V12
> if needed, but at another site they've been running with MSA's
> and, until recently, much older patch levels, without any obvious
> problems.)
>
> I'm trying to diagnose this from 3000 miles away, and I'm on
> vacation, supposedly, starting today.
>
> Anyway, I walked the customer through configuring the MSA's,
> temporarily, as a pair of 1.5TB RAID5 sets partitioned into
> 4 units of 750GB each. They installed 2 of the 4 HBA's in
> the AS4100, which sees them, but doesn't see the MSAs and
> produces an error on each FGA device at boot time. From
> some HSG80 docs I found at HP, it looks like the KGPSA-DA's
> aren't supported on AS4100's. Does anyone know for sure?
> At the dead sergeant, the AS4100 says the HBA's have an
> NVRAM formatting problem, and wwidmgr doesn't see any of
> the units.[/color]

I don't know if KGPSA-DA's are supported, but the NVRAM formatting
message means the HBA NVRAM needs to be initialized. Does wwidmgr
see them (i.e., does "-show adapter" list them)? If so, the
wwidmgr command "-set adapter -item nn" (where nn is an item number
displayed by the "-show adapter" command) should format the NVRAM.


George Cook
WVNET

In article <YbGSSM7OQzno@wvnvms>, [email]cook@wvnvms.wvnet.edu[/email] says...[color=blue]
> In article <MPG.211570258044af02989765@news.bellatlantic.net>, John Santos <john.santos@post.harvard.edu> writes:[color=green]
> > Long story made longer...
> >
> > Customer bought a pair of used ES40's for in-cabinet upgrades of a
> > pair of AlphaServer 4100's. They're having scheduling difficulties, so
> > they want to get the new equipment tested before the 30-day warrantee
> > from the dealer expires next week.
> >
> > They also got a pair of MSA1000's, about 40 72GB disks, a pair of
> > fiber switches and a pair of DS-KGPSA-DA fiber host interfaces for
> > each ES40, which they would also like to test.
> >
> > They have an old, unused AlphaServer 4100 (VMS 7.3-2) that they
> > wanted to use as a testbed. (Production systems are also 7.3-2.)
> > Everything patched through UPDATE V11 (we could install UPDATE V12
> > if needed, but at another site they've been running with MSA's
> > and, until recently, much older patch levels, without any obvious
> > problems.)
> >
> > I'm trying to diagnose this from 3000 miles away, and I'm on
> > vacation, supposedly, starting today.
> >
> > Anyway, I walked the customer through configuring the MSA's,
> > temporarily, as a pair of 1.5TB RAID5 sets partitioned into
> > 4 units of 750GB each. They installed 2 of the 4 HBA's in
> > the AS4100, which sees them, but doesn't see the MSAs and
> > produces an error on each FGA device at boot time. From
> > some HSG80 docs I found at HP, it looks like the KGPSA-DA's
> > aren't supported on AS4100's. Does anyone know for sure?
> > At the dead sergeant, the AS4100 says the HBA's have an
> > NVRAM formatting problem, and wwidmgr doesn't see any of
> > the units.[/color]
>
> I don't know if KGPSA-DA's are supported, but the NVRAM formatting
> message means the HBA NVRAM needs to be initialized. Does wwidmgr
> see them (i.e., does "-show adapter" list them)? If so, the
> wwidmgr command "-set adapter -item nn" (where nn is an item number
> displayed by the "-show adapter" command) should format the NVRAM.[/color]

Thanks, George. We tried this (on the AS4100), didn't seem to help.

wwidmgr did list them, but with an NVRAM message for each. No such
messages on the ES40. wwidmgr -set adapter -item 9999 (which IIUC
means format the NVRAM on all the adapters), gave a message about
an MBX problem. Hard to get the exact text, the cust was talking on
a speaker phone in a very noisy computer room.

I don't *think* the customer moved any of the "defective" KGPSA's
back to the ES40's, but he may have. He is planning to do this
on Monday.
[color=blue]
>
>
> George Cook
> WVNET
>[/color]

--
John

In article <rdeininger-09E1B6.16482528072007@customer-201-125-217-
207.uninet.net.mx>, [email]rdeininger@mindspring.dot.com[/email] says...[color=blue]
> In article <MPG.211570258044af02989765@news.bellatlantic.net>,
> John Santos <john.santos@post.harvard.edu> wrote:
>
> ...
>[color=green]
> > So what stupid misconfiguration could be causing this? Or
> > are both ES40's identically broken?
> >
> > (Every console variable I could think of seems to be okay.
> > console is set to "serial". os_type is "OpenVMS". Boot
> > flags, etc. seem to be correct. Memory seems to be okay
> > (passes power-on self-test.)[/color]
>
> So the CONSOLE environment variable is SERIAL. Are you sure they are
> connected to the serial console port?[/color]

Yes, I think so. There are two DB9 connectors on the back of
each ES40. They tried one and can talk to the SRM console
(until it all goes away when they try to boot.) When they plug
their terminal into the other DB9, they don't get any response.
[color=blue]
>
> Newer alphas (and I think this includes the ES40) have multiple serial
> ports. The console FW can talk to any of them. But only one of them is
> the "real" console that VMS will use.
>
> If there is another serial port on the system, have them try it. Maybe
> VMS is running perfectly well, and they just can't see the output.
>[/color]

That's possible...

However, it wasn't running "perfectly well", since they had plugged
the AS4100's Ethernet cable into it, and it doesn't respond to pings,
SET HOST or LAT. It could be that the port is at the wrong speed.
EWA0_MODE was set to "twisted-pair" and the AS4100 was "FastFD" and the
Cisco switch may be locked down at 100MB Full Duplex. However, I told
them to change EWA0_MODE to FastFD, and they claim they did this, though
they were getting very tetchy by this point (and so was I, since I
was missing my Birthday dinner), so they might have been lying, or
mistyped the command and it didn't take effect.

Once VMS was up, shouldn't the "wrong" DB9 port come up as TTA0:
and respond to a couple of <RET>'s with a USERNAME: prompt?

And if they were plugged into the "wrong" DB9, shouldn't they
have gotten some response on the "right" one? (Either in console
mode, or after VMS came up and it turned into OPA0:?)
[color=blue]
> -- Robert
>[/color]

--
John

John Santos wrote:[color=blue]
>
> In article <YbGSSM7OQzno@wvnvms>, [email]cook@wvnvms.wvnet.edu[/email] says...[color=green]
> > In article <MPG.211570258044af02989765@news.bellatlantic.net>, John Santos <john.santos@post.harvard.edu> writes:[color=darkred]
> > > Long story made longer...
> > >
> > > Customer bought a pair of used ES40's for in-cabinet upgrades of a
> > > pair of AlphaServer 4100's. They're having scheduling difficulties, so
> > > they want to get the new equipment tested before the 30-day warrantee
> > > from the dealer expires next week.
> > >
> > > They also got a pair of MSA1000's, about 40 72GB disks, a pair of
> > > fiber switches and a pair of DS-KGPSA-DA fiber host interfaces for
> > > each ES40, which they would also like to test.
> > >
> > > They have an old, unused AlphaServer 4100 (VMS 7.3-2) that they
> > > wanted to use as a testbed. (Production systems are also 7.3-2.)
> > > Everything patched through UPDATE V11 (we could install UPDATE V12
> > > if needed, but at another site they've been running with MSA's
> > > and, until recently, much older patch levels, without any obvious
> > > problems.)
> > >
> > > I'm trying to diagnose this from 3000 miles away, and I'm on
> > > vacation, supposedly, starting today.
> > >
> > > Anyway, I walked the customer through configuring the MSA's,
> > > temporarily, as a pair of 1.5TB RAID5 sets partitioned into
> > > 4 units of 750GB each. They installed 2 of the 4 HBA's in
> > > the AS4100, which sees them, but doesn't see the MSAs and
> > > produces an error on each FGA device at boot time. From
> > > some HSG80 docs I found at HP, it looks like the KGPSA-DA's
> > > aren't supported on AS4100's. Does anyone know for sure?
> > > At the dead sergeant, the AS4100 says the HBA's have an
> > > NVRAM formatting problem, and wwidmgr doesn't see any of
> > > the units.[/color]
> >
> > I don't know if KGPSA-DA's are supported, but the NVRAM formatting
> > message means the HBA NVRAM needs to be initialized. Does wwidmgr
> > see them (i.e., does "-show adapter" list them)? If so, the
> > wwidmgr command "-set adapter -item nn" (where nn is an item number
> > displayed by the "-show adapter" command) should format the NVRAM.[/color]
>
> Thanks, George. We tried this (on the AS4100), didn't seem to help.
>
> wwidmgr did list them, but with an NVRAM message for each. No such
> messages on the ES40. wwidmgr -set adapter -item 9999 (which IIUC
> means format the NVRAM on all the adapters), gave a message about
> an MBX problem. Hard to get the exact text, the cust was talking on
> a speaker phone in a very noisy computer room.
>
> I don't *think* the customer moved any of the "defective" KGPSA's
> back to the ES40's, but he may have. He is planning to do this
> on Monday.[/color]

Trying to recall past discussions here... AFAIK, 4100s have very limited (or no)
FC support.

--
David J Dachtera
dba DJE Systems
[url]http://www.djesys.com/[/url]

Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/[/url]

Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page:
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/[/url]

Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page:
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/[/url]

Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page:
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/[/url]

Malcolm Dunnett wrote:[color=blue]
> John Santos wrote:
>[color=green]
>>
>> Yes, I think so. There are two DB9 connectors on the back of
>> each ES40. They tried one and can talk to the SRM console
>> (until it all goes away when they try to boot.) When they plug
>> their terminal into the other DB9, they don't get any response.
>>[/color]
> The "real" console on the ES40 is neither of these, it's an MMJ
> that is located above those ports.
>[/color]

I bet that's it! Thank you, Malcolm.
[color=blue][color=green]
>> However, it wasn't running "perfectly well", since they had plugged
>> the AS4100's Ethernet cable into it, and it doesn't respond to pings,
>> SET HOST or LAT. It could be that the port is at the wrong speed.[/color]
>
>
> It could be that VMS has stopped in the boot process to ask you to
> set the clock (this prompt coming out on the MMJ connector )
>[/color]

Could be. I had them typing blind date & time strings at the "console",
just in case, but of course, there was no response.


They are absolutely convinced the serial console doesn't work under VMS,
which is of course nonsense, and are planning to try to install the
VGA card from the 4100 in one of the ES40's on Monday and try again.

If the MMJ is in fact the console, then this will probably work, and
they'll never believe that wasn't the problem. Oh well, as long as it
works :-(

--
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
781-861-0670 ext 539

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:36:05 -0700, John Santos <john@egh.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Malcolm Dunnett wrote:[color=green]
>> John Santos wrote:
>>[color=darkred]
>>>
>>> Yes, I think so. There are two DB9 connectors on the back of
>>> each ES40. They tried one and can talk to the SRM console
>>> (until it all goes away when they try to boot.) When they plug
>>> their terminal into the other DB9, they don't get any response.
>>>[/color]
>> The "real" console on the ES40 is neither of these, it's an MMJ
>> that is located above those ports.
>>[/color]
>
> I bet that's it! Thank you, Malcolm.
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>> However, it wasn't running "perfectly well", since they had plugged
>>> the AS4100's Ethernet cable into it, and it doesn't respond to pings,
>>> SET HOST or LAT. It could be that the port is at the wrong speed.[/color]
>> It could be that VMS has stopped in the boot process to ask you to
>> set the clock (this prompt coming out on the MMJ connector )
>>[/color]
>
> Could be. I had them typing blind date & time strings at the "console",
> just in case, but of course, there was no response.
>
>
> They are absolutely convinced the serial console doesn't work under VMS,
> which is of course nonsense, and are planning to try to install the
> VGA card from the 4100 in one of the ES40's on Monday and try again.
>
> If the MMJ is in fact the console, then this will probably work, and
> they'll never believe that wasn't the problem. Oh well, as long as it
> works :-([/color]

The console is one of the DB9 ports.[color=blue]
>[/color]



--
PL/I for OpenVMS
[url]www.kednos.com[/url]

Tom Linden wrote:[color=blue]
>
> On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:36:05 -0700, John Santos <john@egh.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> > Malcolm Dunnett wrote:[color=darkred]
> >> John Santos wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Yes, I think so. There are two DB9 connectors on the back of
> >>> each ES40. They tried one and can talk to the SRM console
> >>> (until it all goes away when they try to boot.) When they plug
> >>> their terminal into the other DB9, they don't get any response.
> >>>
> >> The "real" console on the ES40 is neither of these, it's an MMJ
> >> that is located above those ports.
> >>[/color]
> >
> > I bet that's it! Thank you, Malcolm.
> >[color=darkred]
> >>> However, it wasn't running "perfectly well", since they had plugged
> >>> the AS4100's Ethernet cable into it, and it doesn't respond to pings,
> >>> SET HOST or LAT. It could be that the port is at the wrong speed.
> >> It could be that VMS has stopped in the boot process to ask you to
> >> set the clock (this prompt coming out on the MMJ connector )
> >>[/color]
> >
> > Could be. I had them typing blind date & time strings at the "console",
> > just in case, but of course, there was no response.
> >
> >
> > They are absolutely convinced the serial console doesn't work under VMS,
> > which is of course nonsense, and are planning to try to install the
> > VGA card from the 4100 in one of the ES40's on Monday and try again.
> >
> > If the MMJ is in fact the console, then this will probably work, and
> > they'll never believe that wasn't the problem. Oh well, as long as it
> > works :-([/color]
>
> The console is one of the DB9 ports.[/color]

ES40 and ES45 both default to their MMJ port as the serial console.

Bumped my head on that when we got our ES45. I was expecting it to NOT have the
MMJ port like the ES40 - I was wrong. It did, and it was(is).

--
David J Dachtera
dba DJE Systems
[url]http://www.djesys.com/[/url]

Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/[/url]

Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page:
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/[/url]

Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page:
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/[/url]

Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page:
[url]http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/[/url]

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:52:07 -0700, Malcolm Dunnett
<nothome@spammers.are.scum> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Tom Linden wrote:
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>> If the MMJ is in fact the console, then this will probably work, and
>>> they'll never believe that wasn't the problem. Oh well, as long as it
>>> works :-([/color]
>> The console is one of the DB9 ports.[/color]
>
> Sorry, that's not correct (It would be for a DS10/DS20
> but not for an ES40 ). On the ES40 it's the MMJ (trust
> me, I've made the same mistake myself! )[/color]

Works for me.

When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports (without
having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>[/color][/color][/color]
[color=blue]
>
> If you don't believe me see:
>
> [url]http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/download/es40og_revb.pdf[/url]
>
> see pages 20/21 for a description of the rear panel ports.
>[/color]



--
PL/I for OpenVMS
[url]www.kednos.com[/url]

[color=blue]
> Works for me.
>
> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports (without
> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color]

It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
what the original poster saw.

I believe (though I haven't tried it) that

- VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
- RMC only works on the real console.

---------------------------------------------------------
Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer
Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
Ireland

In article <Rumri.21157$j7.379754@news.indigo.ie>,
Tom Wade <nospam@picard.eurokom.ie> wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
> > Works for me.
> >
> > When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports (without
> > having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color]
>
> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
> prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
> what the original poster saw.
>
> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that
>
> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
> - RMC only works on the real console.
>[/color]

IIRC, this mirrors what I have seen on my PWS 600au. With the console
set to serial, I can see the chevron prompt and boot. However, if I am
connected to the wrong port, it appears that the startup has stalled,
when in fact the output messages are going to the real console line.

If all is well with the startup, you can eventually log in on the second
port or via the network, but if the startup barfs, you don't see what
happened.

--
Paul Sture

Sue's OpenVMS bookmarks:
[url]http://eisner.encompasserve.org/~sture/ovms-bookmarks.html[/url]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:26:19 -0700, Tom Wade <nospam@picard.eurokom.ie>
wrote:
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>> Works for me.
>> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports (without
>> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color]
>
> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
> prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
> what the original poster saw.
>
> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that
>
> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
> - RMC only works on the real console.
>[/color]
I will try it out when I get a chance
[color=blue]
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
> EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
> A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
> Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer
> Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
> Ireland[/color]



--
PL/I for OpenVMS
[url]www.kednos.com[/url]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:06:25 -0700, Tom Linden <tom@kednos.company> wrote:
[color=blue]
> On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:26:19 -0700, Tom Wade <nospam@picard.eurokom.ie>
> wrote:
>[color=green]
>>[color=darkred]
>>> Works for me.
>>> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports
>>> (without
>>> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color]
>>
>> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
>> prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
>> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
>> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
>> what the original poster saw.
>>
>> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that
>>
>> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
>> - RMC only works on the real console.
>>[/color]
> I will try it out when I get a chance[/color]

I attached a cable to the MMJ port and one to COM1
The MMJ port prints the message "Remote login or bypas RMC" and reprints
the
message no matter which key is struck, including ^P, ^c, ^Z
The COM1 port prints the usual POST stuff and ends with the >>> prompt, but
when booting it is unresponsive to ^P
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
>> EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
>> A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
>> Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer
>> Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
>> Ireland[/color]
>
>
>[/color]



--
PL/I for OpenVMS
[url]www.kednos.com[/url]

On Jul 30, 4:21 pm, "Tom Linden" <t...@kednos.company> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:06:25 -0700, Tom Linden <t...@kednos.company> wrote:[color=green]
> > On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:26:19 -0700, Tom Wade <nos...@picard.eurokom.ie>
> > wrote:[/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >>> Works for me.
> >>> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports
> >>> (without
> >>> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
> >> prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
> >> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
> >> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
> >> what the original poster saw.[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
> >> - RMC only works on the real console.[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
> > I will try it out when I get a chance[/color]
>
> I attached a cable to the MMJ port and one to COM1
> The MMJ port prints the message "Remote login or bypas RMC" and reprints
> the
> message no matter which key is struck, including ^P, ^c, ^Z
> The COM1 port prints the usual POST stuff and ends with the >>> prompt, but
> when booting it is unresponsive to ^P
>
>
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------
> >> Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
> >> EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
> >> A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
> >> Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer
> >> Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
> >> Ireland[/color][/color]
>
> --
> PL/I for OpenVMSwww.kednos.com[/color]


I don't have an ES40. That said, the docs indicate comm port 1 is
dedicated port for a modem connection to a remote management console,
comm port 2 is a general serial port, and the MMJ is the console.

Is it possible there's a setting that makes the ES40 prefer the
'remote management console' port?

Have you tried entering the RMC on the console ( "<esc><esc>rmc" if I
remember correctly)?

Have you checked the COM1_MODE environment variable? It may be set to
one of the alternate data modes defined around page 96 in the manual
linked earlier ( [url]http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/download/es40og_revb.pdf[/url]
)

Do you have a PS2 keyboard plugged in?

Thats all I can think of.

On 30 Jul, 23:49, Rich Jordan <jor...@ccs4vms.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> On Jul 30, 4:21 pm, "Tom Linden" <t...@kednos.company> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>[color=green]
> > On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:06:25 -0700, Tom Linden <t...@kednos.company> wrote:[color=darkred]
> > > On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:26:19 -0700, Tom Wade <nos...@picard.eurokom.ie>
> > > wrote:[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> > >>> Works for me.
> > >>> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports
> > >>> (without
> > >>> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> > >> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
> > >> prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
> > >> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
> > >> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
> > >> what the original poster saw.[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> > >> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> > >> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
> > >> - RMC only works on the real console.[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> > > I will try it out when I get a chance[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
> > I attached a cable to the MMJ port and one to COM1
> > The MMJ port prints the message "Remote login or bypas RMC" and reprints
> > the
> > message no matter which key is struck, including ^P, ^c, ^Z
> > The COM1 port prints the usual POST stuff and ends with the >>> prompt, but
> > when booting it is unresponsive to ^P[/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------
> > >> Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
> > >> EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
> > >> A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
> > >> Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer
> > >> Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
> > >> Ireland[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
> > --
> > PL/I for OpenVMSwww.kednos.com[/color]
>
> I don't have an ES40. That said, the docs indicate comm port 1 is
> dedicated port for a modem connection to a remote management console,
> comm port 2 is a general serial port, and the MMJ is the console.
>
> Is it possible there's a setting that makes the ES40 prefer the
> 'remote management console' port?
>
> Have you tried entering the RMC on the console ( "<esc><esc>rmc" if I
> remember correctly)?
>
> Have you checked the COM1_MODE environment variable? It may be set to
> one of the alternate data modes defined around page 96 in the manual
> linked earlier ( [url]http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/download/es40og_revb.pdf[/url]
> )
>
> Do you have a PS2 keyboard plugged in?
>
> Thats all I can think of.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -[/color]

On the subject of PS2 keyboards, I've seen two ES47s hang in the
manner described when they had non-HP VMS-style keyboards on them.
Get a banner for VMS booting and then nothing else.

Steve

Tom Wade wrote:[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>> Works for me.
>>
>> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports (without
>> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color]
>
>
> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue a
> prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
> what the original poster saw.
>
> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that
>
> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
> - RMC only works on the real console.
>[/color]

Thanks to all. They got the ES40 to boot by plugging a CRT into the
MMJ port. It turned out it was waiting for the date/time to be
entered. Once booted, the CRT on the MMJ could log in and its terminal
port shows up as OPA0:, so the MMJ is definitely the console.


--
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
781-861-0670 ext 539

On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:28:43 -0700, John Santos <john@egh.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Tom Wade wrote:[color=green]
>>[color=darkred]
>>> Works for me.
>>>
>>> When I got my ES40s I plugged a cable into on of the DB9 ports (without
>>> having consulted the documentation) and it gave me the familiar[/color]
>> It still isn't the real console. When SRM is running, it will issue
>> a prompt and accept commands on all three serial interfaces. Once you
>> start the boot sequence, only the real console will be active. The
>> other two serial lines will be unusable until VMS is running. This is
>> what the original poster saw.
>> I believe (though I haven't tried it) that
>> - VMS can only be halted by CTRL/P on the real console.
>> - RMC only works on the real console.
>>[/color]
>
> Thanks to all. They got the ES40 to boot by plugging a CRT into the
> MMJ port. It turned out it was waiting for the date/time to be
> entered. Once booted, the CRT on the MMJ could log in and its terminal
> port shows up as OPA0:, so the MMJ is definitely the console.
>[/color]
Not on mine, it is one of the D9's, but someone commented that this may be
configured



--
PL/I for OpenVMS
[url]www.kednos.com[/url]