Configuring and Managing OpenVMS Booting on Integrity Servers

Checking the ACPI Configuration for Booting OpenVMS in an nPartition

To boot your OpenVMS I64 operating system on a cell-based server, the ACPI configuration must be set correctly. The ACPI configuration value determines, among other things, the EFI Path format used when referencing devices. If your Integrity server was factory installed, the ACPI configuration is set correctly. If the nPartition on which you want to boot your OpenVMS system had previously been running a Windows or Linux system, then enter the following command at the EFI Shell prompt to set the partition to boot correctly with OpenVMS:

EFI> acpiconfig default

To make this new value take effect, you must reset the nPartition by using the EFI Shell reset command:

  EFI> reset

If the ACPI configuration value is not set properly, when the operating system boots, it fails with bugcheck code INCONSTATE.

You cannot modify the ACPI configuration value for Integrity servers that do not support nPartitions (for example, the rx2600 server).

To display the current configuration value, enter the acpiconfig command with no arguments:

   EFI> acpiconfig
   Acpiconfig settings: default

	NOTE: The acpiconfig command does not necessarily report the setting that was used on the current nPartition boot stage. It reports only the current setting, which is used for the next boot of the nPartition.

Setting Boot Options for Your System Disk

You can establish and manage boot options for your system disk in any of three ways:

HP recommends that you allow the OpenVMS I64 installation or upgrade procedure to establish a boot option for your system disk. However, you still have the option of modifying the boot option or adding other boot options for your system disk by using the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility from the OpenVMS DCL prompt (or by using EFI itself).

The OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility is a menu-based utility that enables you to configure EFI boot options for your Integrity server. It is easier to use than EFI. With this OpenVMS utility, you can perform actions such as the following:

This section explains how to perform most of these operations (except moving and removing boot options). For more information about the OpenVMS Boot Manager utility, see the HP OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, Volume 1: Essentials. This section also explains how to use EFI to add a boot option for automatic booting.

HP recommends that you configure your system with a boot option for your system disk. You can enable automatic reboot of the system disk by specifying your system disk as the first boot option in the EFI Boot Manager menu. When the EFI timeout (countdown) occurs (the default is 10 seconds), your system disk boots automatically.

	NOTE: To configure booting on Fibre Channel devices, you must use the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility. (Use of this utility is optional for other devices but mandatory for Fibre Channel devices.) HP also recommends using this utility to add members of a multiple-member shadow set to the boot device list and dump device list. Be sure to add all members to both lists. For more information about the utility, see the HP OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, Volume 1: Essentials. For more information about configuring and booting Fibre Channel devices, see Appendix D “Setting Up and Booting Fibre Channel Storage Devices”.

Adding a Boot Option and Setting Boot Flags

To add a boot option and set boot flags using the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility, follow these steps:

1. At the DCL prompt, enter the following command to start the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility:

   $ @SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM

2. When the utility starts, the main menu is displayed. To add your system disk as a boot option, enter 1 at the prompt, as in the following example:

   OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager Boot Options List Management Utility (1) ADD an entry to the Boot Options list (2) DISPLAY the Boot Options list (3) REMOVE an entry from the Boot Options list (4) MOVE the position of an entry in the Boot Options list (5) VALIDATE boot options and fix them as necessary (6) Modify Boot Options TIMEOUT setting (B) Set to operate on the Boot Device Options list (D) Set to operate on the Dump Device Options list (G) Set to operate on the Debug Device Options list (E) EXIT from the Boot Manager utility You can also enter Ctrl-Y at any time to abort this utility Enter your choice: 1

   	NOTE: While using this utility, you can change a response made to an earlier prompt by entering the caret (^) character as many times as needed. To end and return to the DCL prompt, press Ctrl/Y.

3. The utility prompts you for the device name. Enter the system disk device you are using for this installation. In the following example, the device name is DKA0:.

   Enter the device name (enter "?" for a list of devices): DKA0:

4. The utility prompts you for the position you want your entry to take in the EFI boot option list. To see a list of the current boot options, enter a question mark (?):

   Enter the desired position number (1,2,3,,,) of the entry. To display the Boot Options list, enter "?" and press Return. Position [1]: ?

5. The list in the following example includes only one boot option. To add your boot option entry to the top of the list (the default) so that your system disk boots automatically when the server starts or the EFI countdown timer expires, enter 1:

   EFI Boot Options list: Timeout = 0 secs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 01. VenHw(d65a6b8c-71e5-4df0-d2f009a9) "EFI Shell [Built-in]" ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 entries found. Enter the desired position number (1,2,3,...) of the entry. To display the Boot Options list, enter "?" and press Return. Position [1]: 1

6. The utility prompts you for OpenVMS boot flags. By default, no flags are set. Enter the OpenVMS flags (for example, 0,1), or press Enter to set no flags, as in the following example:

   Enter the value for VMS_FLAGS in the form n,n. VMS_FLAGS [NONE]:

   Optionally, you can use any of the standard OpenVMS boot flags such as the following:

   Flags	Description
   0,1	Enable SYSBOOT to change system parameters; enable conversational booting for debugging purposes.
   0,2	Load XDELTA.
   0,4	Take the initial EXEC_INIT breakpoint.
   0,20000	Print debug messages on boot.
   0,30000	Print more debug messages on boot.

7. The utility prompts you for a description to include with your boot option entry. By default, the device name is used as the description. You can enter more descriptive information as in the following example. This example shows a sample confirmation message (for devices with multiple paths, such as Fibre Channel devices, a separate confirmation message is displayed for each path). EFI$BCFG is the name of the executor file for the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility.

   Enter a short description (do not include quotation marks). Description ["DKA0"]: DKA0: OpenVMS V8.3 for PLMs System efi$bcfg: DKA0: (BOOT003) Option successfully added

8. When you have successfully added your boot option, exit the utility by entering E at the prompt:

   Enter your choice: E $

Using EFI to Set Automatic Booting of Your System Disk

HP recommends allowing the OpenVMS installation or upgrade procedure to set your system disk to boot automatically. Or, use the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility (SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM). However, you can use EFI. This section explains how to use EFI to set up your Integrity server firmware to automatically boot your OpenVMS I64 system from your system disk. (HP also recommends using the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility to set boot flags. Optionally, you can use the vms_loader.efi -flags n,n command at the EFI prompt to set any of the standard OpenVMS boot flags, as documented earlier in this appendix.)

Access the EFI Shell and enter the following line at the prompt, where fsn: (such as fs0: or fs1:) is the device associated with the system disk:

Shell> bcfg boot add 1 fsn:\efi\vms\vms_loader.efi "HP OpenVMS I64"

This command adds the OpenVMS I64 operating system to position 1 in the EFI Boot Manager menu. The quoted text in the command line (“HP OpenVMS I64”) is displayed at position 1 in the EFI boot menu. You can enter any text that helps you identify the operating system disk. During system power up, the position 1 item is automatically executed after the default 10-second countdown.

Alternatively, you can add an EFI boot menu option by using the EFI menu interface:

1. Select the Boot Configuration option (or in some versions of EFI, the Boot Option Maintenance Menu).

2. Select Add a Boot Option.

3. Select the boot device and boot file.

   	NOTE: All EFI boot options embed the disk Globally Unique ID (GUID). Therefore, if you reinstall OpenVMS or restore a system disk from an image backup, you must first delete the old boot options and then add a new boot option. To delete a boot option, use the Delete Boot Option(s) option in the Boot Configuration menu (or Boot Option Maintenance Menu).

Still another method to add a boot entry to the EFI Boot Manager menu is to use the EFI Utilities for OpenVMS (I64 only) vms_bcfg command, which accepts OpenVMS device names and also enables you to set flags. However, note that this command has limited capabilities; for example, it cannot handle Fibre Channel paths as can the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility. In the following example, DKA0: is the OpenVMS system disk being added as the first boot option:

Shell> \efi\vms\vms_bcfg boot add 1 dka0: -fl 0,2 "HP OpenVMS I64"

For more information about EFI utilities for OpenVMS (I64 only), see the HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual.

Displaying EFI Boot Entries and Mapped OpenVMS Devices

The Integrity server EFI Boot Manager shows the various paths to the boot device. You can use the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility to display the OpenVMS boot device options known to EFI.

Start the utility at the DCL prompt (@SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM) and select option 2 on the main menu (the main menu is shown in “Setting Boot Options for Your System Disk”). The utility displays the following prompt. In this example, the listings for the DQA0: device are requested and displayed.

To display all entries in the Boot Options list, press Return. To display specific entries, enter the entry number or device name. (Enter "?" for a list of devices):DQA0 EFI Boot Options list: Timeout = 20 secs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04. DQA0 PCI(0|0|2|0) ATA(Primary,Master) "DVD-ROM " ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 entries found.

You can also display all bootable devices mapped by the EFI console and their equivalent OpenVMS device names by using the EFI Utilities for OpenVMS vms_show command at the EFI Shell prompt (from \efi\vms). For more information about EFI utilities for OpenVMS, see the HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual.

Setting EFI Boot Option Countdown Timer (Timeout)

Whenever the EFI Boot Manager menu displays, it waits for you to select an option. By default, it waits 10 seconds, after which EFI boots the first boot option. If the first option is not available or does not boot, EFI waits the same duration before booting the next option in the list. The OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility (SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM) allows you to change the duration for this countdown value and also to disable the countdown (so that there is no wait) and enable it.

Select option 6 on the OpenVMS I64 Boot Options main menu (the main menu is shown in “Setting Boot Options for Your System Disk”). The utility displays the following prompt. To change the value, enter YES and then enter the new value. In this example, the timeout value is changed to 20 seconds.

efi$bcfg: Boot Timeout period is 10 secs Would you like to modify the Timeout value? (Yes/No) [NO] YES Please enter the Timeout value in seconds: 20 efi$bcfg: Boot Timeout period is 20 secs

To disable the timeout so that automatic booting occurs instantaneously, enter 0 as the value, as in the following example:

Please enter the Timeout value in seconds: 0 efi$bcfg: Boot Timeout is Disabled

Writing a New Boot Block

The boot block structures on the system disk contain the size and location of the boot partition and other details relevant to the bootstrap of OpenVMS I64. The size and location of the boot partition stored within the boot block structures must be maintained and must reference the current location of the OpenVMS file SYS$EFI.SYS.

Current versions of BACKUP maintain the boot block structures as well as the size and location of the boot partition during image operations (analogous to the similar BACKUP/IMAGE operations that maintain the boot block on OpenVMS Alpha disks). Older versions of BACKUP do not maintain these structures and do not correctly locate core OpenVMS I64 bootstrap files.

If the boot partition file SYS$EFI.SYS is manually replaced or relocated, you must use the DCL command SET BOOTBLOCK or the SYS$SETBOOT image to rewrite the boot block structures. The SET BOOTBLOCK command and SYS$SETBOOT are analogous to the OpenVMS Alpha Writeboot utility; they provide OpenVMS I64 with the equivalent of what the Writeboot utility provides on OpenVMS Alpha. (Do not use the OpenVMS Alpha Writeboot utility to rewrite boot block structures on an OpenVMS I64 system disk.)

The SET BOOTBLOCK command enables you to establish the boot block pointers necessary for the EFI console to find and bootstrap an OpenVMS I64 system disk. You must use this command if the target OpenVMS I64 system disk was originally created by one of the following methods:

	NOTE: If the target OpenVMS I64 system disk has an incorrectly-placed [000000]GPT.SYS file, the disk cannot be used reliably as an OpenVMS I64 system disk. Typically, the file gets incorrectly placed due to the use of an older version of BACKUP/IMAGE, a file-based BACKUP disk restoration, or an errant disk defragmentation tool (the file is set with /NOMOVE to disable move operations; defragmentation tools that do not honor this setting will corrupt the file). A correctly-located GPT.SYS file will have at least two file extents, the first beginning at LBN 0 and the last at the disk capacity minus the size of the last extent (an extent is one or more adjacent clusters allocated to a file). The size of each of the two extents varies according to the disk cluster factor on the target disk. The first extent size is currently 34 or more blocks, and the last extent 33 or more blocks. For example: $ DUMP/HEADER/BLOCK=END=0 SYS$SYSDEVICE:[000000]GPT.SYS ... Map area Retrieval pointers: Count: 36 LBN: 0 Count: 36 LBN: 71132925 This example is from a disk with 71132960 blocks. The placement of the final extent is 71132924, which is calculated by subtracting 36 (the size of the last extent) from the disk capacity (71132960). You may be able to temporarily recover from this condition and attempt to bootstrap the target OpenVMS I64 system disk by renaming GPT.SYS to GPT.BAD, and then entering the SET BOOTBLOCK command. To correctly recover from this condition, you must INITIALIZE the target disk and then reload the disk contents using a file-based BACKUP restoration or a file-based COPY operation. No supported means exists for adding a GPT.SYS file onto an existing disk nor for adding the file during a BACKUP/IMAGE restoration operation.

To write the boot block structures onto an OpenVMS I64 system disk, enter the SET BOOTBLOCK command using the following format:

   $ SET BOOTBLOCK [/PRESERVE=SIGNATURES] [/I64] [boot-partition-name]

You can specify the file name for the boot partition (boot-partition-name). If you do not specify a file or device name, the command defaults to the following file for the boot partition:

SYS$SYSDEVICE:[VMS$COMMON.SYS$LDR]SYS$EFI.SYS

The command also assumes the current architecture. To specify OpenVMS I64, include /I64 in the command line.

Use the /PRESERVE=SIGNATURES qualifier to preserve the existing GUID disk signature value and the associated root aliases. Note that using the OpenVMS Backup utility creates a new disk signature when restoring a bootable disk image.

If you reset the boot block structures, you might need to remove any EFI boot aliases that reference the disk, and then add them back again. You can use the EFI alias command to remove and add aliases; HP recommends using the OpenVMS I64 Boot Manager utility (SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM) to maintain EFI console boot aliases.

	NOTE: The boot partition file must be contiguous and movefile operations on the file must be disabled. If the file is not contiguous, use the DCL command COPY/CONTIGUOUS (or equivalent) to re-create a contiguous version of the file. To disable movefile operations, use the DCL command SET FILE/NOMOVE. This prevents bootstrap failures that could result from the normal and expected operations of disk defragmentation tools.

Alternatively, you can write a boot block by entering the following command:

   $ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYS$SETBOOT

The utility prompts you for the required input (in a way similar to the operation of the OpenVMS Alpha Writeboot utility).

Alpha and Equivalent Integrity Server System Boot Commands

The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) on Integrity servers performs most of the same functions that the SRM console does on Alpha processors. If you are familiar with the Alpha tool, use the following table to find EFI commands equivalent to the Alpha commands you commonly use on Alpha systems. Note that some of the commands listed might not be available on certain hardware systems.