(1) I have recently been trying to help someone with this system and am encountering difficulties I don't know how to deal with. Hopefully someone on the group here has seen this behavior and can direct me on dealing with it. When the P/390 is booted the RAIDADM program comes up indicating that the logical drive is critical. The display shows 1-OFL, 1-HSP and 5- ONL drives. Checking the documentation it appears that in order to rebuild the OFL drive I need to boot the IBM RAID controller disk. I am finding it impossible to do so. If I simply place the RAID disk in the drive and boot the system the floppy light comes on for a few seconds, but then OS/2 boots off the C: drive instead. The RAID disk can be read by the drive and will boot in another system, so it seems not to be a diskette problem. I thought this might indicate that the floppy is not in the boot list so I attempted to enter setup mode by hitting "F1" as indicated when the system starts to boot. But although the "hit F1 to enter setup" line disappears when it is hit as expected the system still boots the C: drive into OS/2! Checking the documentation further I saw that I could also hit "Alt-Ctl-Ins" to enter setup, but this behaves in the same manner as hitting "F1" at the proper point! Can you tell me what the trick is to get this to boot? If not, where can I turn to get this addressed? -- Dave ----------------------------------------------------------- dhdurgeeverizonnet ----------------------------------------------------------- (2) Try another FD drive. >I'd have to nip out to the garage to check if its a 1.44 or 2.88 but I >would assume you have a 2.88, should be marked on the eject button. You are correct, it is a 2.88 drive. Given that the A:\ drive can be read from the OS/2 GUI I assumed there is no problem with it. Is it possible for a floppy to work from the GUI yet be unable to boot? It seems a little strange to me, but I will try it if you think it will make a difference. What kind of a failure results in a readable but unbootable floppy drive? I was also considering looking for the IBM ServeRAID CD I have around here somewhere and seeing if it would boot, but when I was checking the server last Saturday I found that the CD drive gave errors in the OS/2 GUI. Is there also a chance that a CD drive that OS/2 can't see would be bootable? I am still very puzzled by the inability to boot into the setup using any of the documented methods. Was something done to disable this on the System/390 servers? I think once I get this system sorted out I am going to see if I can install boot manager and set up a partition with the RAID management software on it. Of course if the RAID fails this will be unusable, but as long as it is still working I won't be having the problems I am having now. -- Dave ----------------------------------------------------------- dhdurgeeverizonnet ----------------------------------------------------------- (3) > I am still very puzzled by the inability to boot into the setup using any > of the documented methods. Was something done to disable this on the > System/390 servers? As I still use MCA equipment at work in a secured environment, I can tell you that one of the ways we secured the systems was to remove the floppy drive from the boot sequence. I wonder if this is what was done to your S500 P/390 system. Check out here: http://www.gilanet.com/OhlandL/config/selectdrive.html on selecting the boot sequence once system programs are loaded (pressing F1). For more information on the system programs, look here: http://www.gilanet.com/OhlandL/config/configuration_index.html I hope this is helpful. exwisdem (oops, I am Dave also at times...) (4) What I am seeing is a bit more than just the floppy drive taken out of the boot sequence. As I noted in my original post here access to the system programs Main Menu appears to have been removed! I have hit both the documented sequences, F1 and Alt-Ctl-Ins, at the proper point and the "Hit F1 to enter Setup" line disappears but the server still boots from the C:\ drive! I have never seen such behavior in the past, but then I have never worked on this particular server in the past either. -- Dave ----------------------------------------------------------- dhdurgeeverizonnet ----------------------------------------------------------- (5) You need to have a Reference Diskette inserted to enter setup w/ F1. As noted, try another floppy drive if that is no go. Ctrl-Alt-Ins doesn't work on the standard platform PC Server 500 (type 4 CPU board). PC Server 500 can be booted from a particular type of CD (i.e. ServerGuide). Not sure how feasible or relevent this is, though. (6) Interesting! I was assuming that the system programs main menu was on the hard drive as it is with my Server 320. So I must boot and hit F1 with the Reference Diskette in the drive, as only that one is permitted to boot without the floppy drive in the boot sequence. The system programs main menu will come up and I will be able to add the floppy drive to the boot sequence. Once this is saved I should then be able to boot the RAID controller disk so that I can rebuild the OFL drive. >As noted, try another floppy drive if that is no go. >Ctrl-Alt-Ins doesn't work on the standard platform PC Server 500 (type 4 >CPU board). Interesting! The manual refers to it and it also causes the line on the boot menu to disappear as the F1 does, so I assumed it worked. >PC Server 500 can be booted from a particular type of CD (i.e. >ServerGuide). Not sure how feasible or relevent this is, though. I am unsure if the owner has one of these, but of course unless it also has the RAID controller manager on it this would be no help. I also received some advice from someone else to check and make sure there are no SCSI device conflicts on the RAID controller from a tape or other unit, as this could cause one of the RAID drives to become inaccessable. So I will check this as well before rebuilding. -- Dave ----------------------------------------------------------- dhdurgeeverizonnet ----------------------------------------------------------- (7) Hi ! >>You need to have a Reference Diskette inserted to enter setup w/ F1. > > > Interesting! I was assuming that the system programs main menu was on the > hard drive as it is with my Server 320. > So I must boot and hit F1 with the Reference Diskette in the drive, as > only that one is permitted to boot without the floppy drive in the boot > sequence. The system programs main menu will come up and I will be able > to add the floppy drive to the boot sequence. Once this is saved I should > then be able to boot the RAID controller disk so that I can rebuild the > OFL drive. Booting the RAID floppy should however work in either case - given it has still an intact boot record (= not read / written / DIR'd under Windows) >>Ctrl-Alt-Ins doesn't work on the standard platform PC Server 500 (type 4 >>CPU board). > > > Interesting! The manual refers to it and it also causes the line on the > boot menu to disappear as the F1 does, so I assumed it worked. The so-called "reference partition" was optional on the T4 platform processor board - not mandantory. It has often been left out - the more often when there were small HDs in use (1GB) to save a little room *or* when they used a boot manager to switch between different OS. The bootmanager install *did* (sometimes) overwrite the system partition or renders it inaccessible. >>PC Server 500 can be booted from a particular type of CD (i.e. >>ServerGuide). Not sure how feasible or relevent this is, though. > > > I am unsure if the owner has one of these, but of course unless it also > has the RAID controller manager on it this would be no help. The Server Guide CD needs to be put into the boot catalog, which can only be used if the CD ROM is included in the boot sequence. Not having a media in the CD-drive causes some sort of silly boot error message ("Media not found" or suchlike). That causes a lot of confusion and most people left out the CD from the boot sequence. Remember: the Server 500 is *very antique* technology and booting from CD follows a different method than we know it today. > > I also received some advice from someone else to check and make sure there > are no SCSI device conflicts on the RAID controller from a tape or other > unit, as this could cause one of the RAID drives to become inaccessable. > So I will check this as well before rebuilding. Pretty unlikely, since the cables are hardwired towards the drive bays and to the HDD backplanes. The CD-ROM is hooked separately and once you have 6 HDs + CD you have no (lower) SCSI adress for a tape. Usually the lower 7 IDs are used only with the RAID controller at ID7, CD at 6 and HDs at 0 - 5. (It would show up as CDR in the Raid Tool, TAP is tape.) The SCSI cable usually goes from the adapter to the one end of the HDD backplane and from ther upwards with a stub cable to the CD-ROM, which then has an active terminator at the end. Barely that there is a tape attached to that chain - it would require to leave out one HD on the backplane (and a cable with a second plug ...). You should create a new copy of the Raid Adapter diskette. A working copy of the diskette boots with no user interaction (= pressing [F1]) after a cold boot - just like a working reference diskette does. Most likely the S500 /390 has the "Cheetah" Fast / Wide Streaming Raid adapter (that with the external port). -- Very friendly greetings from Peter in Germany http://members.aol.com/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm *** Reply to: peterwendt@aol.com only ! *** (8) >>>You need to have a Reference Diskette inserted to enter setup w/ F1. >> >> >> Interesting! I was assuming that the system programs main menu was on the >> hard drive as it is with my Server 320. >> So I must boot and hit F1 with the Reference Diskette in the drive, as >> only that one is permitted to boot without the floppy drive in the boot >> sequence. The system programs main menu will come up and I will be able >> to add the floppy drive to the boot sequence. Once this is saved I should >> then be able to boot the RAID controller disk so that I can rebuild the >> OFL drive. >Booting the RAID floppy should however work in either case - given it >has still an intact boot record (= not read / written / DIR'd under >Windows) It has an intact boot record, as I was able to boot another system at the site using it. Of course as that system didn't have a the RAID it halted with an error message. >>>Ctrl-Alt-Ins doesn't work on the standard platform PC Server 500 (type 4 >>>CPU board). >> >> >> Interesting! The manual refers to it and it also causes the line on the >> boot menu to disappear as the F1 does, so I assumed it worked. >The so-called "reference partition" was optional on the T4 platform >processor board - not mandantory. It has often been left out - the more >often when there were small HDs in use (1GB) to save a little room *or* >when they used a boot manager to switch between different OS. The >bootmanager install *did* (sometimes) overwrite the system partition or >renders it inaccessible. >>>PC Server 500 can be booted from a particular type of CD (i.e. >>>ServerGuide). Not sure how feasible or relevent this is, though. >> >> >> I am unsure if the owner has one of these, but of course unless it also >> has the RAID controller manager on it this would be no help. >The Server Guide CD needs to be put into the boot catalog, which can >only be used if the CD ROM is included in the boot sequence. Not having >a media in the CD-drive causes some sort of silly boot error message >("Media not found" or suchlike). That causes a lot of confusion and most >people left out the CD from the boot sequence. >Remember: the Server 500 is *very antique* technology and booting from >CD follows a different method than we know it today. >> I also received some advice from someone else to check and make sure there >> are no SCSI device conflicts on the RAID controller from a tape or other >> unit, as this could cause one of the RAID drives to become inaccessable. >> So I will check this as well before rebuilding. >Pretty unlikely, since the cables are hardwired towards the drive bays >and to the HDD backplanes. The CD-ROM is hooked separately and once you >have 6 HDs + CD you have no (lower) SCSI adress for a tape. Usually the >lower 7 IDs are used only with the RAID controller at ID7, CD at 6 and >HDs at 0 - 5. (It would show up as CDR in the Raid Tool, TAP is tape.) >The SCSI cable usually goes from the adapter to the one end of the HDD >backplane and from ther upwards with a stub cable to the CD-ROM, which >then has an active terminator at the end. Barely that there is a tape >attached to that chain - it would require to leave out one HD on the >backplane (and a cable with a second plug ...). I got similar feedback later after I indicated that no cable attached to the rear of the server. So the problem is likely one drive needs to be rebuilt as I originally thought. >You should create a new copy of the Raid Adapter diskette. A working >copy of the diskette boots with no user interaction (= pressing [F1]) >after a cold boot - just like a working reference diskette does. Now that I think of it I am unsure if I tried to cold boot it, as we had brought the system up to verify the status. So my current plans will be to attempt a reference disk boot first to verify the floppy is working and to add it to the boot sequence if necessary. Next we will boot the RAID diskette and rebuild the OFL drive, after which we will hope the RAID is back to normal working condition. >Most likely the S500 /390 has the "Cheetah" Fast / Wide Streaming Raid >adapter (that with the external port). Sounds likely given the external port in the back. Thanks for your help. Any further advise is appreciated. -- Dave ----------------------------------------------------------- dhdurgeeverizonnet ----------------------------------------------------------- (9) Hi! As others have suggested, maybe you have a diskette drive that is somehow marginal. Your PC Server 500 should have a 2.88MB disk drive. (All of mine do, but they aren't 390 board equipped.) How did you make your RAID utility/reference disks? If it was done under Windows, perhaps the special ID information that is coded on the disk somehow became corrupted. Utilities exist to put this information back, try: http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/ and look for "Refstamp". If nothing else, you should be able to safely clear the CMOS. The RAID config is stored on the card itself and won't be affected if you have to clear the CMOS to regain control. Also make sure your drives are plugged in snugly. I had drives drop offline in my PC Server 500 because they had come loose from the backplane. I plugged them back in and things were fine. I fear that you may be disappointed by the RAID utility at this time. When I had a drive fail in a RAID-5, I went straight to the RAID administration tool boot disks and tried to recover after installing a new hard drive. That's when I got a nasty surprise--the 'Cheetah' F/W Streaming RAID adapter (and probably the PassPlay as well) doesn't keep the parity information synchronized as the contents of the drives changed. I didn't lose data, but I couldn't fix my array short of remaking it. To sync the array without constantly booting the RAID administration tool diskettes requires an appropriate release of NetFinity Manager software, at least under Windows. Even then it is still a manual process. William