Booting from SSA Disk Drive

      Any pSeries or SP node based on the Common Hardware Reference Platform (bootinfo -p must results to chrp) can be booted from an Advanced SerialRAID adapter (FC 6225) or Advanced SerialRAID Plus adapter (FC 6230).

      For adapters with a microcode level below 7000 the boot disk must be non-RAID. Adapters with a microcode level above 7000 support booting from any type of SSA resource; RAID or non-RAID. Please note that fastwrite must NOT be enabled on the boot resource for any SSA adapter.

      AIX version 4.3.3 onwards supports installing directly from the CD-ROM
    to SSA disk(s) attached to an Advanced SerialRAID (Plus) adapter.

      AIX versions 4.2.1 and 4.3.2 may be installed to SSA disks using AIX's Network Install Manager (NIM).

    pSeries Standalone Diagnostics version 4.3.3 onwards contains the
    SSA RAID configuration software which may be used to configure
    SSA resources prior to system installation and in the event that
    a system cannot be booted normally
    If mirroring rootvg with SSA disks, it is recommended that each
    copy of the boot logical volume must be on a separate SSA loop.

    It is recommended that a SSA loop that has a disk with the boot
    logical volume on it can only be attached through a single adapter on
    a single machine.

    The current 6225/6230 will boot from a JBOD* or RAID disk. Microcode
    below level 7000 will but off of JBOD ONLY. Microcode level 7000 or
    above supports booting from both JBOD and RAID disks. However,
    fastwrite must NOT be enabled on the boot devices.

    Q: Can I add SSA disks to rootvg SCSI disk ?
    A: When AIX boots it will try to varyon the rootvg Volume Group. For it to
       be able to do this it must be able to see ALL the disks in the Volume
      Group and as no device drivers are loaded at this point, it will be
      unable to see the SSA disks.

    Aside 6225/6230, the following SSA adapters also provide booting from SSA but without RAID.

    #6214 SSA 4-port Adapter (4-D)
    #6216 SSA Enhanced 4-port Adapter (4-G)
    #6217 SSA RAID 4-port Adapter (4-I)
    #6219 Micro-Channel SSA Multi-Initiator/RAID EL Adapter (4-M)

    #6215/#6218 are not supported.

    * JBOD=Just bunch of disks.


    Created June 2003 Bruno Croft