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AIX Version 4.3 Kernel Extensions and Device Support Programming Concepts

Configuring the Serial Optical Link Device Driver

When configuring the serial optical link (SOL) device driver, consider the physical and logical devices, and changeable attributes of the SOL subsystem.

Physical and Logical Devices

The SOL subsystem consists of several physical and logical devices in the ODM configuration database:

Device Description
slc (serial link chip) There are two serial link adapters in each COMBO chip. The slc device is automatically detected and configured by the system.
otp (optic two-port card) Also known as the serial optical channel converter. There is one SOCC possible for each slc. The otp device is automatically detected and configured by the system.
op (optic port) There are two optic ports per otp. The op device is automatically detected and configured by the system.
ops (optic port subsystem) This is a logical device. There is only one created at any time. The ops device requires some additional configuration initially, and is then automatically configured from that point on. The /dev/ops0 special file is created when the ops device is configured. The ops device cannot be configured when the processor ID is set to -1.

Changeable Attributes of the Serial Optical Link Subsystem

The system administrator can change the following attributes of the serial optical link subsystem:

Note: If your system uses serial optical link to make a direct, point-to-point connection to another system or systems, special conditions apply. You must start interfaces on two systems at approximately the same time, or a method error occurs. If you wish to connect to at least one machine on which the interface has already been started, this is not necessary.
Processor ID This is the address by which other machines connected by means of the optical link address this machine. The processor ID can be any value in the range of 1 to 254. To avoid a conflict on the network, this value is initially set to -1, which is not valid, and the ops device cannot be configured.
Note: If you are using TCP/IP over the serial optical link, the processor ID must be the same as the low-order octet of the IP address. It is not possible to successfully configure TCP/IP if the processor ID does not match.
Receive Queue Size This is the maximum number of packets that is queued for a user-mode caller. The default value is 30 packets. Any integer in the range from 30 to 150 is valid.
Status Queue Size This is the maximum number of status blocks that will be queued for a user-mode caller. The default value is 10. Any integer in the range from 3 to 20 is valid.

The standard SMIT interface is available for setting these attributes, listing the serial optical channel converters, handling the initial configuration of the ops device, generating a trace report, generating an error report, and configuring TCP/IP.

Related Information

System Management Interface Tool (SMIT): Overview.

Error Logging Overview.

SLA Error Identifiers for the Error Log.

Status Blocks for the Serial Optical Link Device Driver.

Sense Data for the Serial Optical Link Device Driver.

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