Sun Fire 12K Server
 
Sun Fire 15K Server
 
Sun Fire E25K Server
 
Sun Fire E20K Server
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>SPARC>Enterprise>SN-SPARC: SF-Exxk
 
_Old GCS Categories>Sun Microsystems>Servers>High-End Servers
 

Applies to:

Symptoms

From one System Controller (SC), a user issues the command smsconnectsc in order to obtain console access to the other SC. The command errors as shown below:

sc0:sms-svc> smsconnectsc
Unable to obtain a lock.
sc0:sms-svc>

Cause

From the smsconnectsc man page:

smsconnectsc enables the bit that connects the local SC's
port B to the remote SC's RS-232 port A when you are logged
in to the local SC.

This means that the SC you are issuing the command from uses it's port B to connect to the remote port A. There is only one allowable console connection of this type allowed. The man page continues to state:

smsconnectsc works in the absence of an external connection
to the remote SC. If the remote SC has an active external
connection to port A, then smsconnectsc fails and  the
session usually hangs.

Not stated in the man page is that multiple smsconnectsc connections will also fail (although this information should be intuitive). Since only a single pathway of local port B to remote port A exists, there can only be one console session to an SC active at a single time.

The external serial cable should be removed from the SC interface side and not just unplugged from the terminal server.

So an SC can have either a single active remote console connection via the external serial port, or a single active internal smsconnectsc connection.

Solution

From the SC which got the "Unable to obtain a lock." error, do the following:

sc0:sms-svc> ps -ef | grep smsconnectsc
sms-svc  5314  5271  0 16:59:04 pts/5    0:00 smsconnectsc

If there is an smsconnectsc process, try using that console connection if possible. If for some reason that console connection is unusable, try exiting it gracefully by entering ~. in the smsconnectsc session. If it is not possible to exit that connection gracefully kill the process and retry the smsconnectsc again.

If no such process currently exists, an external serial port console connection must exist. If so try to use that connection if possible, or exit that session to allow the ports to be free to smsconnectsc.

Product
Sun Fire 12K Server
Sun Fire 15K Server
Sun Fire E25K Server
Sun Fire E20K Server

Keywords: smsconnectsc, SC, System Controller, console, SMS


Previously Published As 74479

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