SPARC T4-2
 
Emulex FC HBA
 
Qlogic FC HBA
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>DISK>HBA>SN-DK: FC HBA
 

In this Document

Symptoms

Changes

Cause

Solution

References

Created from <SR 3-11776231411>

Applies to:

Symptoms

Solaris 10 T4-2 control domain with one Oracle Qlogic FC HBA
SG-XPCIE2FC-QF8-N , Part Number 371-4325 , 8Gigabit/Sec PCI Express Dual FC Host Adapter
connected to a Brocade FC switch accessing an HP storage array, and booting from a SAN disk/lun of that array

The server was up and running for 695 days, server was shutdown and now they cannot boot from SAN (last time they booted from SAN was 695 days ago),

on the console / OBP  , the system fails to boot with the error "Fibre Channel Link down" or "Current firmware state - Waiting for Login"

I keep this console logs as internal as customer does want to have it public

{0} ok nvalias disk1 /pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,qlc@0,1/fp@0,0/disk@wXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,0:a
{0} ok boot disk1
NOTICE: Entering OpenBoot.
NOTICE: Fetching Guest MD from HV.
NOTICE: Starting additional cpus.
NOTICE: Initializing LDC services.
NOTICE: Probing PCI devices.
NOTICE: Finished PCI probing.

SPARC T4-2, No Keyboard
Copyright (c) 1998, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.37.2, 24.0000 GB memory available, Serial #XXXXXXXXX.
Ethernet address 0:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, Host ID: XXXXXXXX.



Boot device: /pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,qlc@0,1/fp@0,0/disk@wXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,0:a  
File and args:
QLogic QLE2562  Host Adapter FCode(SPARC): 2.03  06/30/08
Firmware version 4.03.02
Fibre Channel Link down
Current firmware state - Waiting for Login   <<----
SFP state: 8Gb Present

Evaluating:

Can't open boot device

{0} ok boot /pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,qlc@0/fp@0,0/disk@wXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,0:a
Boot device: /pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,qlc@0/fp@0,0/disk@wXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,0:a  File and args:
QLogic QLE2562  Host Adapter FCode(SPARC): 2.03  06/30/08 Firmware version 4.03.02 Fibre Channel Link down Current firmware state - Waiting for Login SFP state: 8Gb Present


Can't open boot device

{0} ok
{0} ok printenv boot-device
boot-device =           /pci@400/pci@2/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,qlc@0/fp@0,0/disk@wXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,0:a disk net
{0} ok

Note. Similar behavior was observed on the same customer on another M3000 SPARC server with an Oracle Emulex FC HBA, in this case the boot from SAN was not possible with the error "Cannot init Link" 

Changes

The Brocade FC switch firmware was upgraded recently to FOS  v7.2.1c1

Cause

FC speed Auto-negotiation between FC HBA and the FC Switch port is not working for some reason.

The Fcode on these FC HBA is very old, so most probably this is an issue between old Fcode version and new FC switch firmware, but we cannot identify the RCA, or any similar bug.
 
Latest Fcode provided via Sun/Oracle patch for this Qlogic FC HBA was 146726-01, from 2011, provides Fcode 2.04
the patch comes with full instructions and utilities, easier to download and follow (see README patch)
but recommendation is to download the latest from Qlogic web site.
 

The latest patch Sun/Oracle provided for this Emulex FC HBA was 143247-02, from Feb 2010, that comes with fcode 5.03a8 / 3.01a3
that means the fcode you have " FCode/BIOS Version: Boot:5.03a0 Fcode:3.01a1" is almost 6 years old.
That patch 143247-02 already fixed some bug related with boot issues:
6816724 Lynx 4270 Unable to SAN boot
6819548 Virgo - Unable to boot from SAN using Emulex Titan-E/Elara-E with 2.02A1 boot code

Solution

The advice from Oracle (as a generic recommendation) is to upgrade the fcode to latest version, see document:

Doc 1389639.1 - FAQ Oracle FC HBA: FCode/BIOS(ie. Boot Code), Firmware, and Drivers

Said that, the workaround implemented (fixed speed 8GB) should cause no issue,
it is just a parameter used on the initial negotiation between FC HBA and FC switch port, when the FC HBA port log into the fabric.

For the Qlogic FC HBA SG-XPCIE2FC-QF8-N , Part Number 371-4325, latest Fcode available is here:
https://driverdownloads.qlogic.com/QLogicDriverDownloads_UI/SearchByProductOracle.aspx?oemid=124&productid=928&OSTYPE=Solaris&category=7&Product=SG-XPCIE2FC-QF8-Z

Here is the  Multi-boot image for 8Gb FC HBAs 3.80.02 ,
This package contains:
BIOS version 3.24
UEFI version 2.22
FCode version 3.22
Firmware version 7.03.00

For the Oracle Emulex FC HBA LPe12000-S , the latest Boot/Fcode available is on:
https://www.emulex.com/downloads/oem-qualified/oracle/sg-xpcie1fc-em8-z-and-sg-xpcie2fc-em8-z/firmware-and-boot-code/
"Universal Boot Version 5.13a3
Contains: x86 BootBIOS version 2.12a6, OpenBoot (Fcode) 3.10a3 and EFI Boot 4.12a7"

References

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