Debian on Sun Fire X4140
Debianize Sun (again)!
Well, here we are again... now is the turn of a Fire X4140!
This page is work-in-progress!
Task list
- Find and add storage media [completed]
- The machine comes with 2 2.5" Hitachi 147 GB SAS drives.
Since this will replace our aging (13 years uptime!) Compaq Proliant 1600 (when Compaq was Compaq...) I need plenty (well, plenty is a relative concept, after all..) of disk space. I'm researching for an "el cheapo" solution to add at least further 500 GB (RAID 1, of course), but without buying expensive Sun/Hitachi drives... the idea is to try and buy empty Sun 2.5" sliders, and fit some less expensive pair of SATA (or SAS) driver...
X4140 drives are mounted using Sun Disk Drive Mounting Marlin Bracket (p/n 541-2123)
Supported drives are: XRA-SS2CF-300G10K (2.5" SAS, 300GB) and XRB-SS2CF-146G10K (2.5" SAS, 146GB)
Conclusions: no way. I ordered two XRB-SS2CF-146G10K. :(
Update 20100225 after 1 week the two new disks are here. Funny that original Sun disks are Hitachi, whereas these two are Seagate :(
Update 20100305 remember to remove any additional hard disk tray before beginning Debian installation: the F'ing GRUB places itself at the right place if and only if there is only one RAID array in service. This means that you insert all the drives you need to do testing and all the rest, but when you're ready to stat Debian install, you must have disks into bay 0 and 1 only.
- Assemble hardware [completed]
- Almost nothing to ho here. The machine ships fully configured.
I had some doubts about the two spare SAS/SATA cables found in the machine documentation package. Looks like they are needed to connect the SAS disk backplane to the on-board (not PCI!) SATA controller. Update 2010023 Anyway, at boot all the disks are identified and listed when the RAID PCI controller boots, so that...
- Rack mount [completed]
- Just look at the pictures on the top cover!
Rails comes already split: the inner piece goes into place on three pins on the server case. Lock each inner rail in place with 4 included Phillips screws (two spare provided).
Outer rails don't even need to be screwed in the rack with nuts: just place each rail on the rack and press it in place, easy peasy!
Careful! the 4140 has a long-depth case, my 19" rack isn't deep enough, so at the end I left the rear panel open. Must find some way to fix this, since airflow inside the rack is not an issue, but dust is!
- Cabling [completed]
- Video output is a standard VGA D-sub connector. There are no dedicated PS/2-style keyboard and mouse ports. You should plug USB mouse and keyboard... Based on previous experience with the X2200, I decided not to bother with physical console access (e.g. tinkering with PS/2 to USB converters), since ILOM remote console is really handy. Just plugged in a VGA male-male cable from the box to our 8-way KVM switch, not connecting PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors on server side, just locked them aside on the VGA cable with a strap, not to make any mess while sliding the box in and out from the rack.
Power supply comes via two UPS (redundant PSU here!). Both Sun and APC power calculators says that 600 VA could be enough. Since this involves moving around the existing UPS stock, I placed all the details into a separate page
- Setup and test ILOM console [completed]
- Documentation says that ILOM can be reached and configured either using the serial port on the back (ah, those old-fashioned Sun D-sub-to-RJ45 silver plugs...) or via ethernet using the remote management interface. Of course, I choose the second alternative (our 19" rack is already a mess of cables, and I didn't want to mess around soldering serial cables!).
Documentation says that ILOM ethernet interface is preconfigured to get an IP address via DHCP, if by chance a DHCP server is present on the same subnet. That was true, of course, and all I needed was to log onto our DHCP server console and have a look at the dhcp.leases file, looking for a record dealing with the X4140 remote management ethernet card MAC address. grep is a good friend, and I spotted the IP address in use. Pointed a browser to that address, and there you are, ILOM web interface is up and running!
As the docs says, access is granted to root/changeme.
TO DO: looks like java web start application causes some trouble to my mixed-up java set up on the laptop. Try with a vanilla windows java install.
Update 20100226 tested ILOM on a vanilla Java install on a Windows XP PRO box: all fine, it even boots from a remote ISO image.
Polishing up my laptop install, is confimed that is not a Sun's problem, but (as predictable) is mine indeed. Duh.
Using the ILOM web console, I changed the ILOM console IP address:
- Once logged in, go to Configuration→Network
- Set parameters as follows:
- State: Enabled
- IP Discovery Mode: Static
- IP Address: a valid IP address for your LAN
- Netmask: the netmask for your LAN
- Gateway: the gateway for your LAN
- Click on Save, the machine will reboot and you need to restart your browser and reconnect with the new address.
- Log in again, go to Configuration→DNS, disable Auto DNS via DHCP, set your DNS parameters and click Save
- go to Configuration→Clock, set date and (UTC) time, if needed, enable NTP (pool.ntp.org is always a good choice for the second NTP server), then Save
- go to Configuration→Timezone, and set the appropriate timezone, then Save
- Under System Information→Identification Information, I placed information on hostname (using the naming rule <actual hostname>mgmt), system identifier, contact and location. I left Physical presence check enabled
I left other configurable options untouched.
- Check BIOS and upgrade firmware [completed]
- The machine was shipped with BIOS v 0ABMN064. Current BIOS is 0ABMN068 (as from Server Software CDROM ver. 3.1). Also ILOM firmware is outdated (3.0.3.37, latest is 3.0.6.16). Downloaded the following software:
- BIOS 68 (0ABMN068), ILOM Service Processor firmware 3.0.6.16
- ILOM 3.0.6.16 and BIOS68 firmware package [ILOM-3_0_6_16-Sun_Fire_X4140_X4240_X4440.pkg]
- LSI MPT Firmware 1.27.02, MPTBIOS 6.26.00
- LSI MPT BIOS/Firmware [3081P15B2.iso]
- Bootable Diagnostics CD including SunVTS7.0ps7
- Sun Validation Test Suite Bootable Diagnostics CD ISO image [vts_7.0ps7_s10u8.iso]
- Sun Installation Assistant (SIA) version 2.3.12.0 for Windows and Linux
- (not downloaded)
- Tools and Drivers CD version 3.1
- Tools and Drivers CD ISO image [X4140_X4240_X4440_Tools_And_Drivers_CD_56788c.iso]
Now, on with BIOS & ILOM firmware update.
- Do a clean shutdown (Remote Control→Remote Power Control, choose Graceful Shutdown and Power Off. Wait some seconds, then issue Power On)
- Go to Maintenance→Firmware Upgrade, click on Enter Upgrade Mode
- Browse to the local (or LAN) directory where the firmware/BIOS image has been saved, click upload.
- Wait.
- After some minutes, the Firmware Verification dialog will appear. Check existing and new versions, and tick appropriately. Then, click Start Upgrade: it will take some minutes, go have a coffee...
- Once finished, you'll have to reconnect.
20100226 Note: after the BIOS+ILOM firmware upgrade, remote console worked smoothly on Windows client,
- Hardware stress test [completed]
- Using the ILOM remote console, mount the Diagnostics and Tools CDROM and reboot, test hardware here and there (motherboard tests, RAM i/o tests, etc.)
According to the diagnostic tools, the motherboard is an S39, revision 50, with service processor firmware version 3.0.6.16 and BIOS 0ABMN068
- Set up RAID volumes [completed]
- The 4x147 GB hard disks are under a LSI SAS RAID controller, namely a StorageTek PCIe SAS 8-Port Internal HBA,SG-PCIE8SAS-I-Z,
LSI SAS 1068E. That controller must be configured to pool the drives into RAID arrays.
I decided to set up two RAID1 volumes: the four drives are allocated as follows:
| Bay | Drive | Size | Array# | RAID type |
|---|
| 0 | Hitachi H103014SCSUN146GA160 | 146 GB | 0 (primary) | RAID1 |
| 1 | Hitachi H103014SCSUN146GA160 | 146 GB | 0 (secondary) | RAID1 |
| 2 | (empty) | - | - | - |
| 3 | (empty) | - | - | - |
| 4 | (empty) | - | - | - |
| 5 | (empty) | - | - | - |
| 6 | Seagate ST914603SSUN146G068 | 146 GB | 1 (primary) | RAID1 |
| 7 | Seagate ST914603SSUN146G068 | 146 GB | 1 (secondary) | RAID1 |
Using ILOM web interface, open a remote console, then in the ILOM web interface issue a reboot (Remote Control→Remote Power Control→Reset)
Rush to the remote console and be prepared to hit Ctrl-C at boot, when the MPT SAS BIOS page comes up. System will reboot (yes, again!) and will show the SAS Configuration Utility.
In the SAS Configuration Utility:
- Select the RAID controller (there will be just one!)
- Select RAID Properties
- Since we want just mirroring, choose Create IM Volume
- First RAID1 volume: press space to toggle to [Yes] values in RAID Disk column, for slot numbers 0 and 1. Disk 0 will be Primary volume, disk 1 will be the secondary one. Press C to create the array.
- You'll be moved back to the main screen of LSI SAS Configuration Utility. Go for the second RAID1 volume: (RAID Properties→Create IM Volume. You should see that slots #0 and #1 now show RAID in the Drive Status column. Press space to toggle to [Yes] values in RAID Disk column, for slot numbers 6 and 7. Disk 6 will be Primary volume, disk 7 will be the secondary one. Press C to create the array.
- Do a final inspection to check if there are in fact two RAID1 volumes. Remamber that using ILOM, to switch among arrays you must press right Alt-N and not Alt-N!
Exit the SAS Configuration Utility, the system will reboot.
Server documentation says that volumes can be managed in linux using Sun's MegaRAID Storage Manager (MSM). Added that task to OS configuration...
- Install Debian
- Debian 5.0 setup is on its own section.
- Configure the base system
-
- Install some "must-have" packages
-
vim,
htop
mpt-status
add other packages here!
- ssh
-
aptitude install openssh-server openssh-client ssh-keygen -t rsa
- Install and configure specific packages
- Since this box will be a workgroup (file, authentication, printer, whatsoever) server, several services are needed.
Installation and configuration are documented in the grocer's list.
References
Some notes on Sun Fire ILOM Java redirector
Original page by Frederik Lundholm
Debian on Sun Fire X4100, on ioctl.org
Debian on Sun Fire X4100, Domba Ink (looks like a cut-and-paste from ioctl.org
Sun Fire X4140 support
Drivers & upgrades (sun.com)
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