Friday, February 08, 2008

X4150: No disks found

So I've managed to get to the point where I can control my new X4150 using the SP, and can get to the system console.

I have the address set in dhcp and my jumpstart server configured, so let it boot up and see what happens.

(OK. So I goofed when typing the mac address into the dhcp server the first time. So it took me an extra attempt.)

Just as an aside, the X4150 is like the X2200M2 and requires the serial port set to 115200 baud, so I've rebuilt the boot image it gets from the jumpstart server just like it says in the documentation.

Off it goes, boots up, I hit 2 for jumpstart (I don't default this so that I don't accidentally overwrite a system if it boots off the network by mistake or for maintenance), and it's going well. What normally happens is that it complains the disk in my jumpstart profile isn't valid on my system.

Not this time. "No disks found."

That's not good. One nice thing about the X4150 is the 8 disk bays on the front, and I know that 4 of them are occupied. So why can't it see them?

I was shipped a HBA and a cable kit, but hadn't found any documentation on why I would need it or how to install it. So maybe you actually do need an additional HBA to make it work, which makes me wonder why on earth this requirement isn't prominently documented, and why they don't have a functioning on-board disk controller, and why the disk bays have been carefully cabled up to the on-board connectors when that's not going to work?

OK, so I pull out the old cables and put in the replacement ones. Looks like the HBA has to go in the middle slot, otherwise it fouls the memory slots. I hope I have the cables in right and routed the correct way.

Wonder of wonders, I boot up and all the disks are visible. Jumpstart tells me the disk isn't valid on this system, but that's a trivial fix to the jumpstart profile to get the controller numbering correct and off the installation goes.

Pretty quickly too!

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