E10K: Creating domains

Standard disclaimer: Use the information that follows at your own risk. If you screw up a system, don't blame it on me...

Creating domains from scratch

Creating domains from scratch is, basically, a three step process:

  1. Plan the domain
  2. Create the eeprom.image file.
  3. Create the domain

Plan the domain

Ensure you have met the following requirements:

  1. Select the domain board(s) that are to be part of the new domains. Ensure they're not already part of another domain and are present/powered on.
  2. At least one of the selected domain boards must have a network interface.
  3. At least one of the selected domain boards must have a powered on processor.
  4. The combined memory must be sufficient to support the operating system.
  5. The name given to the domain must be unique for the E10K platform and must match the name of the host.
  6. Each domain should have it's own boot disk or, if you're too cheap to buy a disk, you can boot it over the network. Of course, if you're too cheap to buy a disk, what the hell do you have an E10K for?
  7. In order to support DR, its recommended that you put your primary network interface and boot disk on the lower numbered board.
  8. Ensure you have the domain key and hostid for the new domain; you obtain this from SUN.

Creating the eeprom.image file

To create or recreate the domain's eeprom.image file, do the following:

  1. Login as ssp on the SSP
  2. Use either the platform name or an existing domain name for the SUNW_HOSTNAME parm.
  3. cd ${SSPVAR}/.ssp_private/eeprom_save
  4. Create the image file:
    1. First domain on the box (probably will never happen, but it's good to be prepared...)

      sys_id -d eeprom.image.${domain_name} -k ${key} -s ${serial}
      1. ${domain_name} is the name of the domain.
      2. ${key} is the provided by SUN
      3. ${serial} is provided with the key in the form of 0xa65xxx.
    2. Additional domains:

      sys_id -f eeprom.image.${domain_name} -k ${key} -h ${hostid}
      1. ${domain_name} is the name of the domain.
      2. ${key} is the provided by SUN
      3. ${hostid} is provided with the key in the form of 0x80a66xxx.
  5. Check the resulting image file via:

    sys_id -d -f eeprom.image.${domain_name}

Create the domain

  1. Creating domains from scratch

    domain_create -d ${domain_name} -b ${sbs[*]} -o ${os_ver} -p ${E10K_name}
    1. ${domain_name} must be the same as the domain's host name.
    2. ${sbs[*]} is the list of domain boards that will make up the new domain separated by spaces.
    3. ${os_ver} is the operating system version number. I don't believe this has to actually match the installed version, but it'd help documentation...
    4. ${E10K_name} is the name of the platform.
  2. Recreating deleted domains with different parameters: Follow the procedures above.
  3. Recreated deleted domains with the same parameters:

    domain_create -d ${domain_name}