1    Introduction

This chapter explains the New Hardware Delivery (NHD) process and describes the contents of the NHD-6 kit.

All system hardware requires supporting modules in the operating system kernel. Without this kernel support, the operating system cannot interact with the hardware and may fail to function altogether.

A New Hardware Delivery (NHD) kit includes kernel modules that let your system support new or upgraded hardware. The kit is distributed on CD-ROM and also can be downloaded from the World Wide Web.

NHD lets you install new hardware support without reinstalling the base operating system. However, you must reboot your system to build a kernel that includes the modules that support your new hardware. The bootlink process builds a generic kernel in memory, using generic kernel modules along with those included in your NHD kit. This bootlinked kernel is not written to disk, but allows the boot process to include the hardware support modules into your running kernel.

Note

If you need to boot genvmunix after you have installed hardware support, your system will not recognize the hardware you installed with NHD. To access all of the kernel modules supplied by genvmunix and NHD, use the following command to boot /GENERIC:

>>> boot -fi GENERIC

The NHD-6 release includes support for the following hardware:

1.1    AlphaServer ES47/ES80/GS1280 Functional Support

The AlphaServer ES47, ES80, and GS1280 systems are high-performance server platforms designed for enterprise-level applications.

Support for the following AlphaServer ES47/ES80/GS1280 functionality is included in NHD-6 for Version 5.1B only:

1.1.1    Hardware Interrupt Redistribution

Hardware interrupt redistribution is a servicability function that enables the system's ability to indict a CPU either before or during its failure. Compaq Analyze, a Web-Based Enterprise Services (WEBES) component, triggers a message to Event Manager when pre-defined threshholds are exceeded, and user-defined Event Manager policy determines whether the Automatic Deallocation facility will take the failing CPU off line. NHD-6 provides support for the ability to indict a failing or potentially failing CPU.

1.1.2    Enhanced Environmental Monitoring

NHD-6 enhances environmental monitoring support for AlphaServer ES47/ES80/GS1280 systems, including temperature, fan, and power supply status. Environmental monitoring on AlphaServer ES47/ES80/GS1280 systems is more comprehensive than on earlier Alpha architectures.

Changes to the environmental monitoring daemon (envmond) and its configuration utility (envconfig) allow envmond to take action based on the values of a single sensor in a multiple-sensor configuration.

If an environmental event occurs, HP server hardware powers down to prevent system damage; this is an abrupt power down without time for software cleanup. The goal of envmond is to perform a graceful operating system shutdown before such a self-preservation hardware power down occurs, allowing application data to be saved first. To ensure that no data is lost, envmond errs on the side of caution and may shut down the operating system at times when the hardware could recover.

In existing versions of the operating system, the envmon.mod kernel module provides a system view that assumes one temperature, one power supply, and one fan sensor. On systems with multiple sensors, only the single worst-case sensor is reported. Newer HP hardware platforms consist of multiple hardware components with multiple temperature, power supply, and fan sensors. NHD-6 provides support for action based on the status of any individual sensor rather than the single worst-case sensor model. The envmon.mod kernel module is no longer supported on the AlphaServer ES47/ES80/GS1280 hardware platforms.

NHD-6 support for these enhancements includes updates to the envmond(8) and envconfig(8) reference pages.

Table 1-1 lists the location of environmental monitoring reference page files in the NHD-6 kit distribution:

Table 1-1:  Environmental Monitoring Reference Pages

File Location Description
./DOC/man8/envmond.* envmond(8) reference page in source, HTML, PDF, PostScript®, and text format
./DOC/man8/envconfig.* envconfig(8) reference page in source, HTML, PDF, PostScript, and text format

1.2    AlphaServer DS20L Systems

The AlphaServer DS20L system is a dual-processor system in a high-density form factor. It supports up to two Alpha 21264-series processors at speeds up to 833 MHz. This system includes a maximum 166 MHz system bus with Double Data Rate (DDR) transfers, for a maximum bandwidth of 2.67 GB per second. It also includes a 256-bit memory bus, two 64-bit 33 MHz PCI buses, and an external L2 cache with a 128-bit data path supporting 4 MB cache per processor in DDR SRAMs. The DS20L system can support up to 2 GB of memory in eight 256 MB dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) and provides two 64-bit 33 MHz PCI slots for I/O expansion.

NHD-6 supports AlphaServer DS20L systems for Versions 5.1A and 5.1B.

The following list provides the orderable part numbers for DS20L systems:

1.3    Broadcom 5703 PCI/PCI-X GbE Cluster Interconnect

The Broadcom 5703 gigabit Ethernet® (GbE) communication processor is a 10/100/1000 base-T full/half duplex device, implemented as both a LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) on DS25 systems and as a network interface card (NIC). This device provides peripheral component interconnect (PCI) and PCI-extended (PCI-X) Gigabit Ethernet services to supported AlphaServer systems.

NHD-6 supports the Broadcom 5703 communication processor as a cluster interconnect device for TruCluster configurations running Versions 5.1A and 5.1B.

The Broadcom 5703 LOM is integral to DS25 systems.

The following are the orderable part numbers for Broadcom 5703 NICs:

1.4    Smart Array 5300A RAID Controllers

The Smart Array (SA) 5300A series RAID controllers are two-channel (128 MB memory) and four-channel (256 MB memory) Ultra3 SCSI hard drive array controllers with battery-backed cache. The SA5300A series controllers support Ultra3 LVD SCSI technology for improved data transfer rates (160 MB/second per channel) and are backward compatible with devices using older SCSI technologies.

NHD-6 supports SA5300A series RAID controllers for Versions 5.1A and 5.1B.

The following are the orderable part numbers for SA5300A series RAID controllers: