IBM p5 550 Technical Overview And Introduction

Also see for p5 550: Technical overview and introduction

Contents

Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 432. Select Boot DevicesEnables you to set the boot list.3. Multiboot StartupToggles the multiboot startup flag, which controls whether the multiboot menu is invokedautomatically on startup.2.12.9 Additional boot optionsInstead of booting from the preferred boot device, or from any other internal disks, there are anumber of other possibilities:DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM These devices can be used to boot the system, or alogical partition (if the resource is available to the specificpartition), so that a system can be loaded, systemmaintenance performed, or stand-alone diagnosticsperformed.Internal or external tape drives The media bay tape drive or any externally attached tapedrive can be used to boot the system, or a logicalpartition (if the resource is available to the specificpartition) using mksysb, for example.SCSI disk, and Virtual SCSI disk The more common method of booting the system is touse a disk situated in one of the hot-swap bays in thefront of the machine. However, any externalSCSI-attached disk could be used if required. Asdescribed in previous sections, Virtual SCSI devices arealso available to a logical partition.SAN boot It is possible to boot the p5-550 system from a SANusing a 2 GB Fibre Channel Adapter (FC 6239), or it ispossible to boot one partition using the dedicated 2 GBFibre Channel Adapter or the Virtual SCSI device relatedto this adapter. The IBM 2105 Enterprise Storage Server(ESS) is an example of a SAN-attached device that canprovide a boot medium.LAN boot Network boot and NIM installs can be used if required.Logical partitions can use both a dedicated Ethernetadapter or Virtual Ethernet to accomplish that.2.12.10 SecurityThe p5-550 system allows you to set two different types of passwords to limit the access tothese systems. These are defined in the ASMI menus. This password is usually used by thesystem administrator. The general ID password provides limited access to the systemfunctions and is usually available to all users who are allowed to power on the server,especially remotely.2.13 Operating system requirementsAll new POWER5 servers are capable of running IBM AIX 5L for POWER and supportappropriate versions of Linux. AIX 5L has been specifically developed and enhanced toexploit and support the extensive RAS features on IBM Sserver pSeries systems.