IBM p5 550 Technical Overview And Introduction

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54 p5-550 Technical Overview and IntroductionParity errors on the PCI bus itself will result in bus retry, and if uncorrected, the bus and anyI/O adapters or devices on that bus will be deconfigured.The p5-550 supports PCI Extended Error Handling (EEH) if it is supported by the PCI-Xadapter. In the past, PCI bus parity errors caused a global machine check interrupt, whicheventually required a system reboot in order to continue. In the p5-550 system, hardware,system firmware, and AIX interaction have been designed to allow transparent recovery ofintermittent PCI bus parity errors and graceful transition to the I/O device available state in thecase of a permanent parity error in the PCI bus.EEH-enabled adapters respond to a special data packet generated from the affected PCI slothardware by calling system firmware, which will examine the affected bus, allow the devicedriver to reset it, and continue without a system reboot.Persistent deallocation functions include: Processor Memory Deconfigure or bypass failing I/O adaptersFollowing a hardware error that has been flagged by the service processor, the subsequentreboot of the system will invoke extended diagnostics. If a processor or L3 cache has beenmarked for deconfiguration by persistent processor deallocation, the boot process will attemptto proceed to completion with the faulty device automatically deconfigured. Failing I/Oadapters will be deconfigured or bypassed during the boot process.3.2.8 ServiceabilityIncreasing service productivity means the system is up and running for a longer time. p5-550improves service productivity by providing the functions described in the followingsubsections:Error indication and LED indicatorsThe p5-550 is designed for customer setup of the machine and for the subsequent addition ofmost hardware features. The p5-550 also allows customers to replace service parts(Customer Replaceable Unit). To accomplish this, the p5-550 provides internal LEDdiagnostics that will identify parts that require service. Attenuation of the error is providedthrough a series of light attention signals, starting on the exterior of the system (SystemAttention LED) located on the front of the system, and ending with an LED near the failingField Replaceable Unit.For more information about Customer Replaceable Units, including videos, see:http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/eserverSystem Attention LEDThe attention indicator is represented externally by an amber LED on the operator panel andthe back of the system unit. It is used to indicate that the system is in one of the followingstates: Normal state, LED is off. Fault state, LED is on solid.Note: The auto-restart (reboot) option, when enabled, can reboot the system automaticallyfollowing an unrecoverable software error, software hang, hardware failure, orenvironmentally induced failure (such as loss of power supply)