International Business Machines Corporation

David R Willoughby

Van Hoa Lee

David Lee Randall

Ashwini Kulkarni

Alongkorn Kitamorn

Robert Kimberlin Foster

Kanisha Patel

Douglas Wayne Oliver

Vinit Jain

Richard Louis Arndt

Michael Anthony Perez

Charles Andrew McLaughlin

George John Dawkins

Christopher Harry Austen

Steven Vongvibool

Bradley Ryan Harrington

Scott Douglas Walton

Pandu Ranga Rao Mutyala

Mel Mehrdad Bakhshi

Philip Kunsik Cho

Mladen Kovacevic

Chetan Mehta

Edward John Silha

Mark Elliott Hack

Gordon David McIntosh

Shaival Jagdishbhai Chokshi

Milton Devon Miller, Ii

Kiet Anh Tran

Steven T Comfort

Daniel James Henderson

Thi Ngoc Tran

Arthur J Sutton

Neal T Christensen

Bruce L McGilvray

Tam D Bui

James R Urquhart

Walter Manfred Lipp

Casey Lee McCreary

Robert J Hurban

Timothy Albert Smith

Michael S Stys

Peter Dinh Phan

Methods, systems and computer program products for remotely providing local server boot capabilities are provided. Aspects include receiving a command to boot a specified server of a plurality of servers by a rack level server boot device from remote user device. Aspects also include identifying a target emulated hard drive of a plurality of emulated hard drives of the rack level server boot device. The target emulated hard drive may be associated with a port of a plurality of ports of the rack level server that is connected to the specified server. Aspects also include selecting a specified OS boot image of one or more OS boot images stored by a memory of the rack level server boot device. Aspects further include causing the specified server to boot from the target emulated hard drive using the specified OS boot image.

Rack level server boot

A network adapter has a first and second virtual local area network ('VLAN') device configured on each of first and second physical ports of the network adapter. The second VLAN devices are configured as a logically bonded, virtual device.

Method for network communication by a computer system using at least two communication protocols

Technology for network communication by a computer system using at least two communication protocols

A method, system, and computer program product in a logical partitioned data processing system are disclosed for providing a host bridge that implements extended error handling (EEH). If all devices coupled to the host bridge implement EEH, the host bridge is initialized to operate in EEH mode. In EEH mode, the devices handle any error that occurs within the devices without reporting the error to the host bridge. All partitions that share the host bridge continue to operate without being terminated while the devices are handling the error. If at least one device does not implement EEH, the host bridge is initialized to operate in non-EEH mode. In non-EEH mode, a machine check is generated by the host bridge when an error occurs within one of the devices resulting in the termination of all partitions that share the host bridge in response to a receipt of the machine check.

Method, system, and product for providing extended error handling capability in host bridges

EEH methods are used during the boot process to actively disable a defective PCI adapter, thereby allowing the system boot to continue without disruption. This allows faulty adapters to be present in the machine without interrupting the boot process. The slots appear to be empty and the devices/adapters residing therein can be actively 'hot swapped' out without altering the rest of the machine state.

Initializing a processing system to ensure fail-safe boot when faulty PCI adapters are present

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for managing a set of processors. In response to a request to deallocate a processor assigned to a partition within the logical partitioned data processing system, the processor in the set of processors, is stopped. In response to stopping the processor, the processor is placed in an isolated state in which the processor is isolated from the partition. The processor is then placed in a pool of resources for later reassignment.

Method and apparatus for dynamically allocating and deallocating processors in a logical partitioned data processing system

A system, method, and computer program product are disclosed for executing a reliable warm reboot of one of multiple partitions included in a logically partitioned data processing system. The data processing system includes partition hardware. A request to reboot a particular partition is received within the partition where the particular partition includes multiple processors. Prior to executing the reboot request, the partition hardware is set to a predetermined state. The reboot request is then executed within the particular partition. The predetermined state is preferably achieved by resetting the partition hardware to a predetermined state.

System and method for selectively executing a reboot request after a reset to power on state for a particular partition in a logically partitioned system

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for recovering terminated partitions in a logical partitioned data processing system. A termination of a partition in a set of partitions associated with a host bridge in the logical partitioned data processing system is detected. The state of other partitions within the set of partitions is checked in response to detecting the termination. A recovery process is initiated if all partitions in the set of partitions have terminated. Input/output slots associated with the host bridge are reset to a normal state if the recovery process is successful. The set of partitions is rebooted after resetting the input/output slots associated with the host bridge without rebooting the logical partitioned data processing system.

Method and apparatus for recovery of partitions in a logical partitioned data processing system

A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for improving isolation of I/O errors in logical partitioned data processing systems. A machine check is generated that indicates that an I/O error has occurred in the system. The PCI host bridge (PHB) that generated the machine check is identified. The system includes multiple PHBs, each with its own set of slots. Some of these slots may be enabled for enhanced error handling while others of them are not. The adapters that are not enabled for enhanced error handling and that are coupled to the PHB that generated the machine check are identified. It is then determined that the I/O error occurred in at least one of these slots that are not enabled for enhanced error handling.

Method, system, and product for improving isolation of input/output errors in logically partitioned data processing systems

A means and system of describing rules for performance and availability for a system with respect to individual adapter cards and I/O drawers. It describes a means of scoring system configurations by how well they conform to the defined rules. It also describes a means of scoring the relative value of the placement of individual cards and I/O slots. It then defines a means of placing I/O cards into I/O slots for a defined number of I/O drawers following the rules and achieving the best individual scores for cards and slots. It also optimizes the placement to achieve the best possible system score.

Method and system for evaluating and optimizing placement of PCI adapters in a multi-partitioned server with respect to function, performance, and availability

A logical partition (LPAR) computer system for managing partition configuration data is disclosed, which includes a nonvolatile memory, and a plurality of logical partitions, each running independently from the other logical partitions. The system also includes a console coupled to the computer system for accepting logical partition configuration data input by an operator. The configuration data entered by the operator specifies the processors, I/O, and memory allocated to each logical partition defined for the system. The system further includes a set of tables maintained in the nonvolatile memory for storing the logical partition configuration data, such that the logical partition configuration data is persistent across system power cycles.

Nonvolatile logical partition system data management

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for managing error logs. A request is received from a partition within a plurality of partitions in the logical partitioned data processing system to access error information. A determination is made as to whether the error information is located in a buffer. The error information is retrieved from a non-volatile memory in response to the error information being absent in the buffer. The retrieved error information retrieved from the non-volatile memory is stored in the buffer. This error information is stored in the buffer only for a selected period of time. After that period of time, this error information is deleted or removed from the buffer. In this manner, outdated error information is not returned to the plurality of partitions.

Method and apparatus for reporting error logs in a logical environment

The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer implemented instructions for managing a set of objects for a plurality of terminals. The set of objects are stored in a memory, such as a nonvolatile random access memory in a data processing system. The set of objects are used to configure logical partitions within the data processing system. Access to the set of objects is provided to the plurality of terminals through a service processor.

Method and apparatus for maintaining profiles for terminals in a configurable data processing system

A method, system, and product within a logically partitioned computer system including multiple, different partitions are disclosed for booting a partition using one of multiple, different firmware images. These multiple, different firmware images are stored in the computer system. One of the partitions is rebooted utilizing one of the firmware images without rebooting other ones of the partitions.

Method, system, and product for booting a partition using one of multiple, different firmware images without rebooting other partitions

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

David R Willoughby