Hp NetServer AA Endurance Release Notes

HP NETSERVER AA SOLUTION

Endurance Release Notes

Release 4.0 Service Pack 1

Printed in August 2001

NOTICE

The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

Hewlett-Packard makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

Hewlett-Packard shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Hewlett-Packard assumes no responsibility for the use or reliability of its software on equipment that is not furnished by Hewlett-Packard.

This document contains proprietary information that is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated to another language without the prior written consent of Hewlett-Packard Company.

TRADEMARK NOTICE

Assured Availability, ComputeThru, Computing for the long run, Constant Computing, Endurance, Marathon Assured, MIAL, SplitSite, and the Marathon logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Marathon Technologies Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective companies or organizations.

SOFTWARE REVISION

The revision of the Endurance software that this document supports is Revision 4.0.1-SP.EA.

Hewlett-Packard Company Network Server Division Technical Communications MS 45SLE 10955 Tantau Avenue Cupertino, California 95014 USA

ii Endurance Release Notes for Release 4.0 Service Pack 1

Table o f C o ntents

About This Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

HP Netserver AA Solution Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Additional Documentation on the Customer Support Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Platform Support and System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CE Dual Processor Support and CPU Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CE Configuration Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

CE Motherboard BIOS Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Platform Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Motherboard Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Memory Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Marathon Interface Card (MIC) Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Partition Format Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Operating System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Endurance Enhancements in Release 4.0 Service Pack 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Support for Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Support for Long Distance SplitSite® Distances Up to 10 Kilometers. . . . . . . . 7

Marathon Interface Card (MIC) 4.3 Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Singlemode Fiber Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Optional Endurance Kit Contents for 10 Kilometer SplitSite Configurations . . 8

Long Distance SplitSite Cabling Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Known Limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Release 4.0 Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

CE Driver Signing Policy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Dynamic Disk Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Performance Monitor Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

General Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Known Third-Party Vendor and Application Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Documentation Errata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Endurance Release Notes for Release 4.0 Service Pack 1 iii

iv Endurance Release Notes for Release 4.0 Service Pack 1

About This Product

These Release Notes document Endurance® Release 4.0 Service Pack 1 for the Windows® 2000 operating system.

This release is a complete Endurance software kit, containing all files needed to perform an Endurance installation. Follow the instructions in the HP Netserver AA Solution Installation

Guide to perform a new Endurance installation.

You can also use this release to upgrade your Endurance 4.0.0 server to Release 4.0 Service Pack 1. Follow the instructions in the Endurance Upgrade/Downgrade Procedures to upgrade your Endurance server.

The following revisions are associated with this release.

Component Description

Hardware MIC Adapter Revision 4.2 or 4.3† Firmware MIC BIOS Revision 4.0.61-SP

MIC MicroCode Revision 4.0.88-SP

Software English versions: Endurance Software Revision 4.0.1–SP.EA *

To confirm the revision of your Endurance software, from Endurance Manager select

View Revision Levels.

†

To confirm the revision of your Endurance software, from Endurance Manager select

View Revision Levels.

MIC FPGA Revision 4.2.59–SP

Endurance Manager Revision 4.0.62–SP.EA

Japanese versions: Endurance Software Revision 4.0.1–SP.JA*

Endurance Manager Revision 4.0.62–SP.EA

HP Netserver AA Solution Documentation

Endurance Release 4.0 documentation is available in hardcopy and online format. The online documentation is located in the \ CD. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 3 or Version 4 to read and/or print it.

The Release 4.0 documentation includes the following:

Manual or Document Format

README.txt Online only

Endurance Release Notes Online and hardcopy

Endurance Release Notes fo r Release 4. 0 Se rv ice Pack 1 1

Docs directory on the HP Netserver AA Solution Endurance

Table 1 Release 4.0 Documentation

Manual or Document Format

HP Netserver AA Solution Administrator’s Guide Online only

HP Netserver AA Solution Installation Guide Online only

HP Netserver AA Solution Messages Online only

Endurance Upgrade/Downgrade Procedures Online only

Glossary Online only and hardcopy in the HP

Netserver AA Solution Adminstrator’s Guide

Additional Documentation on the Customer Support Web Site

Note: This document contains complete and timely information about the product as of

its publication. However, you should consult the HP NetServer AA Solution Web page at

http://netserver.hp.com/netserver/products/highlights_assured_avail.asp

to obtain the most recent updates to information about the release.

Platform Support and System Requirements

CE Dual Processor Support and CPU Requirement

Release 4.0 requires two processors in each CE, which are necessary for the server to boot. If your server is configured with only one CPU in either of the CEs, the server will not boot. Also, use of the server will boot using both CPUs in the CE.

In addition, all processors in the CEs must be the same model (for example, Pentium Pentium III Xeon are the only supported CPU types.

2 Endurance Release Notes for Release 4.0 Service Pack 1

/onecpu switch in the boot.ini file has no effect; even if you set this switch, your

) and speed. As of the initial Release 4.0, Pentium III or Pentium III Xeon

III or

CE Configuration Requirements

Release 4.0 CEs must be configured identically, and must contain identical chipset versions to avoid loss of CE synchronization when various system management tools are used. In particular, the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard, Device Manager, and System Information tools may cause the CEs to lose synchronization unless all of the following conditions are met:

Table 2 CE Configuration Requirements

Element Requirement

CE processors Must have the same model, stepping, and cache configurations.

CE BIOS revision Must match.

CE BIOS settings All configurable BIOS options must be identical (for example, serial and

parallel port settings, etc.).

CE add-in cards Card slot placements must match.

CE RAM The same DIMM slots must be occupied by DIMMS of the identical

manufacturer, type, and size.

Endurance Release Notes fo r Release 4. 0 Se rv ice Pack 1 3

CE Motherboard BIOS Settings

Use the BIOS Setup Utility to verify that all onboard device settings between the two CEs are identical. We strongly recommend that parallel, serial, SCSI, and network devices be disabled on the CE.

Make sure that the following devices are enabled:

• Video adapter

• Keyboard

•Mouse

• 3.5-inch Floppy Disk — this can be disabled when it is not needed for maintenance operations, such as flashing the BIOS.

In addition, the CE MICs must use the same IRQ and addresses, or the CEs will not be permitted to synchronize.

On some systems, disabling of embedded devices is not allowed. Ensure that the embedded devices that are still enabled on the CE motherboard use the same IRQ on both CEs. Not doing so may result in a prompt from Windows requesting to reboot because a new device has been installed.

In Windows 2000, if a device’s resource requirement changes between reboots, Windows will recognize the device as a new device and install supporting software for the device. The installation of supporting software may result in a prompt from Windows to reboot the system because a new device has been installed. You may experience this behavior when the IRQ of enabled embedded devices is not the same on both CEs.

This occurs because the responsibility for booting Windows may be on one CE during a boot cycle, during which it presents the embedded devices with its assigned resources. But, on the next boot cycle, the other CE may be responsible for booting Windows. In that case, it presents the embedded devices with a difference set of assigned resources, causing Windows to recognize the device as a new device.

Platform Support

The Endurance server supports only Pentium III or Pentium III Xeon processors on the CEs and IOPs. However, use of the Pentium III serial number (PSN) is not supported in applications on the CEs. For more updated information about additional platforms that are qualified to run Endurance Release 4.0, refer to the HP Customer Support Web site.

4 Endurance Release Notes for Release 4.0 Service Pack 1

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