Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 14:18:09

Title: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 14:18:09
How the hell do you access these things, been told to 'fix' a system, which uses a Sun box, its on, but i have no idea if its doing what its supposed to be.

I know i thought, i'll grab a monitor and keyboard, plug it in and see whats what.... i'll just plug this VGA cable in...... d'oh! There is no video output  ;D

I thought it might be dead as its not pingable, but been told Sun boxes don't respond to ping?
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Taxi_Driver on 21 July 2010, 14:28:42
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How the hell do you access these things, been told to 'fix' a system, which uses a Sun box, its on, but i have no idea if its doing what its supposed to be.

I know i thought, i'll grab a monitor and keyboard, plug it in and see whats what.... i'll just plug this VGA cable in...... d'oh! There is no video output  ;D

I thought it might be dead as its not pingable, but been told Sun boxes don't respond to ping?

Can you 'telnet' to it?
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 14:37:50
nope  :(
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Kevin Wood on 21 July 2010, 14:39:46
Is it too early to try Sammy? ;D

Kevin
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Jimbob on 21 July 2010, 14:41:26
been a while since I used a sparcstation, but sure the ones ive used have had dedicated and propriety terminals connected to them
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: ajax on 21 July 2010, 14:44:03
It depends on what sort of Sun machine it is but if you can't get to it across a LAN and it doesn't have video you will have to connect to it via serial port using 9600baud, no parity 8 data bits and one stop bit. And use terminal emulation of VT100.

Also, Sun boxes do respond to a ping as long as the OS has booted in to at least single user mode. I hope you know Solaris UNIX!
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Marks DTM Calib on 21 July 2010, 18:40:32
It will respond to a ping if it has an ethernet connection, ping is a standard L3 protocol.

Terminal access was what used to use, normaly via exceed from a PC because ours were networked.

Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 18:41:32
no matter what i do, i cannot get access. Right, where that open window?  ;D
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: ajax on 21 July 2010, 18:42:54
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no matter what i do, i cannot get access. Right, where that open window?  ;D
What model is it?
If it has power on it but you can't ping it then it will be OBP level which won't respond to  ping. However, if it's a later machine then it may have an ALOM card which will respond to a ping if it has been given an IP address.
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 18:49:25
Sunfire V240
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Banjax on 21 July 2010, 18:55:46
that reminds me...when are nominations due for the least interesting thread on OOF this year?  ;D
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Psychoca on 21 July 2010, 19:19:09
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How the hell do you access these things, been told to 'fix' a system, which uses a Sun box, its on, but i have no idea if its doing what its supposed to be.

I know i thought, i'll grab a monitor and keyboard, plug it in and see whats what.... i'll just plug this VGA cable in...... d'oh! There is no video output  ;D

I thought it might be dead as its not pingable, but been told Sun boxes don't respond to ping?


I can make the begger respond to "ping"...  Where's the shotgun???  That'll make it ping!!!!
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 21 July 2010, 19:23:15
It may or may not respond to ping depending on its settings.  It will ALWAYS respond to arp if its working (and the device you are testing from is on same subnet).

SunFire v240 is a bit old, but still servicable.

If you can't get it to respond on its nic cards, plug in a 9600,8,n,1 serial into serial port as shown...

http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_private/validateUser.do?target=Systems/SunFireV240_R/component.rear


Alternatively, if you know the ALOM IP and logon credentials (different to Solaris ones), telnet to ALOM IP, logon (if reqd) and type console -f to get to Solaris console.

Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 21 July 2010, 19:27:15
My bad, v240s tend to have LOM, not ALOM, so if going in via LOM, to get to Solaris console, just type console
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: jerry on 21 July 2010, 19:29:46
this is cool-Im learning a whole new language here (well, I would be if I knew what they were going on about! ;D)
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 21 July 2010, 19:46:12
BTW, if its crashed at any point, you may find its at an OK prompt, as a lot of SPARC servers have auto-boot-on-error? set to False.

If it is at OK prompt, a simple boot should make it attempt to boot.
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 20:14:42
time to raid store for a roll-over cable!
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: Mr Skrunts on 21 July 2010, 20:37:26
What's the story then, you been raiding the skip or the store room at work for the V240  ::)
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 20:44:27
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What's the story then, you been raiding the skip or the store room at work for the V240  ::)

Its part of some very old redundant kit, which know one really knows how  system works. Its basically a dev version of Freeview text to broadcast setup
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 21 July 2010, 20:49:43
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time to raid store for a roll-over cable!
Its a 9 pin serial, not a rollover.  The LOM serial is a rollover (or one of those blue cisco ones works ::)).
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 20:52:24
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time to raid store for a roll-over cable!
Its a 9 pin serial, not a rollover.  The LOM serial is a rollover (or one of those blue cisco ones works ::)).

Ahh wondered what that serial plug was for, my attempts to plug in a VGA cable failed  ;D

You access the console via command?  or need an application (your link to the manual won't work, not registered)
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 21 July 2010, 20:57:33
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time to raid store for a roll-over cable!
Its a 9 pin serial, not a rollover.  The LOM serial is a rollover (or one of those blue cisco ones works ::)).

Ahh wondered what that serial plug was for, my attempts to plug in a VGA cable failed  ;D

You access the console via command?  or need an application (your link to the manual won't work, not registered)
Just a quick thought - if its Solaris 9 or Solaris 10, its more likely to use SSH rather than telnet. Worth trying that.


Yes, its a Solaris server, text based.

Get it plugged in that serial, let me know what it says on the console prompt (may have to press enter)
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 21 July 2010, 21:13:23
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time to raid store for a roll-over cable!
Its a 9 pin serial, not a rollover.  The LOM serial is a rollover (or one of those blue cisco ones works ::)).

Ahh wondered what that serial plug was for, my attempts to plug in a VGA cable failed  ;D

You access the console via command?  or need an application (your link to the manual won't work, not registered)
Just a quick thought - if its Solaris 9 or Solaris 10, its more likely to use SSH rather than telnet. Worth trying that.


Yes, its a Solaris server, text based.

Get it plugged in that serial, let me know what it says on the console prompt (may have to press enter)

Humm, looking at the back there is a RJ45 Net Mgt connection, i'll use that, as i think i've got a serial cable, but no laptop with serial on it any more  ;D

Just hope ALOM was configured, trouble is no one is left who set it up  :-/

Windows is so much better  :o  ;D
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 21 July 2010, 22:08:32
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Quote
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time to raid store for a roll-over cable!
Its a 9 pin serial, not a rollover.  The LOM serial is a rollover (or one of those blue cisco ones works ::)).

Ahh wondered what that serial plug was for, my attempts to plug in a VGA cable failed  ;D

You access the console via command?  or need an application (your link to the manual won't work, not registered)
Just a quick thought - if its Solaris 9 or Solaris 10, its more likely to use SSH rather than telnet. Worth trying that.


Yes, its a Solaris server, text based.

Get it plugged in that serial, let me know what it says on the console prompt (may have to press enter)

Humm, looking at the back there is a RJ45 Net Mgt connection, i'll use that, as i think i've got a serial cable, but no laptop with serial on it any more  ;D

Just hope ALOM was configured, trouble is no one is left who set it up  :-/

Windows is so much better  :o  ;D
No argument here ;D

If you're messing with Sun Oracle servers a lot, you'll need a USB-to-serial adapter ;D

To connect to Net Mgmt, you will need to know the IP assigned to it. And the Userid and password.

Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: ajax on 22 July 2010, 08:30:09
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My bad, v240s tend to have LOM, not ALOM, so if going in via LOM, to get to Solaris console, just type console
Assuming someone hasn't removed the card! It will be an RJ45 connector as well if my memory serves correctly.
I don't recall there being any settings in the OBP for it to respond to a ping unless you're referring to the management card?

I can't remember if this still has A & B serial ports but if it has and you can't access it through the management ports then take the management card out and access it through serial port A.
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: eddie on 22 July 2010, 11:05:25
When was the timing belt last changed ?
Does it even have a timing belt ??

eddie  ::)
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: TheBoy on 22 July 2010, 19:09:52
Did you sort it Tunnie?

If its any consolation, I fixed that old Sunfire v880 that I was on about that was giving me grief all week and making me grumpy.  Friggin drive firmware causing the FCAL controllers to get a monk on.
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tunnie on 22 July 2010, 19:15:47
not working today, someone elses problem  :)

If they don't fix it, it will be mine again though  ;D
Title: Re: Sun Box
Post by: tidla on 22 July 2010, 19:45:39
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this is cool-Im learning a whole new language here (well, I would be if I knew what they were going on about! ;D)



found the problem. they brought a v240 instead of a vt100. the v240s trend to have a lom of problems
but not alom of people know that.

rather than telnet, they told him instead and connected to net mgmt which had the unfortunate side affect of sparcs.

a simple boot in rj45 and the sunbox will soon be in orbit with the sparcstation.

problem solved.
 :y :o