Domains Creation in M9000/ M8000/ M5000/ M4000

Creating Domains in M Series Servers

M series servers can be configured into domains to have a better utilization of the server resources. There are 2 types of domains that can be created.

1. Static domain – Add and remove boards in an inactive domain
2. Dynamic domain – Add and remove boards in an active domain using solaris 10 DR (dynamic reconfiguration) operation.

We will be creating a static domain in this example. Before start creating the domain let us see the basic terminologies and their meanings.

Terminology	Meaning
PSB	Physical system board. Consists of CPU, memory and I/O
XSB	eXtended system board. PSB can be configured as uni-board (00-0) with all components assigned to it or quad board (00-0, 00-1, 00-2, 00-3) with components assigned individually to these XSBs. The xx-y number specifies xx as PSB and y as number of partitions of PSB.
LSB	Logical system board. XSBs must be assigned to LSBs to create domain (16 LSBs per domain)
DID	Domain ID
CPUM	CPU module
MEMB	Memory board

Supported number of domains
M4000/M5000 – supports as 4 domains (0-3)
M8000 – Supports 16 domains(0-15)
M9000 – Supports 24 domains(0-23)

Static Domain configuration example : M4000

M4000 server consists of :

1 PSB containing :

      1 I/O unit (IOU 0) containing:

            PCI-X slot : 1

            PCI-E slots : 4

            I/O devices : 2 disk, DVD, 2 GbE ports

      2 CPU modules : CPUM0 and CPUM1 (containing 2 CPUs each)

      4 Memory boards : MEB0, MEB1, MEB1, MEB3 (containing 8 DIMMS each)

Now we would create 2 domains:

domain 0 with XSB 00-0 and 00-2

Domain 1 with XSB 00-1 and 00-3

XSB	CPU	Memory	I/O
XSB 00-0	CPUM#0-CHIP#0	MEMB#0	Disks 0 & 1, DVD/DAT, GbE, IOU#0-PCI#0, IOU#0-PCI#1, IOU#0-PCI#2
XSB 00-1	CPUM#0-CHIP#1	MEMB#1	IOU#0-PCI#3, IOU#0-PCI#4
XSB 00-2	CPUM#1-CHIP#0	MEMB#2	None
XSB 00-3	CPUM#1-CHIP#1	MEMB#3	None

1. Setting up Domain 0

Quad-XSB configuration

XSCF> setupfru -x 4 sb 0

XSCF> showfru -a sb 0

Device  Location    XSB Mode        Memory Mirror Mode 

sb      00          Quad            no

Set a domain component list (DCL). setdcl associates a XSB with a LSB. LSB can be recognized by OS in a domain. We are assigning XSBs 00-0 and 00-2 to LSB 0.

XSCF> setdcl -d 0 -a 0=00-0

XSCF> setdcl -d 0 -a 1=00-2

Now configure XSBs 00-0 and 00-2 into domain 0.

XSCF> addboard -c assign -d 0 00-0 00-2

XSB#00-0 will be assigned to DomainID 0. Continue?[y|n] :y

XSB#00-2 will be assigned to DomainID 0. Continue?[y|n] :y

Check the assignments

XSCF> showdcl -v -d 0

DID   LSB   XSB   Status   No-Mem   No-IO    Float    Cfg-policy

00                Powered Off                         FRU     

      00    00-0           False    False    False            

      01    00-2           False    False    False            

 ...

2. Setting up Domain 1

Now similarly configure the domain 1 using XSBs 00-1 and 00-3.

XSCF> setdcl -d1 -a 0=00-1            

XSCF> setdcl -d1 -a 1=00-3

XSCF> addboard -c assign -d 1 00-1 00-3

XSB#00-1 will be assigned to DomainID 1. Continue?[y|n] :y

XSB#00-3 will be assigned to DomainID 1. Continue?[y|n] :y

XSCF> showdcl -v -d 1

DID   LSB   XSB    Status        No-Mem   No-IO    Float    Cfg-policy

01                 Powered Off                         FRU     

      00    00-1                 False    False    False            

      01    00-3                 False    False    False            

      ...

XSCF> showboards -a

XSB  DID(LSB) Assignment  Pwr  Conn Conf Test    Fault   

---- -------- ----------- ---- ---- ---- ------- --------

00-0 00(00)   Assigned    y    y    n    Passed  Normal  

00-1 01(00)   Assigned    y    y    n    Passed  Normal  

00-2 00(01)   Assigned    y    y    n    Passed  Normal  

00-3 01(01)   Assigned    y    y    n    Passed  Normal