Sun Enterprise Server Maintenance

Prerequisites:

To succeed fully in this course, students should be able to:

- Assemble systems
- Troubleshoot medium to large-scale server systems
- Replace field-replaceable components

Course Description:

The Sun Enterprise Server Maintenance course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot the Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 servers. Students study the architecture and hardware components of these servers; practice locating, removing, and replacing all field-replaceable units (FRUs); and use a variety of diagnostic tools to troubleshoot failed system components.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

- Identify the features of the Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 servers
- Describe the basic architecture for the Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 servers
- Locate, remove, and replace server FRUs
- Perform Solaris Operating System and UNIX commands necessary for halting, booting, and maintaining a server
- Use the Forth Toolkit to modify the OpenBoot programmable read-only memory (PROM)
- Retrieve power-on self-test (POST) reports and interpret their results
- Decode light-emitting diode (LED) indicators
- Execute Dynamic Reconfiguration commands to remove a system board
- Configure and execute Sun Validation Test Suite
- Perform basic troubleshooting based on common faults

Who Should Attend

Students who can benefit from this course are field service engineers and enterprise system self-maintainers with experience servicing medium to large-scale networked database servers.

This course includes the following modules:

Introduction to Sun Enterprise Servers

• Describe the main roles and features of the Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 servers
• Define what the Sun Enterprise servers' reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) and scalability feature sets provide
• Describe the tools and applications used to monitor and maintain Sun Enterprise servers
• Describe the concurrent maintenance philosophy as it applies to Sun Enterprise servers
• Describe the architecture and hardware performance specifications of each Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 server

Server Architecture and Components

• Describe the Sun Enterprise Gigaplane(TM) architecture and bus structure
• Describe the details of the central processing unit (CPU)/Memory+ system boards
• Describe the details of the input/output (I/O)+ boards
• Describe the details of the system Clock+ board
• Describe the basic systems configurations of each Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 server
• Describe all of the correct internal disk configurations for each Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 server products
• Describe the function of filler panels, passive boards, and load boards
• Identify and locate all field-replaceable units (FRUs) in each Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 server
• Remove and replace UltraSPARC(R) II CPU modules and dual-inline memory modules (DIMMs)
• Remove and replace all other FRUs in each Sun Enterprise 3500, Sun Enterprise 4500, Sun Enterprise 5500, and Sun Enterprise 6500 server

Internal Disk Systems

• Identify the supported internal disk subsystems
• Interpret the disk addressing used in each server
• Describe the rules for disk board usage

POST

• Set up a system console for monitoring and troubleshooting a Sun Enterprise server
• Explain the role of the power-on self-test (POST) in system diagnostics
• Access and display POST results
• Interpret POST results and apply them in troubleshooting
• Manage POST testing

OpenBoot PROM and NVRAM

• Describe the roles of the OpenBoot programmable read-only memory (PROM)
• Describe the OpenBoot PROM's role in monitoring the systems environment
• Describe how power-on self-test (POST) and the OpenBoot PROM work together to manage system hardware and components
• Describe how the OpenBoot PROM prevents memory banks and system components from accessing the Solaris OS
• Define and edit the nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM) configuration variables
• Copy the contents of the NVRAM/time-of-day (TOD) contents from the Clock+ board to an I/O board

Applications and Utilities

• Apply an organized total systems approach in fault analysis and diagnosis
• Identify available resources to solve technical problems
• Identify concurrent maintenance tools and roles
• Isolate common faults on Sun Enterprise servers

Troubleshooting and Fault Analysis

• Use an organized total system approach for fault analysis and diagnosis
• Identify available resources used to solve technical problems
• Identify concurrent maintenance strategies when performing maintenance activities on Sun Enterprise servers
• Use the Fault Analysis Worksheet to gather and document facts
• Isolate common faults on Sun Enterprise servers