IBM Link: Using SMS To Choose Boot Device

Question

Needing to boot from a specific disk, use SMS to select the boot device.

Answer

This is an example of booting into SMS mode on a pSeries machine in order to select a device to boot from.

To enter SMS mode, you can either press 1 when prompted by the system, or if the host is an LPAR attached to an HMC you can select the LPAR, pull down Operations -> Activate, then select Advanced -> Boot Mode -> SMS

To use 1 to get into SMS, press it when you see this screen:

IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM 
IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM
IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM 

          1 = SMS Menu                          5 = Default Boot List
          8 = Open Firmware Prompt              6 = Stored Boot List


     Memory      Keyboard     Network     SCSI     Speaker

At that time SMS will start up from firmware:

PowerPC Firmware
 Version SF240_358
 SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Main Menu

 1.   Select Language
 2.   Setup Remote IPL (Initial Program Load)
 3.   Change SCSI Settings
 4.   Select Console
 5.   Select Boot Options
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Navigation Keys:
 
                                             X = eXit System Management Services
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key: 5

Press 5 to select boot options

 PowerPC Firmware
 Version SF240_358 
 SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Multiboot
 1.   Select Install/Boot Device
 2.   Configure Boot Device Order
 3.   Multiboot Startup

Press 1 to select the boot device

 PowerPC Firmware
 Version SF240_358 
 SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Select Device Type
 1.   Diskette
 2.   Tape
 3.   CD/DVD
 4.   IDE
 5.   Hard Drive
 6.   Network
 7.   List all Devices

At this point you can either choose a specific boot device or let the firmware probe for all bootable devices. If 7 is chosen it will report back on any bootable adapters, and list any disks that are found to have an AIX boot image on them.

 PowerPC Firmware
 Version SF240_358 
 SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Select Device
 Device  Current  Device
 Number  Position  Name
 1.        -      Virtual Ethernet 
                  ( loc=U9133.55A.105C2EH-V10-C2-T1 )
 2.        1      SCSI 107374 MB FC Harddisk, part=2 (AIX 6.1.0)
                  ( loc=U787B.001.DNWG2AB-P1-C2-T1-W200400a0b833530d-L0 )
 3.        4      SCSI 107374 MB FC Harddisk, part=2 (AIX 6.1.0)
                  ( loc=U787B.001.DNWG2AB-P1-C2-T1-W200500a0b833530d-L1000000000000 )

In this example I have chosen “List all Devices”, and after probing it finds 2 SAN-attached disks and one virtual Ethernet adapter. In this case hdisk0 is the disk in position 1 and hdisk1 is the disk in position 4.

Choosing device number 3 to boot from hdisk1, this menu will appear:

 PowerPC Firmware
 Version SF240_358 
 SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Select Task

SCSI 107374 MB FC Harddisk, part=2 (AIX 6.1.0)
    ( loc=U787B.001.DNWG2AB-P1-C2-T1-W200500a0b833530d-L1000000000000 )

 1.   Information
 2.   Normal Mode Boot
 3.   Service Mode Boot

To boot the system into Normal Mode (multiuser) choose option 2, or choose option 3 to boot into Diagnostics Mode or exit Diagnostics to Single User Mode.