Hardware Discovery

If a Model 570 server is assembled in IBM's Rochester manufacturing plant, an IBMer can follow the instructions provided by the Determine MAC addresses and WWNs before a p570 is delivered web page to determine the MAC addresses of Ethernet adapters and the WWNs of Fibre Channel adapters before the server ships.

For a server other than a Model 570 or for a server which is not assembled in IBM's Rochester manufacturing plant, there is no way to determine the MAC addresses and/or WWNs until the server is delivered. Once the server is delivered, the MAC addresses and/or WWNs can be determined in four different ways:

1. The spine of each adapter has a label with the MAC address(es) or WWN(s) of the adapter.
   
   
2. If AIX is preloaded on the server, then an LPAR can be defined which contains all the server hardware resources. Once the LPAR is started and AIX boots up in it, the following shell script should display the MAC addresses and WWNs, along with microcode levels of those adapters which are supported by the lsmcode command:

   #!/bin/ksh
   lsdev -Cc adapter -s pci | while read devname state location rest
   do
     if [ "${devname#fcs}" != "$devname" ]
     then
       lsdev -Cl $devname
       lsdev -F "name status physloc" -l $devname
       lscfg -vl $devname | grep -i address
       echo
     fi
   done
   lsdev -Cc adapter -s pci | while read devname state location rest
   do
     if [ "${devname#ent}" != "$devname" ]
     then
       lsdev -Cl $devname
       lsdev -F "name status physloc" -l $devname
       lscfg -vl $devname | grep -i address
       echo
     fi
   done
   lsmcode -A
   

3. According to the HMC V7 cumulative README, it is possible to display MAC addresses and WWNs on the HMC after the managed
   server is discovered but before LPARs are installed. Although the README does not say so, the following requirements must all be met:
   
   o The HMC is at the V7.3.2 level or higher.
   o The managed server has POWER6 processors.
   o The managed server firmware level is high enough. (The EL320 level is high enough.)
   o The hardware discovery option is chosen when the managed server is powered on.
   
   If the requirements are all met, the following HMC command will display all adapters, with MAC addresses and WWNs as appropriate, along with the microcode level of each adapter:

   lshwres -r io --rsubtype slotchildren -m xxx -F phys_loc,description,mac_address,wwpn,microcode_version
   

   where xxx is the managed server name as displayed by the HMC command lssyscfg -r sys -F name.
   
   If the lshwres commmand displays the message:

   No results were found
   

   then hardware discovery has not yet been done. The managed server must be powered off and back on with the hardware discovery option. To power on a managed server with hardware discovery from the HMC command line, use the HMC command chsysstate -m xxx -r sys -o onhwdisc, where xxx is the same as above. Or choose the Hardware Discovery option in the HMC Power On window, assuming the Hardware Discovery option is offered by the HMC GUI.
   
   Please note that when powered on with the hardware discovery option, a server takes longer to get to partition standby mode than without the option. And once in partition standby mode, a temporary LPAR for hardware discovery is created and started, which takes additional time.

4. MAC addresses can also be obtained using the lpar_netboot command (see the Network boot from HMC web page.

It is a good idea to make sure all adapters of a given type are at the same firmware level.

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Thanks to Christine Eisenmann of IBM for providing the environment on which hardware discovery was tested.