Sun Microsystems 280R manual How to Select the Boot Device, Before You Begin

How to Select the Boot Device

Your system administrator should also help you decide how your system will boot in your environment.

Before You Begin

Before you can select a boot device, you must complete the installation procedure; see:

■“How to Install the Sun Fire 280R Server” on page 15

Specifically, you must perform the following tasks:

■Set up a system console; see “About Communicating With the System” on page 33

■Power on the system; see “How to Power On the System” on page 40

If you want to boot across a network interface, then you must also perform the following tasks:

■Configure the Ethernet port; see “How to Configure the Standard Ethernet Interface” on page 51

■Attach the Ethernet port to a network; see “How to Connect a Twisted-Pair Ethernet (TPE) Cable” on page 57

The device that is used to boot the system is determined by the setting of an OpenBoot firmware configuration parameter called boot-device. The default order of settings of this parameter is disk net. Because of this setting, the firmware first attempts to boot from the system hard drive, and if that fails, then from the main logic board Ethernet interface.

The following procedure assumes that you are familiar with the OpenBoot firmware and that you know how to enter the OpenBoot environment. For more information about the OpenBoot firmware, see the OpenBoot 4.x Command Reference Manual in the Solaris System Administrator AnswerBook collection for your specific Solaris release.

48 Sun Fire 280R Server Owner’s Guide • January 2001