Mass Storage; Firmware; User Interface - HP Integrity rx2660 User's & Service Manual

Mass Storage

The server mass storage subsystem contains the following major components:
• Small form factor (SFF), 2.5 in. serial-attached SCSI (SAS) hard drives with the following
supported capacities:
— 36 GB
— 73 GB
— 146 GB
• SAS cables
• SAS backplane
• SAS HP Smart Array P400 controller card, power cable, and battery (optional)
The server supports up to eight SAS hard drives. Each drive is equipped with LEDs that indicate
activity and device status.
The SAS drives connect directly into the SAS backplane. Two cables connect the SAS backplane
to the integrated SAS core I/O on the system board. Optionally, these cables connect to the SAS
Smart Array P400 controller card installed in a private PCIe slot on the system board.

Firmware

Firmware consists of many individually linked binary images that are bound together by a single
framework at run time. Internally, the firmware employs a software database called a device
tree to represent the structure of the hardware platform and to provide a means of associating
software elements with hardware functionality.
The firmware incorporates the following main interfaces:
• Processor Abstraction Layer (PAL). PAL provides a seamless firmware abstraction between
the processor and system software and platform firmware.
• System Abstraction Layer (SAL). SAL provides a uniform firmware interface and initializes
and configures the platform.
• Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). EFI provides an interface between the operating system
and the platform firmware. EFI uses data tables that contain platform-related information,
and boot and runtime service calls that are available to the operating system and its loader
to provide a standard environment for booting.
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). ACPI provides a standard environment
for configuring and managing server systems. ACPI moves system power configuration
and management from the system firmware to the operating system and abstracts the
interface between the platform hardware and the operating system software. This allows
each to evolve independently of the other.
The rx2660 Data Center server firmware supports the HP-UX 11i version 3, February 2007 release,
Linux, Windows, and OpenVMS 8.3 operating systems through the Itanium processor family
standards and extensions, and has no operating system-specific functionality included.
The rx2660 Office Friendly server firmware supports the HP-UX 11i version 3, February 2007
release, Linux, Windows, and OpenVMS 8.3 operating systems through the Itanium processor
family standards and extensions, and has no operating system-specific functionality included.
All operating systems are presented with the same interface to system firmware, and all features
are available to the operating system.

User Interface

The Itanium processor family firmware employs a user interface defined by an HP standard
called Pre-OS System Startup Environment (POSSE). The POSSE shell is based on the EFI standard
shell. Several commands were added to the standard EFI Shell to support HP value-added
functionality.
26 Overview