Configuring HP-UX For Peripherals

Chapter 2 37

Managing PCI Cards with OLAR

PCI Card OLAR Overview and Concepts

Card Compatibility

On-Line Addition (OLA) When on-line adding an interface card, the

ﬁrst issue that must be resolved is whether the new card is compatible

with the system. Each OLAR-capable PCI slot provides a set amount of

power. The replacement card cannot require more power than is

available. Current systems have only one slot per bus with sufﬁcient

power.

The card must also operate at the slot’s bus frequency. A PCI card must

run at any frequency lower than its maximum capability, but a card that

could only operate at 33 MHz would not work on a bus running at 66

MHz. Both rad and SAM provide information about the bus frequency

and power available as well as other slot-related data.

When the replacement card is added to the system, the appropriate

driver for that card must be conﬁgured in the kernel before beginning

the operation. In most cases, the replacement card will be the same type

as a card already in the system, and the driver will be in the kernel. If

you have any question about the driver’s presence, use the “Kernel

Conﬁguration” area of SAM to determine which drivers are loaded in the

kernel. If the required driver is not in the kernel, but is dynamically

loadable, it should be loaded from this area of SAM before starting the

OLA operation. If the required driver is not present, and is not

dynamically loadable, a reboot will be required to load the driver. The

card could be added while the system is down, or added on-line after

rebooting.

• If the necessary driver is not present and the driver is a dynamically

loadable kernel module (DLKM), you can load it manually. Refer to

the section Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules in this chapter for

more information.

• If the driver is static and not conﬁgured in the kernel, then the card

cannot be On-line Added. The card could be physically inserted

on-line, but no driver would claim it.

On-Line Replacement (OLR) When on-line replacing an interface

card, the replacement card must be either identical (this is the safest

option) or able to use the same driver as the card being replaced. This is

referred to as like-for-like replacement and should be adhered to because

using a similar but not identical card may cause unpredictable results.

For example, a newer version of the target card which is identical in

terms of hardware may contain an updated ﬁrmware version that could