HP-UX HB v13.00 Ch-21 - Itanium

HP-UX Handbook – Rev 13.00 Page 10 (of 35)
Chapter 21 Itanium Architecture (IA)
October 29, 2013
(*
3
): JFS 3.5 on >= 11.23 has large file system enablement.
max. 32TB (12TB tested & supported). No disk layout version 5 (i.e. large FS enablement) on
JFS 3.5 for UX 11.11
(*
4
): Foundation OE (FOE) is the new name for the BaseOE as of 11.23
(*
5
): no OS Update from 11.22 MTOE to 11.23. Update supported on servers only.
Update to equivalent OE first, then to higher OE
NOTE (Ignite-UX): EFI is unable to boot from tape. Anyway - there is a way to use a recovery tape on
Itanium systems by booting the Install DVD first and then loading the recovery archive from tape. Refer
to Ignite-UX newsletter http://wtec.cup.hp.com/~hpux/sat/products/ignite/news/ignite_ux_news_4.htm
(HP internal) for details.
Impact of EFI interface and boot disk layout
Usually you should not recognize if you are working at a PA system or an IPF system. HP-UX
has the same “look and feel” on both platforms. The commands and the applications behave
exactly the same from the user’s perspective. Anyway there are some specials that need to be
considered. The new boot disk layout and the existence of the Extensible Firmware Interface
(EFI) that is located between firmware and operating system impose some changes in typical
admin tasks like setting up a root mirror or replacing a failed disk.
How an IPF system boots
The IPF bootstrap process involves the execution of the following software components in that
order:
 PAL/SAL intilialize hardware (firmware, processor and memory self tests)
 Load EFI Boot Manager (EFI main menu)
 HP-UX Bootloader (hpux.efi)
 HP-UX Kernel (vmunix)
After the processor is reset, firmware initializes and tests processors and platform. It then
transfers control to EFI, the Extensible Firmware Interface. EFI, in turn, initializes EFI boot and
runtime services and launches the Boot Manager. The Boot Manager, which allows loading of
EFI application or drivers from EFI defined file system, loads and transfers control to hpux.efi,
the HP-UX-specific bootstrap loader. hpux.efi then loads the HP-UX kernel object file from the
HP-UX file system to memory and transfers control to the loaded kernel image.
Boot disk layout and EFI
The EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) is an interface between HP-UX and the IPF platform
firmware (BIOS). The file system supported by the Extensible Firmware Interface is based on
the FAT file system. EFI encompasses the use of FAT-32 for a system partition, and FAT-12 or