If you turn on Multiboot from within the SMS menu (as
shown below), your LPAR will always boot into SMS, regardless of your AIX boot list
and/or LPAR profile settings.
PowerPC Firmware
Version EM310_048
SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Multiboot
1. Select Install/Boot Device
2. Configure Boot Device Order
3. Multiboot Startup <ON>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Navigation keys:
M = return to Main Menu
ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key:
If your
LPAR always boots to the SMS menu, check the Multiboot Startup setting. If its set to ON, change it to OFF (as shown
below). To access
this option you must enter 5. Select Boot Options from the main SMS menu.
PowerPC Firmware
Version EM310_048
SMS 1.6 (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000,2005 All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Multiboot
1. Select Install/Boot Device
2. Configure Boot Device Order
3. Multiboot Startup <OFF>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Navigation keys:
M = return to Main Menu
ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key:
Enabling Multiboot is only useful if youre
planning on dual-booting AIX and Linux within an LPAR. With Multiboot turned on, each time you reboot the LPAR, you are taken
to SMS so you can choose which disk to boot from i.e. the AIX boot disk or the Linux
boot disk. Ive never come across anyone actually doing this in the commercial
world. Mathew Davis (from IBM) wrote an article about dual booting AIX and
Linux on pSeries back in 2005:
There can be other
reasons why an LPAR always boots into SMS. The following link has some
information on this:
http://www.aixmind.com/?tag=keeps-booting-to-sms
This IBM
document explains how to select a boot disk from within the SMS menu.
Remember, if the disk doesnt have a valid boot image, it wont appear
in the SMS menu as a boot device!
One way to check you have a boot device on
your system is to run the ipl_varyon command from the AIX command line (before
restarting your LPAR!):
# ipl_varyon -i
PVNAME BOOT DEVICE
PVID VOLUME
GROUP ID
hdisk0 YES
00f6048868b4e0ef0000
00f6048800004c00
If you
dont see a boot device on your system, perhaps someone has accidentally
removed the boot record? Or maybe it was never created?
For
example, in the commands that follow, I have accidentally run the chpv c command
against my boot disk. This clears the boot record from the disk! The ipl_varyon command
no longer shows hdisk0 as a bootable device.
Leaving
the system in this state would prevent
the system from booting!
To
recreate the boot image, I run the bosboot command
against hdisk0. Now ipl_varyon
recognises hdisk0 as a bootable device again. Phew!
# chpv -c hdisk0
# ipl_varyon -i
PVNAME BOOT DEVICE
PVID VOLUME
GROUP ID
hdisk0 NO
00f6048868b4e0ef0000
00f6048800004c00
# bosboot -a -d /dev/hdisk0
bosboot:
Boot image is 42689 512 byte blocks.
# ipl_varyon -i
PVNAME BOOT DEVICE
PVID VOLUME
GROUP ID
hdisk0 YES
00f6048868b4e0ef0000
00f6048800004c00