The L1 and L2 controllers are used to monitor and manage the following systems:
SGI Origin 3000 series servers
SGI Origin 300 servers
SGI Origin 300 systems with NUMAlink
SGI Onyx 3000 graphics systems
SGI Onyx 300 graphics systems
SGI Altix 350 systems
SGI Altix 3000 family of servers and superclusters
Silicon Graphics Prism Visualization Systems
This chapter describes the L1 and L2 controller functions in the following sections:
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Note: Hardware descriptions for the L1 controller can be found in your server or graphics system user's guide, and hardware descriptions for the L2 controller can be found in the user's guides of those servers and graphics systems that support an L2 controller.
The L1 controller is designed to manage and monitor the individual bricks in the Origin 3000 servers, Altix 3000 family of servers and superclusters, Onyx 3000 graphics systems and . It is also used to manage and monitor Altix 350 systems, the Origin 300 servers, Origin 300 systems with NUMAlink, and Onyx 300 graphics systems.
You monitor the system with the L1 controller either at the L1 controller's liquid crystal display (LCD) or at a system console.
See Chapter 2, “Using the L1 and L2 Controllers” for details on using the L1 controller, and see Chapter 3, “L1 and L2 Controller Commands” for a list of L1 controller commands.
The following are some of the functions performed by the L1 controller. (For a list of functions that are specific to a product or component, see your server or graphics system user's guide.
Drives the L1 controller display.
Reports all failure conditions.
Monitors and controls LEDs.
Monitors the power On/Off switch.
Monitors the reset switch, and the nonmaskable interrupt (NMI) switch.
Monitors and acts on the state of the power, reset, and NMI switches.
Drives the reset, soft reset, and NMI signals to the local node electronics on command from software.
Provides the time of day (TOD).
Reads and reports memory and processor configuration within the node. Reads dual inline memory module (DIMM) and system identification (ID) PROMs.
Reads and writes contents of module identification EEPROMs.
Controls voltage regulator modules (VRMs).
Monitors voltage and reports failures.
Controls and sequences DC power output of voltage regulators. Monitors failures and reports them. Drives DC on and failure LEDs.
Controls voltage margining within the brick or server.
Controls and monitors fan speed and reports the number of the failed fan.
Monitors and reports operating temperature and status of 48 VDC input power and DC power.
Provides a USB hub chip that has six master ports: one port connects internally to the R–brick's L1 controller, four ports connect to the L1 controllers of four C–bricks (via the NUMAlink3 cable), and a master port connects to the L2 controller.
Provides a high-speed serial channel to communicate between the system controller network and the hub ASIC.
Provides a high-speed serial channel to communicate with the L1 controller as a second brick or server. This is implemented as an RS-485 ICMB interface in the NUMAflex cable.
Controls Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) boundary scan.
Logs information in Non-Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM).
Provides a USB slave port to communicate with upstream system controllers.
Provides an external high-speed serial console port.
Provides the ability to flash the L1 firmware, which can be updated.
Reports the population of the PCI cards and the power levels of the PCI slots.
Powers on the PCI slots and their associated LEDs.
Monitors the slot power for PCI boards (currently takes no action).
Reports the power levels of the XIO slots.
Controls the termination voltage margins of the XIO cards.
The L2 controller is designed to monitor and manage the individual bricks in the Origin 3000 servers, Altix 3000 series servers, Onyx 3000 graphics systems, and Silicon Graphics Prism Visualization Systems. It can also be used to monitor and manage Altix 350 systems, the Origin 300 server systems, Origin 300 server systems with NUMAlink, and Onyx 300 graphics systems.
| Note: The L2 controller monitoring and management functions are only available for systems that include a hardware L2 controller. |
You monitor the system with the L2 controller at a system console. You can also enter L2 controller commands to manage your system at your system console.
See Chapter 2, “Using the L1 and L2 Controllers” for details on using the L2 controller, and see Chapter 3, “L1 and L2 Controller Commands” for a list of L2 controller commands you can use to manage and monitor the different systems.
The following are functions performed by the L2 controller. (For a list of functions specific to a product or component, see your server or graphics system user's guide.)
Controls resource sharing.
Controls the L1 controllers on the server or graphics system.
Maintains controller configuration and topology information between the L1 and hardware L2 controllers.
Routes data between upstream devices and downstream devices.
Upstream devices provide control for the system, initiate commands for the downstream devices, and act on the messages that they receive from downstream devices.
Downstream devices perform the actions that are specified by the L2 controller commands, send responses to the L2 controller that indicate the status of the commands, and send error messages to the L2 controller.
Allows remote maintenance via a modem.
Enables the entering of commands to toggle between L2, L1, and the console mode. This means you can power on your server with L1 or L2 controller commands, and monitor the power-on activity by changing to the console mode.
In a system with more than one hardware L2 controller, all hardware L2 controllers are peers and each propagates configuration information to the other L2 controllers. Each L2 controller monitors its associated L1 controllers and propagates this information to the other L2 controllers.
| Note: For more details about the L2 controller hardware and using the L2 controller touch display to perform server functions such as powering on and powering off the server or graphics system, see your user's guide. |