Sparc 20, hostid and system boards
I have a Sparc 20 that was being used as a license server. The SCSI controller on the system board does not recognise disk drives anymore. I am trying to persuade Engineering to re-license the software for another machine/hostid, but I know they are going to balk. My questions:
1) Does anyone sell Sparc 20 system boards? I poked around on a couple of sites with no luck.
2) Can the chip that holds the hostid on a Sparc 20 be moved to an Ultra 5 or an Ultra 250 without letting the smoke out? I don't have any other pre-Ultra Sparc machines left that are not in service.
Email is a good way of getting in touch with me, and since I do not know if these forums have had a problem with email address scraping, and I can't remember how I set this account up, here is my email address with some precautions. My first name is doug, follow that with a period, then my last name, caviness. I work for JDSU, and we are a .com.
Of course if everyone says it can't be done, then that helps the re-licensing case. Provided the software vendor is still in business.
[1096 byte] By [
cavined] at [2007-11-25 23:08:09]
# 1
Hello.
First:
There are three (or four ?) types of NVRAM chips used in Sun computers.
As far as I know this chip holds some system information so even if the same type of chip is used you cannot just move it from a pre-Ultra computer to a Ultra computer.
But you can read out the contents of the NVRAM (you can even calculate its contents from the data that is printed on that).
You can overwrite the contents of the NVRAM of an Ultra 5 - this is even possible "in system" without having any additional hardware. So you can copy the hostid and the MAC address from the SS 20 to the Ultra 5.
You will find more information on the NVRAM on the following site:
<a href="http://www.squirrel.com/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html " target="_blank">http://www.squirrel.com/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html</a>< br />
I hope this helps.
Martin
-
Edit:
The system type is stored in the highest 8 bits of the hostid. Perhaps a pre-Ultra hostid will not work with an Ultra computer.
# 2
Hello Doug,
<i>I am trying to persuade Engineering to re-license the software for another machine/hostid, but I know they are going to balk. My questions:
1) Does anyone sell Sparc 20 system boards? I poked around on a couple of sites with no luck.</i>
A company that sells memory <b>still</b> lists (refurbished, 90-day warranty) SPARCstation 20 system boards as a spare part (about $ 30 plus shipping). Have you tried eBay ?
Usually a license is bound to a class of machine (regarding performance) <u>and</u> the HOSTID.
In your case the machine is used as a license server and not running the application itself.
<i>2) Can the chip that holds the hostid on a Sparc 20 be moved to an Ultra 5 or an Ultra 250 without letting the smoke out? I don't have any other pre-Ultra Sparc machines left that are not in service.</i>
The SPARCstation 20 uses a 48T18 chip, while the U5/E250 uses a 48T59 chip. Both types have 28 pins and are 8Kx8, but I don't think these types are interchangable (the 48T59 has 70ns access time while the 48T18 has "only" 150ns).
But you can try to reprogram the HOSTID in the Ultra system.
As Martin already mentioned the U5/E250 have a machine-type 8x (usually 80) while the SPARCstation 20 has 72. The machine-type is part of the HOSTID. Maybe the system uses this information to select the correct kernel.
I would recommend that you apply for a new license. The battery in the NVRAM has "Consumption Life" of about 10 years and getting a <b>new</b> chip of this type might be tough in the future (maybe already today).
Due to a bug in the forums software, notification of replies doesn't work (anymore). If you don't return to the forum, you will never know that you got answers ....
Michael
maal at 2007-7-5 17:59:02 >
