HPlogo Performing System Management Tasks: HP 3000 MPE/iX Computer Systems > Chapter 12 System Hardware Descriptions

Components of Series 991, 992 and 995 Systems
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The Series 991, Series 992 and Series 995 system processor units (SPU) are housed in two cabinets, the processor bay and the power bay, bolted together to form a single unit.

Here is a brief description of the components of these systems:

  • The processor bay houses the SPU cards and cooling fans.

  • The power bay houses the air conditioning unit, the Uninterruptible Power Supply, transformers, power supply modules, and cooling fans. It is not accessible to the system manager or system operator.

  • Nonremovable and removable disk drives are used to store data. You can connec t several disk drives to the system.

  • The tape drive is used initially to load the operating system. You can connec t several tape drives to the system.

  • The operating system resides on the system disk once it has been installed.

  • The system operator uses the system console to send and receive messages.

  • You can connect several page printers and line printers to the system.

Switches and lights on Series 950 through Series 980 systems

As system manager you may need to know how to interpret the switches and status lights for Series 950 through Series 980 systems. A main power switch, located on the front of the power bay, is used to turn the system on and off. The ac power breaker that is located on the rear of the power bay may be used, along with the main power switch, to turn off the system power. These switches are shown in Figure 12-9 “Series 950 Through Series 980 SPU Cabinet”.

The control panel is attached to the top of the power bay. Figure 12-10 “Series 950 through Series 980 Control Panel” gives a close-up look of the control panel. The function of the control panel is represented by three switches (two momentary button switches and one keyed switch), ten system status indicators, and a four-digit hexadecimal display.

Figure 12-10 Series 950 through Series 980 Control Panel

[Series 950 through Series 980 Control Panel]

The system manager uses the control panel to view system status and to enable remote access. Information regarding the status of the system is also found on the control panel. This information is helpful to the Hewlett-Packard support representative when servicing your system. System status is controlled by the following:

  • A battery button and a reset button, located under the hinged cover of the control panel. The battery button switch is used to remove battery power from system buses and then to clear memory. The reset button switch is used to reset the system and then to clear memory.

  • The "Secured, Console Enabled, Console/Reset Enabled Switch" is a keyed position switch that is controlled by the system manager. It is used to enable or disable the system console and the reset button.

  • The four-digit hexadecimal display provides coded messages that are initiated by two sources: software and hardware. If messages appear, the system manager should write them down. The messages should be reported when calling for service to help diagnose status conditions of the system.

  • Nine status lights are located on the control panel. Those lights are a RUN light, a LINE light, a POWER light, a CHECK light, a FAULT light, two TEMP lights, a BATTERY CHARGE light, and a REMOTE ENABLED light. If there is a system problem, status light patterns should be written down and then reported when calling for service. Table 12-4 “Interpretation of Status Lights” gives information on how to interpret the lights.

  • The lights on the system status panel (control panel) that you see lighted when the system is operating normally are the RUN light, the LINE light, and the POWER light.

Table 12-4 Interpretation of Status Lights

Status LightInterpretation
RUN light Indicates that the system is operating and there is no failure.
LINE light Indicates that ac power is being provided to the system.
POWER light Indicates that dc power is being provided to the system.
CHECK light Indicates that a nonfatal error has occurred or the battery backup is charging.
FAULT light Indicates that a fatal error has occurred and the system cannot continue normal operation. Lights during system startup.
TEMP lights (2) Yellow light represents an over-temp warning condition but the system is still operational. Red light represents over-temp shutdown condition and the system is not operational.
BATTERY CHARGE light Indicates that the battery is charging.
REMOTE ENABLED light Indicates that the remote console is allowed access to the control mode commands.

 

To understand processor bay card cages

As a system manager, you may be interested in knowing what is inside the processor bay. This information should help you become familiar with the system.

The processor bay houses the processor and memory card cages in the front of the processor bay and the mid-bus and I/O card cages in the rear of the processor bay. These card cages are where the various processor, memory, channel adapter, and CIO device adapter cards reside.

The system manager never needs to access inside the Series 950 through Series 980 computer system. Servicing the system is performed by qualified Hewlett-Packard support personnel.

Series 950 through Series 980 systems can use 64-Mbyte memory array cards in addition to 16-Mbyte memory array cards. CIO device adapter cards residing in the CIO card cages are the HP-IB, multiplexer (MUX), LAN interface controller (LANIC), and access port (AP).

The peripherals are accessed by a path address that is defined by the card cage and slot number that the device adapters, channel adapters, and bus converters occupy.

To understand the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

The Series 9X8 systems and the Series 991 and 995 systems use the HP model A2998A PowerTrust UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) unit for powerfail protection.

Like the battery backup method of power failure, the UPS devices protect the HP 3000 system against the loss of "work in progress" in cases of utility AC power failures of up to fifteen minutes in duration. Furthermore, they have been designed to appear similar to the Battery Backup method which minimizes their effect on system operation and management procedures. UPS devices do offer two principal advantages over the Battery Backup method:

  • In a minimal UPS-based system, the degree of power failure protection is equivalent to that of the battery backup unit. You can, however, add more UPS devices to the system and provide reserve power to selected peripherals. Depending upon how much of the system is provided with UPS power, it can run a partial or full workload non-stop through limited periods of AC power failure.

  • The UPS contains a serial I/O communications interface that, in conjunction with UPS Monitor/iX software, notifies the system operator of any problems. In addition to console messages, the UPS Monitor/iX software also posts a variety of status and warning messages to the system log files which you can review and analyze to evaluate system performance.

You add UPS devices to the I/O configuration using the Node Management Services Configuration Manager (NMMGR) program. (Refer to chapter 3 of this manual for a brief introduction and read Configuring Systems for Terminals, Printers, and Other Serial Devices (32022-90001) for detailed information.)

Once you have configured the UPSs, the UPS Monitor/iX software continuously monitors the condition of all UPS devices on the system. Furthermore, it emulates the power failure recovery behavior of systems using battery backup units: Upon the return of power following a failure, UPS Monitor/iX broadcasts a system-wide power failure recovery message to all active user terminals and to the console.



Components of Series 950 Through Series 980 Systems
  		 


Identifying System Connections