ISS Technology Update, Volume 9 Number 5

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HP ISS Technology Update

Volume 9, Number 5

Keeping you informed of the latest ISS technology

Understanding UEFI ............................................................................................................................. 1

Quick Tip: Changing the iLO Passwords for multiple ProLiant server blades in an enclosure .......................... 3

Changing terms from stripe size to strip size with HP Smart Array utilities ................................................... 4

Meet the Expert—David Engler .............................................................................................................. 6

Recently published Industry-Standard Server technology papers................................................................. 7

Contact us .......................................................................................................................................... 7

Understanding UEFI

UEFI (Unified Enhanced Firmware Interface) is a specification that defines a new interface and

architecture for the system firmware that initializes server hardware subsystems before starting the OS

boot process. It is now touted as a long-term successor to the BIOS system, which has been part of the

x86 system architecture since its inception. Keep reading to understand more about its strengths and

challenges.

Origins of UEFI

UEFI began as EFI, or the Enhanced Firmware Interface, and it was first proposed for the development

of the Intel Itanium-based systems in the late 1990s. Because the Itanium architecture was essentially

starting from scratch, there wasn’t much downside to defining a new firmware architecture for it. UEFI

has grown out of a desire to extend this new firmware architecture to x86-based systems.

Summary of content (7 pages)

PAGE 1
2 HP ISS Technology Update Volume 9, Number 5 Keeping you informed of the latest ISS technology Understanding UEFI ............................................................................................................................. 1 Quick Tip: Changing the iLO Passwords for multiple ProLiant server blades in an enclosure .......................... 3 Changing terms from stripe size to strip size with HP Smart Array utilities ...................................................
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UEFI Architecture UEFI was designed to bring modularity to system firmware by implementing a driver-based approach to platform initialization. Hardware and device chipsets will have a UEFI driver that allows the system firmware to initialize them through a standard API rather than having to program them directly. The UEFI architecture is shown in Figure 1-1. Figure 1-1.
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HP ProLiant servers and UEFI At HP, we are always evaluating new server technologies, including UEFI. Currently, we believe that the best customer value for ProLiant servers is provided by continuing to use BIOS-based firmware. Going forward we will continue to evaluate and remain involved in the UEFI efforts so that we can determine when and where it may add customer value and provide development flexibility. Additional resources Resource URL UEFI organization home page http://www.uefi.
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The CPQLOCFG.EXE and HPONCFG.EXE utilities, and the scripting guide, are available from our website at the links found in ―Additional resources.‖ To download the utilities, click on the appropriate link and select your operating system. Figure 2-1. RIBCL XML sample script for changing iLO passwords
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Figure 3-1. Strips and stripes for a typical RAID 5 logical drive A stripe, on the other hand, is the collection of one set of strips across the physical drives in a logical drive. A stripe’s size is not configured. It is a product of the strip size, the number of physical drives in the logical drive, and the RAID level. In Figure 3-1, a stripe is represented by each color band across the physical drive set.
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Meet the Expert—David Engler David Engler is a Design Engineer in Enterprise Servers and Storage (ESS). Over his 13year career, David has gained very diverse engineering knowledge due to his involvement with most of the HP ProLiant server platforms, ranging from the 1U DL360 server to the 5U ML570 server. His responsibilities focus on solving customer issues regarding current storage and server products and applying those solutions to future products.
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Recently published Industry-Standard Server technology papers Title URL HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure technologies http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00 816246/c00816246.pdf Technologies in HP ProLiant G7 c-Class server blades with AMD Opteron™ processors http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02 239274/c02239274.pdf Ethernet technology for industry-standard servers http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02 475134/c02475134.