5-2 ES45 Owner's Guide
5.1 Console Overview
The system has a console consisting of firmware programs and an at-
tached terminal. The firmware programs consist of software code that
is stored within computer chips called flash ROMs that are located on
the system board. The chips can be electronically reprogrammed, al-
lowing you to upgrade the code without installing new chips.
SRM Console Services
The SRM console (named after the Alpha System Reference Manual) contains
instructions that help the hardware perform its assigned functions.
The SRM console provides the following services:
• Initializes, tests, and prepares the system hardware for Alpha system soft-
ware
• Bootstraps (loads into memory and starts the execution of) operating system
software and performs I/O services during booting and shutdown
• Controls and monitors the state and state transitions of each processor in a
multiprocessor system
• Provides services to operating system software that simplify system soft-
ware control of hardware
• Provides a command-line interface that supports the Tru64 UNIX,Linux,
and OpenVMS operating systems. SRM commands are used to display the
logical and physical configuration of the system, set environment variables,
and run firmware diagnostics.
A second console program, the remote management console (RMC), is imple-
mented through an independent microprocessor that resides on the system
board. The RMC allows you to manage the system either on site or from a re-
mote location. The RMC is described in Chapter 6.
Console Mode
When the operating system is halted, the system enters console mode. In con-
sole mode, the system operates under the control of a console program and the
commands entered or selected by the operator at the console terminal. The
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General
