Environment
Novell NetWare 6.5
Situation
Novell NetWare 6.5 installed on a server using the MEGA_SAS.HAM
driver for the RAID controller. The server fails to initialise the
MEGA_SAS.HAM driver when restarting the server by loading
SERVER.EXE from the DOS prompt. In this particular situation the
server is issued a DOWN command with ACPIDRV.PSM manually unloaded
beforehand. A subsequent manual load of MEGA_SAS.HAM does
initialise correctly.
A full hardware reset of the server does not display the same symptom.
A full hardware reset of the server does not display the same symptom.
Resolution
Do not unload ACPIDRV.PSM prior to issuing the DOWN command. This
is not a recommended method to access the DOS partition on NetWare
6.5, and unloading ACPIDRV.PSM in order to do this is not supported
by Novell Technical Services. Pressing the Escape key when
prompted during the server boot process is the officially supported
method of accessing the DOS command line with NetWare 6.5.
With ACPIDRV.PSM loaded the DOWN command performs a full hardware reset of the server which allows the MEGA_SAS.HAM to load correctly. By-passing this process doesn't ensure that all server components are properly reset resulting in unexpected behaviour with hardware drivers.
Another option is to remove the NetWare Registry files. To do this, down the server to the dos prompt. The registry files are located in the c:\nwserver folder and named 'servcfg.000, servcfg.001, servcfg.002, servcfg.nbk'. Those can be deleted or moved into a different folder and then restart the server. Upon bootup those files will be automaically recreated.
With ACPIDRV.PSM loaded the DOWN command performs a full hardware reset of the server which allows the MEGA_SAS.HAM to load correctly. By-passing this process doesn't ensure that all server components are properly reset resulting in unexpected behaviour with hardware drivers.
Another option is to remove the NetWare Registry files. To do this, down the server to the dos prompt. The registry files are located in the c:\nwserver folder and named 'servcfg.000, servcfg.001, servcfg.002, servcfg.nbk'. Those can be deleted or moved into a different folder and then restart the server. Upon bootup those files will be automaically recreated.