Oracle Sun Fire X4800, Product Notes

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Option Cards Can Fail to Load Device Drivers in Some Configurations (CR 6933436)
The OS might try as well. However if it tries, it fails and generates additional failure messages
because it uses the same method as BIOS. However, most drivers can manage this condition.
1. Usually, you can ignore these messages.
2. If you continue to experience I/O resource issues, see
I/O and Interrupt Resource Allocation
in Sun Fire X4800 Server Installation Guide .
Option Cards Can Fail to Load Device Drivers in Some
Configurations (CR 6933436)
Some combinations of option cards can result in failure to load device drivers and subsequent
failure to mount file systems or configure network interfaces, and possibly failure to boot the
system. This occurs in ESX 4x only.
The ESX host requires "Low Memory," or the memory addressed below 4 GB for the Service
Console, device drivers and other data structures. The BIOS utilizes 2 GB of this memory area
for its own uses. With the large number of supported I/O devices, this memory can become
exhausted in some situations.
VMware describes this problem in their Knowledge Base at
https://vmware.com
.
Workaround
Use the following procedure to reduce the amount of memory reserved by the Service Console.
1. Restart the ESX host.
2. When the boot menu appears, ensure that the default boot option is highlighted.
3. Press
e
to edit the default boot option.
A new list appears.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight the line that starts with
kernel /vmlinuz
.
5. Press the
e
key to edit the line in the boot configuration.
6. Use the arrow key to move over the portion of the line which has a parameter similar to the
following:
mem=800M
7. Change the value to 600 megabytes.
For example:
mem=600M
8. Press Enter to accept the changes.
9. Press the
b
key to boot the host using the new configuration.
68 Sun Fire X4800 Server Product Notes • July 2017