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SGI Onyx2 General Maintenance

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SGI Onyx2 deskside workstation (Owner's Guide Figure 1-1)
Onyx2 deskside from the rear, with the graphics and Node boards and the power inlet, and from the front (SGI Deskside Owner's Guide, Figure 1-1)

Routine care and handling for the SGI Onyx2, mainly the deskside model, from SGI's deskside and rackmount owner's guides and from owners on the IRIXNet forum.[1][2] SGI's guide warns against taking the chassis apart and treats only the drives, the module System Controller (MSC) and the CD-ROM as customer-replaceable; the board and fan notes below come from owners who have rebuilt these machines.[1][3] The Onyx2 shares its module design with the SGI Origin 2000, so SGI Origin 2000 General Maintenance also applies. For faults see SGI Onyx2 Troubleshooting Guide.

Safety

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  • Turning the MSC key to Standby does not remove all power from the midplane. Switch off the breaker at the rear before fitting or removing anything inside, and unplug the cord.[1]
  • Wear an earthed wrist strap; the boards are sensitive to static.[1]
  • The deskside weighs between 54.5 and 77.3 kg. It rolls on four castors, but never lift it without help. A rack weighs up to 340 kg.[4][5]
  • In a rack system, SGI warns that a ground potential difference of more than 0.5 V between chassis joined by CrayLink or Crosstown cables can cause severe damage; feed the graphics modules and the power distribution unit from the same breaker box.[6]
  • Do not lay the system on its side.[7]

Environment and placement

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SGI asks for at least 6 in (15 cm) of clear space above the deskside, more space at the sides if it stands under a desk, a clean dust-free location, and a supply rated at 20 A for 110 V or 16 A for 220 V. It runs at 5 to 35 °C below 5000 ft and 10% to 90% humidity.[8][9] Do not run it with the plastic covers off; SGI warns that the disturbed airflow can overheat it and cause a shutdown.[1]

110 V configurations allowed in North America (SGI Table 3-1)
Graphics Node boards RM/TM boards Disks and XIO
Onyx2 Reality 1 1 or 2 RM8 Any
Onyx2 Reality 2 1 RM8 Any
InfiniteReality2 1 1 Any

[1]

Any larger configuration needs a 200–240 V, 16 A supply.[1] The power cord uses an IEC C19 connector at the machine.[10]

Power-up and shutdown

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To switch on the deskside, turn on the breaker on the rear power panel, then the monitors and terminals, any printer and finally the MSC key. Watch the MSC display for SYS OK.[1] Raion's advice is to connect the keyboard and the graphics cable before switching on; Irinikus notes that the machine falls back to a serial console if it finds no keyboard and mouse.[11]

To switch off, shut IRIX down (System Shutdown, or /etc/halt as superuser), turn the key to Standby, switch off the breaker and unplug the cord.[1] SGI's own advice was not to power the system off often, and to leave it running over nights and weekends.[7]

A rack powers up in a set order: graphics module breakers on and their MSC keys to On, then the power distribution unit, the compute module and drive enclosure, and the MMSC; in a multirack system the MMSC in the rack with the display panel goes on last so that it finds the others.[6]

Covers and front door

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Push the panel at the top of the front down until it locks to reach the drives, the MSC and the CD-ROM. Ejecting a CD with the door closed can jam it.[4][1] To remove the plastic covers:[1]

  1. Switch off as above.
  2. Undo the captive screw near the centre of the bottom grille, lower the front cover about 4 mm and pull it forward.
  3. Release the four corner caps on the top cover by pushing a screwdriver through the upper grille and moving each latch towards the centre, then lift the caps off.
  4. Undo the captive screw under each cap and lift the top cover straight up. Arrows moulded into it point to the front.

SGI advises leaving the rear bumper and side panels alone; they are interconnected and hard to remove.[1] CB_HK found the sliding door's latch broken on his machine and fitted a replacement from ISC Plastics after cleaning and lubricating the guide rails.[12]

Boards

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jan-jaap's notes from rebuilding Onyx2 desksides:[2]

  • The Node and InfiniteReality boards have EMC gasket fingers on their left side. Fit boards from left to right, or the edge of each board crushes the gasket of the one beside it.
  • Push a board home by working the top and bottom handles in turn; tightening the large screws to pull it in bends the board's ears. Use the screws only to secure it, and if several boards are going in, fit them all before fastening any.
  • On Node and GE boards, seat the board, tighten the 7/64 in hex bolts, then the large screws.
  • A divider separates the processor and graphics sides, so a DG5 can be changed without disturbing the Node boards.
  • The midplane is held by screws numbered 1/22 to 22/22, longer than the others; keep them separate, and leave the other midplane screws alone.
  • Node boards of 180 MHz need different settings on midplane jumpers D4M0 and C2L2 from all later boards.

On a single Node board machine the board goes in slot N0; jan-jaap suggests getting a faulty machine to pass with one Node board and a single bank of known-good memory before adding more.[13] Clean memory contacts with pure alcohol and reseat the modules firmly if memory exceptions appear.[13]

Fans and dust

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The MSC watches all the fans and reports which one has failed. jan-jaap's experience is that a fan reported failed is often fine and the fault is in the fan tray's SCA connector, which he cleans with alcohol and an old toothbrush; clean the midplane side while it is exposed.[2] Noguri on the same forum advises removing the supply and clearing dust from between it and the midplane stiffeners, which can cause overheating.[14] A loaded machine in a warm room can run its fans at high speed with nothing wrong.[14]

Drives

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The five front bays take 3.5-inch disks on 80-pin SCA sleds only; drives and sleds from older SGI systems do not fit. The system disk (SCSI ID 1) goes in the bay next to the MSC. Power the system off before removing or fitting a drive, and put each drive back in the bay it came from, or the system will not boot.[3] jan-jaap notes that the flex cable to the CD-ROM on early machines carries only one of the 5 V or 12 V supplies, which does not suit newer drives.[2] See also Hard Drive Maintenance and Repair.

Clock, NVRAM and system ID

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The PROM environment is held in the one Dallas NVRAM chip, on the IO6G BaseIO board. If its settings are lost or corrupt, resetenv at the PROM console followed by a reset restores the defaults, and initall, update and reset clear complaints about changed hardware.[15] The system ID is not in that chip: it is a serial number chip in a can on the midplane, behind the right-hand Node board on the deskside.[16]

Power supply

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The supply is not user-replaceable in SGI's terms.[7] jan-jaap notes that the wires between its circuit boards are soldered, so it does not come apart easily.[2] Owners have found leaking capacitors in these supplies; see SGI Onyx2 Capacitor Replacement Guide.

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 SGI, 007-3454-005, chapter 3, pp. 32–44. Operating voltages and Table 3-1, safety precautions, front door, removing the plastic covers, MSC key, powering on and off.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 jan-jaap, reply of 19 March 2019 in "Onyx2 Restoration (WIP)", IRIXNet forum, forums.irixnet.org. Board fitting, midplane screws and jumpers, fan tray connector, power supply construction, CD-ROM cable.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 SGI, 007-3454-005, chapter 5, pp. 79–85. Customer-replaceable units, SCA drives and bays.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 SGI, 007-3454-005, chapter 2, pp. 13 and 17. Weight and castors; front door and CD-ROM caution.
  5. ↑ SGI, 007-3457-005, appendix A, p. 145, Table A-1. Rack weight.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Silicon Graphics, Silicon Graphics Onyx2 Rackmount Owner's Guide, 007-3457-005, 2000, chapter 4, pp. 95–99 (File:SGI Onyx2 Rackmount Owner's Guide (007-3457-005).pdf). Rack power-on order and ground potential caution.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 SGI, 007-3454-005, chapter 7, pp. 95–97. Care guidelines, power supply not end-user replaceable.
  8. ↑ Silicon Graphics, Silicon Graphics Onyx2 Deskside Workstation Owner's Guide, 007-3454-005, 1999, chapter 1, p. 10 (File:SGI Onyx2 Deskside Workstation Owner's Guide (007-3454-005).pdf). Location and environment, power ratings.
  9. ↑ SGI, 007-3454-005, p. 11, Table 1-2. Temperature and humidity limits.
  10. ↑ indigofan, kaigan and jwhat, "Onyx 2 Power Cable type", IRIXNet forum, September 2021, forums.irixnet.org.
  11. ↑ Raion and Irinikus, replies of 28 and 29 April 2021 in "SGI Onyx 2 Deskside no screen", IRIXNet forum, forums.irixnet.org.
  12. ↑ CB_HK, "Onyx2 Restoration (WIP)", IRIXNet forum, 7 April 2019, forums.irixnet.org. Door latch replacement.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 jan-jaap, reply of 4 September 2019 in "Onyx2 Deskside Midplane Capacitor/Resistor Identification", IRIXNet forum, forums.irixnet.org. Minimal configuration and memory cleaning.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Noguri and jan-jaap, "O2000 / onyx2 PSU fail (?)", IRIXNet forum, 12 June 2021 and 8 November 2023, forums.irixnet.org. Dust behind the supply; fan speed.
  15. ↑ jan-jaap, reply of 11 July 2024 in "ONYX2 will not recognize a RM board", IRIXNet forum, forums.irixnet.org. Dallas chip on the IO6G, resetenv.
  16. ↑ jan-jaap, "Location of the Origin 2000 / Onyx2 system ID", IRIXNet forum, 9 June 2021, forums.irixnet.org.


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