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D Utilities
This appendix describes the utilities that are part of the server. These include the EFI Boot
Manager, and EFI-POSSE.
This appendix addresses the following topics:
• “Extensible Firmware Interface Boot Manager” (page 317)
• “EFI/POSSE Commands” (page 320)
• “Specifying SCSI Parameters” (page 337)
• “Using the Boot Option Maintenance Menu” (page 343)
• “iLO 2 MP” (page 348)
Extensible Firmware Interface Boot Manager
The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is an OS and platform-independent boot and preboot
interface. EFI resides between the OS and platform firmware, enabling the OS to boot without
details about the underlying hardware and firmware. EFI supports boot devices, uses a flat
memory model, and hides platform and firmware details from the OS.
NOTE: EFI and Pre-OS System Environment (POSSE) are similar. EFI is an Intel specification,
whereas POSSE is the HP implementation that aids HP support.
EFI consolidates boot utilities similar to those found in PA-RISC systems, such as the Boot Console
Handler (BCH), and platform firmware into a single platform firmware. EFI enables the selection
of any EFI OS loader from any boot medium that is supported by EFI boot services. An EFI OS
loader supports multiple options on the user interface.
EFI supports booting from media that contain an EFI OS loader or an EFI-defined system partition.
An EFI-defined system partition is required by EFI to boot from a block device.
Figure D-1 EFI Boot Sequence
EFI
Driver
EFI
Application
EFI
Bootcode
Retry
Platform
Init
Standard
Firmware
Platform
Initialization
OS Loader
Failure
EFI API
EFI Image
Load
EFI
OS Loader
Load
Boot Services
Terminate
Drivers and
Application
Loaded
Iteratively
Boot from
Ordered List
of EFI OS
Loaders
Operation
Handed Off to
OS Loader
Application Program
Interface (API) specified
Boot manager
Value add implementation
EFI transfers
The EFI Boot Manager loads EFI applications (including the OS first stage loader) and EFI drivers
from an EFI-defined file system or image loading service. Non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) variables
Extensible Firmware Interface Boot Manager
317