Introduction to the Attention Button, Power LED, & Attention LED

The power LED is used to indicate the power state of the slot. The power LED is also used to provide visual feedback to the operator when the hot-plug operations are event-driven, initiated via the latch, or Attention Button. The power LED will begin to blink when the event is initiated and will continue to blink until the hot plug operation is concluded. At that point, the power LED will transition from blinking to off or on. The final state of the power LED informs the user of the outcome of the operation. The power LED can be in one of three states: off, blinking, or on. The states have the following meanings:

The attention LED is used to help a human operator locate a slot or to indicate an operational hardware problem at the slot. The attention LED can be in one of three states: off, blinking, or on. The states have the following meanings:

Locate operations have precedence over operational problems for the attention LED.

The success or failure of an event-driven hot plug operation is communicated to the user via the power LED. Therefore, the meaning of the power LED state depends on the context. An event-driven OLA will start with the power LED in the steady OFF state. When the latch is closed and the Attention Button is pressed, the power LED will begin flashing. When the operation is completed, the power LED will enter its terminal state. For an event-driven OLR, the operation begins with the power LED in the steady ON state. When the AB is pressed, the power LED begins flashing. If the power LED transitions to the steady OFF state, then the operation has succeeded. If the power LED transitions from blink to steady ON, then the operation has failed.

See “hotplugd Daemon and Logfile” for log file information to diagnose errors.

The Attention Button is a momentary-contact push button, located adjacent to each hot-plug slot, that is pressed by the user to initiate a hot-insertion or hot-removal at that slot. Pressing the Attention Button corresponding to a powered-on, populated slot will initiate a hot-removal operation. It is possible to cancel an operation started through the Attention Button. After pressing the button, a five second time window becomes available. If the button is pressed again during that window, the operation is cancelled. Hot-removal operations initiated through the Attention Button will perform critical resource analysis on the target and affected slots.

The latch is a two position lever located adjacent to a PCI slot. When the slot is closed, the add-in card is held in place and cannot be removed. When the latch is open, the slot is accessible, and a card may be inserted or removed. The latch also influences power to the slot. When the latch is closed, power may be applied to the slot. When the latch is open, hardware cuts power to the slot. This feature prevents the user from damaging the card, the system, or themselves by accidentally removing a powered-on card. When a latch is opened while the power to the slot is ON, and the card in the slot is active, unpredictable results could result.

Adjacent to each OL* capable slot are OLX Dividers. Light pipes are included on the dividers to show the LED on the slot at the top of the divider and back of the system for easy visibility. The card associated with the divider is to the right of the divider, as viewed from the cabling end of the card. See the system hardware documentation for specifics on how to install or remove cards and how to release the latch.

Prior to using the Attention Button technique for managing slots, executing a few olrad commands for diagnosing the current state of slots and cards is highly recommended. See “Preliminary Actions” for details on the usage of this command.

Also refer to the olrad(1M) manual page for detailed information on this command.