If you turn on Multiboot from within the SMS menu (as shown below), your LPAR will always boot into SMS, regardless of your AIX boot list and/or LPAR profile settings.

PowerPC Firmware

Version EM310_048

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Multiboot

Select Install/Boot Device
Configure Boot Device Order
Multiboot Startup <ON>

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Navigation keys:

M = return to Main Menu

ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services

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Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key:

If your LPAR always boots to the SMS menu, check the Multiboot Startup setting. If its set to ON, change it to OFF (as shown below). To access this option you must enter “5. Select Boot Options” from the main SMS menu.

PowerPC Firmware

Version EM310_048

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Multiboot

Select Install/Boot Device
Configure Boot Device Order
Multiboot Startup <OFF>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Navigation keys:

M = return to Main Menu

ESC key = return to previous screen X = eXit System Management Services

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Type menu item number and press Enter or select Navigation key:

Enabling Multiboot is only useful if you’re planning on dual-booting AIX and Linux within an LPAR. With Multiboot turned on, each time you reboot the LPAR, you are taken to SMS so you can choose which disk to boot from i.e. the AIX boot disk or the Linux boot disk. I’ve never come across anyone actually doing this in the commercial world. Mathew Davis (from IBM) wrote an article about dual booting AIX and Linux on pSeries back in 2005:

6640p1.aspx

There can be other reasons why an LPAR always boots into SMS. The following link has some information on this:

http://www.aixmind.com/?tag=keeps-booting-to-sms

This IBM document explains how to select a boot disk from within the SMS menu.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1209&context=SWG10&dc=DB520&q1=multiboot+SMS&uid=isg3T1011805&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8&lang=en

Remember, if the disk doesn’t have a valid boot image, it won’t appear in the SMS menu as a boot device!

One way to check you have a boot device on your system is to run the ipl_varyon command from the AIX command line (before restarting your LPAR!):

# ipl_varyon -i

PVNAME BOOT DEVICE PVID VOLUME GROUP ID

hdisk0 YES 00f6048868b4e0ef0000 00f6048800004c00

If you don’t see a boot device on your system, perhaps someone has accidentally removed the boot record? Or maybe it was never created?

For example, in the commands that follow, I have “accidentally” run the ‘chpv –c’ command against my boot disk. This clears the boot record from the disk! The ipl_varyon command no longer shows hdisk0 as a bootable device.

Leaving the system in this state would prevent the system from booting!

To recreate the boot image, I run the bosboot command against hdisk0. Now ipl_varyon recognises hdisk0 as a bootable device again. Phew!

# chpv -c hdisk0

# ipl_varyon -i

PVNAME BOOT DEVICE PVID VOLUME GROUP ID

hdisk0 NO 00f6048868b4e0ef0000 00f6048800004c00

# bosboot -a -d /dev/hdisk0

bosboot: Boot image is 42689 512 byte blocks.

# ipl_varyon -i

PVNAME BOOT DEVICE PVID VOLUME GROUP ID

hdisk0 YES 00f6048868b4e0ef0000 00f6048800004c00