topic Re: RX4640 boot from SAN in Operating System - Linux

RX4640 boot from SAN

Nick Lunt — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 09:46:24 GMT

Hi,

I have just installed RHEL4 AS and used EVA6000 as the boot disk.
The install went fine, I used the internal disks for swap and the EVA LUN's for the OS, including /boot/efi.

Unfortunately the machine wont boot after the install. I tried to boot off RHEL CD1 into rescue mode but it can't find my Linux partitions on the SAN LUN.

I need to install the fibreutils rpm for the HBA cards but I can't get into the OS at any level.

I've read document AA-RV29D-TE entitled "Booting Itanium-based Linux systems from a SAN application notes" and all it seems to say is 'Download and install the supported HBA driver.'

Thats sound in principle but I have to be in a minimal linux environment to install the HBA driver ...

I had a similar problem with some DL385's but linux rescue mode at least found the EVA LUN's allowing me to chroot and install the HBA drivers.

Does anyone have any pointer or know of any documents to help me out here please ?

Cheers,
Nick .

Re: RX4640 boot from SAN

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 09:58:09 GMT

Shalom Nick,

Hopefully your boxes have some local storage. Otherwise you will need to download the drivers to say a USB key device to get the driver installed.

SEP

Re: RX4640 boot from SAN

Nick Lunt — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:10:00 GMT

Hi SEP,

I think I've just found the problem. I installed with 2 HBA's in the machine both pointing at the same LUN.

I've just reinstalled with only 1 HBA connected and it's looking much better, at least I've just got into single user mode ;)

Cheers,
Nick .

Re: RX4640 boot from SAN

Alan_152 — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:59:38 GMT

Which HBA are you using for connection to the EVA? A number of them need either driver, EFI driver, or firmware updates to boot from a SAN logical drive properly.

Fortunately, the EFI does have some tftp capabilities; otherwise I'll boot from a liveCD or a small local HD installation to take care of this...

Also, you might just have a bad header setup in your EFI boot selection menu. Try using the boot options menu to boot from a file, then try to find the elilo.conf file on the logical drive presentation that is listed.

Finally, try "reconnect -r" from an efi command prompt.

Re: RX4640 boot from SAN

Nick Lunt — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 03:14:26 GMT

Hi Alan,

thanks for the info. I admit I really need to take the time to read up on EFI.

The server has 2 QLA cards in. I unplugged one card from the EVA and the install to EVA went fine. However as the fibreutils package wasn't installed the post install reboot fails. So I booted into rescue mode and installed fibreutils, plugged the 2nd HBA card back into the EVA and all is fine.

Cheers,
Nick .