topic Re: Installation problems in Disk Enclosures

Installation problems

Ayman Altounji — Thu, 21 Dec 2000 00:00:00 GMT

I am having problems installing NetWare 5.1 on am ML530 with a 5302 array controller. I am using SmartStart 4,90 which seems to include the same or later drivers than the one on the software supplied with the controller. It configures the array ok but when I come to size the sys volume it gives a very large value and will not accept any changes. If I accept it it creates a volume the same size as the NetWare partition, in our case 191Gb hardly what I need. Any ideas?

Re: Installation problems

Ayman Altounji — Thu, 21 Dec 2000 00:00:01 GMT

I have discovered a bit more. If I limit the NetWare partition size to 137000Mb I can set the sys volume ok.

Re: Installation problems

Ayman Altounji — Wed, 14 Feb 2001 00:00:00 GMT

I've got the same problem. ML530, Smart 5302, NetWare 5.1, SmartStart 4.90. But I still can't configure the size of SYS.
The NetWare partition should be 200147.4 MB - but unless I reduce it to 137436.9 (!!) then SYS will only accept a size of 4294892539.
I'm also using the latest 5300 Support download (v4.94b) which upgrades CPQRAID.HAM to v1.05 (14/12/00) and CPQSHD.CDM to v1.36 (26/10/00). Still no improvement. The documentation with NSSD 6.10 says the previous version of CPQSHD (1.35 - 27/7/00) raises the partition limit to 502 GB. Not for me it odesn't.

Of course, I could try splitting my 12 disks into 2 logical arrays of about 100000 MB each, then have 2 NetWare partitions with SYS=4000MB and VOL1=all the rest (spanning both partitions)- but I'd rather have a fix.

Help please!

Re: Installation problems

Ayman Altounji — Wed, 14 Feb 2001 00:00:01 GMT

I'm glad there is someone out there with the same problem. I thought it was something I was doing. The description and situation is a duplicate of what we found, at least it is repeatable and there is a chance someone will fix it, too late for me though unless I rebuild the server!

Re: Installation problems

Ayman Altounji — Fri, 16 Feb 2001 00:00:00 GMT

This problem has been dealt with on the ML530 - Novell forum. There's a discussion running titled 'SYS Volume Creation'

The reported problem was......
"We recently purchased an ML530 with a SmartArray 5302/64 raid controller and 12 18gb U3 Hotplug drives.
The SmartStart install of NetWare 5.0 goes well until we reach the partition/Sys creation screen. The partition size is shown correct, but the default Sys volume size shows as 4Exabytes(???) and CANNOT be changed."

And the solution is.....
"The problem is not Compaq, it is Novell. You have to use a new Nwconfig.nlm. It is located in the service pack for Netware 5.0. Copy this nlm to the nwserver directory on your dos partition. This will solve youre problem!"

I've tried this on NetWare 5.1 and it works. I used the nwconfig.nlm from SP2a (v3.32 instead of the v3.30 on the 5.1 CD). I aborted the install at the point where you can't configure SYS, then copied the new nlm to C:\NWUPDATE. Then I restarted the install, and it used the newer nlm rather than the one on the 5.1 CD.

Re: Installation problems

Ayman Altounji — Fri, 09 Mar 2001 00:00:00 GMT

Thank you for this very detailed fix for the reported Netware 5.1 installation problem. I am sure it is appreciated by all the Netware users to the Compaq Support Forum.