topic Re: Configure hardware RAID on a DL during kickstart installation in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

Configure hardware RAID on a DL during kickstart installation

Ari000 — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 06:10:19 GMT

We have few builds including windows, esx and linux, where we want to use kickstart to automate the installation. However as we use RAID1 as our standard, would like to find a way to check if a hardware RAID1 is already configured if yes then use that, else create RAID1 and then install OS.

We don't want to use software RAID, also don't want to configure hardware RAID post installation.

Thank you and appreciate all responses.

Re: Configure hardware RAID on a DL during kickstart installation

SanjeevGoyal — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 01:04:57 GMT

Hello,

Follow the below documents.

HPE Smart Array SR Gen10 Configuration Guide

http://itdoc.hitachi.co.jp/manuals/ha8000v/hard/Gen10/SA/882375-002_en.pdf

Launching HPE SSA with Intelligent Provisioning

Procedure

1. Boot the server or compute module.

2. Press F10 to launch Intelligent Provisioning.

3. At the main screen, select Perform Maintenance.

4. At the Maintenance screen, select HPE Smart Storage Administrator (SSA).

The system launches the HPE SSA GUI.

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!

Regards,

Re: Configure hardware RAID on a DL during kickstart installation

pchops — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 07:56:49 GMT

FWIW: for ESXi, the Custom HPE VMware ESXi installation images provide the Smart Storage Administrator CLI ("ssacli"), along with other HPE-specific utilities, within the installation environment, so you can perform whatever RAID configuration tasks you need within a "%pre" or "%post" section of your kickstart script. The catch is that a reboot may be required, depending on the operation and the specific configuration. For example, I PXE boot the ESXi installation and in my kickstart, I check for, and clear, any existing storgage configuration. Then, I create a RAID array with two logical drives -- a small one just for the ESXi system drive and the remaining space as a datastore for the VMs. Next, I apply some BIOS settings and then interrupt the installation, prompting the operator that a reboot is required (setting a one-time reboot to PXE again). This is necessary in order to correctly set the UEFI boot order for the newly created logical volume.

I'm not sure what the dependencies are for "ssacli" in order to add it to a Linux or Windows pre-installation environment, but it is included with the HPE Scripting Toolkit for Windows and Linux, so I end up using that environment to perform whatever BIOS, iLO, storage, etc, configuration settings that are required prior to the OS installation. While this is not as convenient as having it all in one place, it can all be scripted and PXE booted.

Re: Configure hardware RAID on a DL during kickstart installation

anthony11 — Thu, 05 May 2022 19:32:30 GMT

Interactively doing this on a console doesn't scale.

It can be done during kickstart %pre by installing and executing hpacucli or whatever it's called these days.