DL160G6 No RAID on SUSE Linux

[Stefan Wania]

We are trying to install SUSE Linux 10 SP2 64bit on a DL160G6 with RAID 1 enabled on the embedded Smart array B110i controller.

With no special driver SUSE does not recognize the logical drives created on the controller but the four single drives. With the driver from the Easy-Setup CD 2.0 for the controller (hpahcisr-1.2.1-3.sles10.x86_64.dd.gz) we get the error message "No disks found. Try using the update CD".

Is there any way to install SUSE in this version on the DL160G6 with RAID enabled on the controller?

Any help urgently needed.

Thanks for your help.

Stefan

[Erdogan Temur]

Hi Stefan,

Additional information for Installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

When the boot screen is displayed during the installation, use the F5 function key to indicate, in the bar at the bottom of the screen, to add an additional driver. Pressing the F5 key will indicate that an optional disk with a driver update for SUSE Linux Enterprise will be used. If "Yes" is selected, the installation will prompt to insert the update disk at the appropriate point in the installation process. The default option is "No" (to not load a driver update). Perform the following steps to obtain the latest version of the HP Storage Controller Drivers Diskettes

try this driver.

HP Smart Array B110i SATA RAID Controller Driver for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 (AMD64/EM64T)
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3884343&prodNameId=3884344&swEnvOID=2078&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-ce65129844f9445694a414bed0

This is how we thank each other in the forum
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33

Regards.

[Stefan Wania]

Hello,

thanks for your help. Yes this really is a new driver version, but sadly it does not help! With this driver I see the drives again, but still all four drives, not the logical volumes created on the controller. So I still have no chance to install Linux in the logical drives.

The only thing I can do is to create Linux RAID volumes with this driver, which is not the configuration I wanted to get.

Btw. the Windows driver only sees the logical volumes, as expected.

Any more ideas?

Stefan

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

the server should be officially supported by SLES :

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/dl160g6-drivers-cert.html

in you situation i would try to install another linux distro fro testing.

mikap

[TTr · Accepted solution]

The B110i is a BIOS firmware based raid controller. The Linux-es do not make BIOS calls for disk i/o so they do not see the raid setup, they just see the disks connected as individual disks.

If you install windows, you will see the logical drives.

[Stefan Wania]

OK, that explains everything. So we have to do it with Linux Raid.

Thanks for your help.

Stefan

[Stefan Wania]

Not possible to install Linux on a logical drive with the embedded controller.

[Jimmy Vance]

You can use the embedded controller with SLES and use the RAID function.

You need to have the driver disk for the B110i controller and add broken_modules=ahci on the boot line

By default SLES trys tio use the ahci module which does not contain the RAID functionality.

I just looked at the intructions for the driver and it specifically calls out the fact that you need to use the broken_modules command

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3884343&swItem=MTX-ff69ede727d949b584e8aae211&prodNameId=3884344&swEnvOID=2078&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1