DL120G5 running CentOS SATA RAID issues

[wobbe]

Hello All,

I've installed CentOS 5.3 on a DL120G5 using the onboard sata raid controller.
After installtion I did not look at the server for a while but when I did I found out that for some reason the raid set had failed. I first suspected HD failure but I'm now pretty sure that is not the case. The server just finished a raid rebuild that took over 4 days to complete. (I use unsupported generic 1.5 TB disks)I understand that the rebuild can also be done online so I installed the HP embeded G5 Sata Raid Controller Manager for Linux. Istalling the RPM finished without problems but starting the StorMan tool gives me the following error. (See attachment)
I'm a windows user so I'm in uncharted waters here. I wish HP put some good info on their site about this subject, maybe itâ s there but I canâ t find it. There are just so many manual and documentations itâ s a bit overwhelming with all those versions and operating systems
Hope you help me out here.

WB

[wobbe]

Fixed the problem with the folling command.

yum install libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5.i386

Now the storman tool start but I can't seem to logon. It comes up with a logon window bu when I enter the password it logs the error:

User root could not be logged int nljrsr62

[Jimmy Vance]

Even after enabling the RAID function in RBSU, without having the aarahci driver for your running kernel loaded you probably were not really doing anything with RAID.

I haven't ran StorMan for some time, but I don't think it will work properly unless aarahci is loaded

The embedded SATA is a software RAID controller, the aarahci driver is what makes the RAID function.

It is a closed source driver available compiled for specific kernels

RHEL5 x86:

2.6.18-8.el5 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (x86)
2.6.18-8.1.14.el5
2.6.18-8.1.15.el5
2.6.18-53.el5 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 1 (x86)
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683232&swItem=MTX-dfebb47310c248b0b65fe31d42&prodNameId=3683233&swEnvOID=4006&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=2

RHEL5 x86_64:

2.6.18-8.el5 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (AMD64/EM64T)
2.6.18-8.1.14.el5
2.6.18-8.1.15.el5
2.6.18-53.el5 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 1 (AMD64/EM64T
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683232&swItem=MTX-13538d01401c49308460a13b61&prodNameId=3683233&swEnvOID=4004&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=2

[wobbe]

Jimmy,

I downloaded that driver but I'm not able to install because I'm running 2.6.18-164.
I was thinking maybe the newer kernel would contain this driver. I think HP documentation about this subject is really bad! It's very confusing expecially when you are used to using smart array controllers on Windows. So I probably need an older kernel and that can't be good I guess?

WB

[Jimmy Vance]

Basically you have a couple of options.

Disable the embedded SATA RAID, leave the drives as two single disks and use the software RAID function built into the OS.

Another option is to add in a hardware based HP Smart Array controller. The driver for a Smart Array controller is called cciss and is open source and included in most if not all distributions.

HP Smart Array E200/128 BBWC Controller 411508-B21

and you will also need this cable to connect the drives to the controller

HP Internal SAS/SATA 4-Port Cable 457692-B21

Even if there was a current RHEL5 aarahci driver for the kernel your running now, the next errata kernel update, you would be stuck with the supported kernel until a new driver was built and tested and finally released for the errata kernel

The aarahci driver doesn't ship with any versions of Linux or Windows

[wobbe]

How about the option of installing an older kernel. Is this done/doable? And why doesn't HP have a newer driver version, are they lazy?
I guess if you have a working system you can't do a yum update anymore because it would probaly install an newer kernel version and break the raid.

[wobbe]

So I installed CentOS 5.1 and now I'm running kernel 2.6.18-53.el5. This kernel should be supported by the HP driver. But when I installed the rmp I got all kind of errors. One of the errors is about lilo??
See screenshot for more details.
Is there anyone out there that got this driver working on CentOS 5.1???

[Jimmy Vance]

It's been awhile since I looked at the installer script inside of the RPM, but it's probably giving the error because it's not seeing the correct information, or at least what it considers correct inside the file /etc/redhat-release

[wobbe]

I've allready eddited the redhat-release file. But that was after the initial install.
When I try a rpm -e aarahci I get the same error message and a followinf rpm -Uvh tells me that the package is allready installed.

[Jimmy Vance]

you might try

rpm -e --noscripts aarahci-1.4.17015-1

[wobbe]

That command completed without errors. But the same errors again when reinstalling.

I just noticed that there is also a driver disk available on the HP website the needs to be loaded during installation. So I'm going to give that a try now.

[wobbe]

(This slowly turning into one big frustration. Frustration about HP, about LINUX and about the fact that I bought this shitty server! If it wasnâ t for the fact that Iâ m trying to learn a bit of linux I would already have installed a copy of Windows 2003. Iâ m 100% sure the server would have been up and running in a fraction of the time Iâ ve spend so far.
LINUX = too much choice too little support and no enough people using it. No pun intended)

Iâ ve logged into the Redhat site and downloaded a copy op RHEL 5.1 because I want to rule out CentOS 5.1 as a problem.

Iâ ve downloaded the Driver disk from HP and copied it to a disk using dd.

I followed HPâ s procedure but all attempts failed with the error: failed to mount disk.

Iâ m using a USB floppy drive since the DL120 doesnâ t have an internal drive. (As far as I can see thereâ s not even an fdd controller connector on the mainboard)
But I donâ t think the USB floppy drive is the problem the light comes on and the disk is clearly being read at some point.
Just to make sure I downloaded the driver again and created a new floppy. I even downloaded the cdrom version of RHEL.

Sigh, tomorrow Iâ ll try calling HP support. Sigh

[Lisa Salvadorini]

Wobbe, I installed Windows server... all works.. but I would want to install Centos 5.1.
I hope in the hp assistance....but they don't recall me....

[wobbe]

Good luck with that :-)
I think HP's support for the DL120G5 sucks big time!
They should get better technical support people for their phone lines and at least upgrade the Linux sata drivers and make them compatible with CentOS.
You could try Oracle Linux is't basically also a RHEL clone, it might work. But I've given up experimenting with this piece shit.