RAID card issues with RX8620 running RedHat Advance Server 4.

[Al_56]

l have a client who is having issues getting RAID working on their RX8620 server running RedHat advance Server 4 (kernel 2.6.22).

They have tried both the Smart Array 6404 and 5304 controllers, neither with any success.

l see from some HP support pages that there is no support for the 5304 controller for Redhat at all on the RX8620, and only support up to Redhat AS 2.1 for the 6404 (http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/storagesnf2/raid160/specifications/).

In fact the options page for the RX8620 only shows compatibilty to RedHat AS 3.

So obviously the cards are stacked against it here, but has anyone here been successful running RedHat AS 4 on this server? If so which RAID card have you had success with (if any)?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice you can provide.

Alan

[Sung Oh]

HI Alan,

The Smart Array 6404 card is only supported in Windows from RX8620 options list.

http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/integrity/mid_range/rx8620/supplies.html

However, you can try to configure RAID prior to software install from CDs. Also you need to have the latest CCISS driver for 6404 card.

Regards,

Sung

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Alan,

You are correct, there is no support for that card.

The system you are using is quite expensive. It would be best to use hardware supported both by RedHat and HP.

SEP

[Al_56]

Thanks Sung & Steven,

Is there a card you could recommend for this system?

l had no input into the original hardware spec of the system (and probably would not have selected an Itanium based solution if l had), and have been brought in to help resolve the issue and get them up and running.

l was thinking about an Adaptec card but am not sure which cards are best.

Looking at their current chosen solution, l would think an Ultra 320 RAID card with between 128 - 258 Meg Cache would be the requirements for the card.

Any advice?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Check with HP

http://partsurfer.hp.com

Find your system, check under controller cards.

Their may be other options, check system documentation at http://docs.hp.com

SEP

[Sung Oh]

Hi Alan,

Here are few options,

HP Compaq Smart Array 5300
HP Smart Array 6402 RAID Controller
HP HP 64-bit/133-Mhz Dual Channel Wide Ultra320 SCSI Adapter
LSI Logic® LSI53C1010 Ultra 160 SCSI
HP HP Smart Array P600 Controller

Regards,

Sung

[Alan_152]

Though not officially on the compat list, for the rx8620 the 640x series does run on both rhel3u3 (and better) and rhel4u1 (and better) with the native drivers. Make sure that all your firmware (both the system and the card) is completely up to date. you might even want to get a copy of the current Smart Setup CD to assist you with that.

For my work with RHEL, we use the 640x, the 530x, and the P600 every day with the 86xx series.

[Al_56]

Thanks very much for the replies.

l will check the firmware levels, etc for all components Alan.

It seems the client has now got the 5304 to be recognized under RH AS 4, and are trying to migrate from the software raided disks to the hardware raided disks (seems they've invested a few weeks of Oracle configuration, etc).

The migration has proceeded to the stage where he can boot to the initial kernel, but not to the later kernels (not being able to find the root label of the boot disk

Does anyone have any advice on that?

[Alan_152]

I just thought of something else... most of our testing is with the xx02, not the xx04 cards (2 port versus 4 port). I belive the issue is that the 4 port isn't going to be supported, just the 2 port verisons of these cards.

From your symptoms in the last post, a firmware update will help in being able to find your boot point for the updated kernels. I'd also recommend at this point downloading and using the Smart Setup CD to install the service partition and diagnostic tools -- doing this seems to also make finding the boot partition a bit easier...

[Stuart Browne]

Ensuring that the eratta kernels have the updated cciss modules, and that the initrd is recreated properly is about all I can suggest..

By the same token, I've not used any of the Itanium-based servers or elilo..

[Al_56]

They started off with the 6402 RAID card before moving to the current 5304 card.

l'm wondering if RedHat Advanced Server (4.0) does not have the correct drivers that RHEL 3 & 4 did/do, and this is why they couldn't get these servers running off the hardware raid to begin with.

Alan, did you use the Samrt Start CD to create the RAID partitions on your RX8620's? The guy here says you can't........

Thanks,

Al

[Alan_152]

I create my partitions manually. I use the smartsetup cd at this point just for firmware.

[Alan_152]

going from a 64xx to a 53xx doesn't seem like a solid move to me -- the 53xx is a u160 vs the 64 being a u320. The better move would have been to a 6404 (even if unsupported -- all the 6402 is is a 6404 with 2 ports taped over).

[Al_56]

So on the Itaniums you can't create the service partition? Did l interpret that correctly?

Are you running RHAS (Advanced Server) or RHEL?

l found this reference to the 5300 RAD cards and found compatability for RHEL up to 4.0, but only to 2.1 on Advanced Server (http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/family/model/1237.html?lang=en&cc=us&prodSeriesId=374791)

[Al_56]

The tech said that the 6402 cards were not even recognized by the RX8620's upon boot, and he had multiple cards, and tried them all in each server, in multiple slots, so in theory the cards or PCI-X slots weren't bad.

So perhaps either this is a strange batch of RX8620's, or a strange batch of cards.....

[Alan_152 · Accepted solution]

No I could create a service partition with the sscd, but I don't use it to do other partition work. I leave that up to the efi and/or the OS.

It is strange that your 640x cards aren't even detected -- are you sure the tech is locking the cards into place so that the slot is powered up? Using a "reconnect -r" from the EFI shell should at least give you a battery/partition summary from the smart array card.

Like I said, our Olympias run rhel3 and rhel4 with both 53xx and 64xx cards -- but we're a testing environment, so (as I've said) we do some things that aren't official or supported.

[Al_56]

Thanks Alan,

Your advice on the battery charge fixed the issue with the 5304 cards he was installing on the servers.

It was probably the same issue that gave him issues on the 6400 cards as well.

So with Advanced Server 4.0 you have to load the OS without the hardware RAID (as the card has no Advance Server driver past 2.1), and then migrate to the Hardware RAID once installed.

Spoke with our HP rep who said that the cards were compatible with Advance Server 4.0, but will have to check and see why the drivers are not on the support site.