Understanding HBA's & driver modules

[Jorge Fabregas]

Hello guys,

I'm configuring 2 HBA's (QLA2312) on a blade server (RHEL 4). I finally can see disks with lssd. I had to enable the "EVA Failover" using the provded set_parm script. Now I see a LUN presented as one disk (and not 4 disks as it used to).

My questions is regarding the modules I'm using. I installed the HP driver. However I understand that RHEL comes with generic drivers for these QLogic cards. This is the pertinent entries on my modprobe.conf:

remove qla2xxx /sbin/modprobe -r --first-time --ignore-remove qla2xxx && { /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove qla2xxx_conf; }
alias scsi_hostadapter2 qla2xxx_conf
alias scsi_hostadapter3 qla2xxx
alias scsi_hostadapter4 qla2300
alias scsi_hostadapter5 qla2400
alias scsi_hostadapter6 qla6312
options qla2xxx ql2xmaxqdepth=16 qlport_down_retry=30 ql2xloginretrycount=16 ql2xfailover=1 ql2xlbType=1 ql2xautorestore=0x80

By reading the QLogic readme I learned that the correct driver for my QLA2312 card is qla2300. My question is: why do I have all these other drivers in modprobe.conf? (qula2400, qla6312...). I gues I can safely remove them right?

Also, when I installed the driver and when I enabled EVA failover, a new initrd was created. Why do I need to load the drivers at this stage of the machine boot-up? The machine boots from some local hard-disks.

How can I use these drivers (without touching the RAM disk image?). I know that I need them on modprobe.conf... Is it enough being there? At some stage of the init process...it will call modprobe.conf and load the modules right?

I got everything working. I just want to really understand this.

Thanks guys!
Jorge

[Jorge Fabregas]

Hi,

I forgot this one:

What's the difference between the qla2300 and qla2xxx drivers in my case?

Thanks,
Jorge

[skt_skt · Accepted solution]

By reading the QLogic readme I learned that the correct driver for my QLA2312 card is qla2300. My question is: why do I have all these other drivers in modprobe.conf? (qula2400, qla6312...). I gues I can safely remove them right?

yes.
I too have Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. QLA2312 Fibre Channel Adapter (rev 02)

here is what i have in my files.

alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias eth0 tg3
alias eth1 tg3
alias eth2 tg3
alias eth3 tg3
alias scsi_hostadapter ips
alias scsi_hostadapter0 qla2300_conf
alias scsi_hostadapter1 qla2300
alias scsi_hostadapter2 qla2300_conf
alias scsi_hostadapter3 qla2300
options scsi_mod max_scsi_luns=128 scsi_allow_ghost_devices=1
options qla2300 ql2xmaxqdepth=64
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias usb-controller1 usb-ohci
add probeall power_path emcpmp
add probeall power_path emcpmpc
add probeall power_path emcppn
add probeall power_path emcp
alias power_path emcp
add probeall power_path emcpioc
post-install emcpioc rmmod emcpioc
add below emcp qla2300

Also, when I installed the driver and when I enabled EVA failover, a new initrd was created. Why do I need to load the drivers at this stage of the machine boot-up? The machine boots from some local hard-disks.

The initrd resides in /boot and the drivers for the FC driver need to be loaded in order to bring up all the SAN disks when the machine comes up.Remebr you have the SAN file systems mentioned in /etc/fstab

How can I use these drivers (without touching the RAM disk image?). I know that I need them on modprobe.conf... Is it enough being there? At some stage of the init process...it will call modprobe.conf and load the modules right?

Updating the ram disk image(inird*.img) is a one time activity and it is mandatory.The same initrd will be used here after.what ever setting on modules.conf is updated to the initrd image

[Jorge Fabregas]

Thanks!