Installing Red Hat Linux Enterprise ES4 on Proliant DL380 G5

[Harun Gadatia]

I am trying to install RHEL ES4 on a Proliant DL380 G5.

The SmartStart disk does not contain drivers for RHEL ES4. I've seen the Proliant Support Pack under the downloads section but it's not clear how I can install the drivers on a brand new system.

When I launch the RHAT installer, it wants me to specify the drivers at disk /dev/hda but when I put the CD containing the support pack files (tar files and install.sh file), it does not pick up any of the files.

What is the process to install RHEL ES4 on a G5 system? The machine does not have a floppy drive.

Thx for any tips or pointers to docs on how to doc this.

[Chris Rosan]

You simply need to run the install.sh script. It will install it for you. If the version on your smartstart CD is older than the version on the download site I recommend downloading the new version.

It's VERY easy. Just run the script and come back in 15-20 minutes.

[Harun Gadatia]

Thanks for the response Chris.

I did see the install.sh script as part of the package.

The question is, how do I run this script when I don't have a shell yet? It's a brand new install of RHEL4 on a DL380 G5 machine.

When I boot up with Disc 1 of 4 of the install disks, I do "linux dd" at the boot: prompt to do a custom install.

But when I get to the screen where I need to select a driver for the hard drive, I need a way to specify the HP drivers on the Proliant Support Pack.

That's what I'm unclear on as to how to have the installer pick up these drivers.

[Chris Rosan]

Ahh,

With Redhat you install the OS first, just as if it's a normal machine (or same as you would on a desktop). Smartstart doesn't work on Linux install's. Once the server is installed you run the PSP install.

Do you need to install a driver? Linux should have a driver for the array card.

Quick steps for installing it:

1. Setup your Raid card (on a DL380 i'd suggest just 1 logical disk & use Redhat to partition it - you may want to consider spare drive's if you need HA) - use smartstart to setup the array (it's easiest)
2. Install the OS (as per normal, no smartstart)
3. Install the PSP once the OS is installed - I suggest you do this AFTER applying the latest redhat updates etc. MAKE SURE you read the PSP documentation or download the latest one, as it may not work on the latest release of RH4. HP are usually 1-3 months behind a redhat release upgrade - Update 6 only came out roughly last week.

Let me know how you go.

[Harun Gadatia]

Right so when I kick start the OS install, it eventually gets to a screen that says:

No hard drives have been found. You probably need to manually choose device
drivers for the installation to succeed. Would you like to select drivers now?

So I say yes and then I get...

No device drivers have been loaded for your system. Would you like to load any now?

Again, I say yes...

Then I get a list of drivers for network and storage, but I don't see any HP ones listed.

So this is where I'm getting stuck. I thought Red Hat installer would somehow allow me to specify a CD from which it can pick up non-listed drivers.

Thx again for your help.

[Kedd Guyton]

This is purely a guess, but maybe the installer is aware that you don't have a floppy drive.

[MarkrFox]

Did anyone ever answer this question?

I have the same issue.

thanks in advance,
mark

[Chris Rosan]

Have you looked at the redhat instructions for adding drivers during the install?

Here's a link you can try:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/ap-driverdisk.html

Harun and Mark, please let us all know how you go. If you can't find the right driver, contact your local redhat support number to assist with the drivers.

[Harun Gadatia]

All,

Here's how we got around to solving the issue we were having.

Basically our problem was that we were not using the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4 update.

After downloading RHEL4 - ES - Update 5, we were able to install the OS w/out any issues.

It recognized the new hardware (DL380 G5) and was able to install all the appropriate drivers for disk/networking.

So my recommendation is to get the latest update from Red Hat for the version you are trying to install.

Hope that helps.

-Harun

[Harun Gadatia]

One other thing. Since as part of our install, it was required that we use a specific kickstart file. Here's the process we followed for that:

- Boot with RHEL4 ES Update 5 - Disc 1
- When you come to the boot: prompt, insert a USB tail floppy drive (or a USB key) with the ks.cfg file on it.
- Now type the following command:
boot: linux ks=hd:sda/ks.cfg
- The USB tail floppy is looked at as a SCSI disk, hence you need the above command.
- Now it should pick up the drivers it needs for disk/networking etc..
- If you see the following prompt, "Reading package information...", then you know it's reading your ks.cfg file and installing the packages as specified in your ks.cfg file.
- If the Ananconda GUI comes up, then it's not reading your ks.cfg file.

[MarkrFox]

Thanks,

Update 5 resolved the issue for me.

regards,
mark

[Wade Neuwirth]

Question for you Harun...are you using AMD Opteron in this server? Because I have a DL 385 G2 with 2 x AMD Opteron processors and after the install (which I had the same painful installation as you did) and when it rebooted after the install it came to a kernel panic. I had to boot up with the second option in grub.conf (below)...

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/cciss/c0d0
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.6.9-55.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/1 pci=nommconf
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-55.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES-up (2.6.9-55.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.EL ro root=LABEL=/1
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-55.EL.img


This leaves me without the other processor. I found some info on this site that says to go into the BIOS and int eh Advanced options you are supposed to be able to choose an option for RHEL x64...but it isnt there, even with the latest BIOS. I figure that you're box shoud be fairly close to ours so was wondering if you have had the same experience.

[Harun Gadatia]

Hello Wade,

It seems we have the Intel Xeon 5140 2.33-GHz processors.

So we didn't run into an issue as the one you describe.

-Harun

[BR711326]

We have a similar issue:

I've open a new post also with this info.

DL385 with P400i SATA/RAID controller
Red Hat EL4 Update 3
External USB floppy with P400 drivers
This system doesn't allows me to use internal CD & Floppy; just one of them.

In the "linux updates dd" part I stuck because the system don't see the floppy. In fact it doesn't see any USB device because the USB driver is not loaded.

If I use an external USB CD, I can't find the installation media after boot. Same issue, because the USB is not running.

On the other hand this works OK with Update 5. The customer needs use Update 3 and it is supported. (see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/hpLinuxcert.html )

How can I install a server from scratch ??

Thans in advance.
antonio

[Magwa]

Use the SmartStart first to set up the disks.
Then exit and install the OS CD.

it worked with SL10.2