[CLUE-Tech] Linux and SANs

[Jim Ockers]

> 
> Thanks for the reply. Our software correctly identifies the SAN volumes if we 
> are using QLogics or Emulex cards so no worries there. 
> I was wondering if people in production environments typically compile a kernel 
> with the drivers for the card or if they use modprobe as we do here. My hunch 
> is that people are compiling kernels which renders our test environment invalid.
> Do have anyt ideas on this?

We use the stock Red Hat kernel drivers for our qla2200.o modules and hardware.
We only compiled a custom kernel so we could get more than 32000 subdirectories
(the default ext[23]_link_max is 32000 in ext[23]_fs.h), since our application
requires that.

The stock kernel driver in the 2.4.9 and 2.4.18 series does not include any
of the nifty failover functions that you could perhaps get with a driver from
IBM or perhaps Qlogic.

If the symbols are correct you should be able to use modprobe to load either 
the stock kernel driver or any custom driver.  I don't understand why you have
a concern about not being able to use modprobe if you compile a custom kernel.
If you do compile a custom kernel on a Red Hat box, you would do well to start
with the Red Hat kernel SRPM and the .config file as provided by Red Hat for
your architecture and kernel version.  If you do that you should not have any
trouble.

-- 
Jim Ockers, P.Eng. (ockers at ockers.net)
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/