[clue-tech] RH 7.3 on PowerEdge 6450

[Jack Parker]

(Trying to trim, but also keep it together, apologies to the folks with the
300 baud acoustic couplers).

<Chris>
Smithsonian?  Ha!  Don't knock the mothership, she'll make a great x-pilot
server - provided we can work on the noise abatement when her fans go off.
I'm sure she'll make a great space heater at least.

<Mike>
> As I recall you have to insert the module at boot time
> (insmod) for the PERC at least with rh7.3... But I
> would advise either moving forward to rh9 or one of
> the Fedora Cores ... after all a fedora is a felt hat
> :)

You mean, stick the drives in at some point in the boot cycle?  That would
be weird.

Are these issues that would go way with a more current release of dead rat?
It might be worth biting the database engine bullet if that solved the OS
problems.

From: "Chris Tubutis" <ctubutis at yahoo.com>

> On 24 Apr, Jack Parker wrote:
> > Primary issue is that RH 7.3 does not see the internal scsi drives.
...
> in order for his SCSI arrays to work with RH. Just out of curiosity, you
> say it's not seeing the drives, but is it seeing the controller?

It see's the two back end controllers - which drive the powervault - at this
point, going through the documentation I am confused as to how many
controllers the machine has or can support.  I'll have a chat with my man
tomorrow and figure that out.  It's either two or three, with two for the
powervault (san) and one for the internals.  Although there is a fourth
hookup in the front under the internal drives and another hanging loose out
the back.

> I would see what resources Dell offers, hopefully they'll give you that
> stuff for free (or, it sounds like you're borrowing a CD, maybe that'll
> work just as well).

I was a little surprised not to see it as a download - I'll work on the CD
first.

> > I am leery of doing the adaptec flash - it warns that flashing the
> > controller without a service tag in the setup is a bad thing, and of
> > course I don't have a service tag in the setup.
>
> I have no idea what a "service tag in the setup" is. Regardless, in
...
> cuz before I make changes, I want a way to UNdo them in case something
> freaks out and gets broken and that's typically hard to do with firmware
> updates.

agreed.  Service tags come on all Dell comps.  A unique ID assigned to each
box which you can turn around and punch in at their site for original config
as well as support/upgrade info.  They also burn it into NVRAM (Non
Volatile?), looks like this box's NonVolatile Ram wasn't.  Although the
sticker is still on the back.

There is evidently a utility 'asset tag' to perform this operation which I
will hunt down - although it sounds like it is on the CD.  It's not in any
of the other stuff I've downloaded.

> Perhaps there are also firmware updates to the hard drives themselves.

ugh.  There are some for Seagate drives.  This is a bridge down the road.

> > - do I need to upgrade the PERC firmware?  Dire warnings from that
> > have put me off jumping on it.
>
> No idea what that is. I would make changes one at a time, then ascertain
> the results. Sounds to me like you need the Dell-required drivers, I'm
> not sure any of these firmware updates are gonna solve your problems but
> they prolly can't hurt.

I figured it for PowerEdge Raid Controller - although I saw another likely
response earlier.
I'm doing the firmware only because without it, the machine will only see
drives under NetWare and Windoze - and thanks, I don't need an SMP to play
solitaire or surf for porn.

> > - do I need to flash the adaptec firmware?  If so how do I get the
> > service tag into the setup.  Perhaps that config tool I downloaded
> > from Dell - have to try that.
>
> No idea, maybe you can look at the currently-installed revision and then
> find its date, then see what bugs this new firmware update addresses and
> see if they apply to you.

Dell has a 7.3 install manual which indicates that I need to load an rpm
(megaraid_blah_blah).  I've never tried that during the boot cycle.  I'm
guessing that I'd go into comand line install and apply it?  The problem is
the documentation that guys like us write.  We don't want to bore people
with the basics, but for neophytes (like me in this case) the basics are
core to the procedure - which of course varies with each version of
hardware, software, or combination of the same.

"drive to the corner"
"how do I make the car go?"
"put it in gear and step on the gas"
"what's a gear?  How do I step on a gas?"

> Kinda shaped like a long & skinny RS232 serial connector. A long &
> skinny "D". Those drives get their SCSI IDs set by the device they're
> plugged into. Many of Sun's SCSI drives come with mounting brackets
> already attached, those brackets physically keep you from getting at the
> jumpers. I have no idea what Dell has come up with.

Those are them.  You put drives into carriers (before which you can touch
the jumpers) and then slide them in.  Although I've worked with other dells
and had to worry about addresses and terminators.  These are the hot
swappable versions.

> > Still no joy on vanilla RH install with drivers - have to look more
> > closely into what drivers I actually need there, my stab in the dark
> > was probably off the mark.
>
> Oh, I dunno about being off the mark, it sounds to me like you're doing
> basically what lots of people would do.

Looks like I did load the (logically) correct driver during RH install
(aacraid).  But still isn't seeing the drives.

> About the only thing I know is that Dell requires you to use some
> proprietary stuff with RH (and prolly with any vendor's Linux) in order
> for SCSI devices to work properly. Hopefully you won't need the
> Enterprise-class RH....

I would say that my issue at this point would appear to be not only getting
the right driver, but at the right place - looks like there is firmware that
needs to be updated for RH as well as drivers for RH to see drives.

So at this point the plan is
a) talk to my source (windoze guy) and pick his brain, steal his cd.
b) acquire Dell cd and try installing RH from it.
c) look into PERC firmware upgrade and adaptec firmware upgrade
d) track down megaraid (is that godzilla's cousin?) it isn't where Dell
claims it should be.

cheers
j.