Dell PowerEdge PERC 5 Adapter Device Driver for RHEL 4 Gold (x86 & x86_64) RHEL 5 Gold (x86 & x86_64) Driver Version : 00.00.03.09 TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1 Introduction 2 Compatibility / Minimum Requirements 3 Install Instructions 3.1 The package. 3.2 Installing the OS on a PERC controller. 3.3 Adding the PERC Driver to an Existing system. 3.4 Updating the PERC Driver on an Existing system. 4 Fixes or Enhancements in this Release 5 Important Information 6 Known issues 1 Introduction ============== This is the driver for following controllers: PERC 5 Adapters 2 Compatibility / Minimum Requirements ====================================== This Device Driver is compatible with RHEL 3 Update 6 and later distributions. This Device Driver is compatible with RHEL 4 Gold and later distributions. This Device Driver is compatible with RHEL 5 Gold and later distributions. Minimum PERC 5 FW package version: 5.1.1-0033 3 Installation Instructions =========================== The package is a compressed tar file. 3.1 The package. --------------- The package is a compressed tar file. To extract the components within the tar file, please follow the instructions as below: Preparation of the DUD image. 1) From the support site download the file. 2) Transfer the file to a Linux system. 3) Run "gunzip on the transferred file to unzip the file. 4) Run "tar -xvf *.tar" on the unzipped file. 5) Go into the appropriate sub-directory. 6) Transfer the image to the floppy. Use "dd if= of=/dev/fd0" On most systems, the floppy drive is designated by the /dev/fd0 special file. The RPM package. One of the components of the tar file is an RPM package with a filename ending in .rpm. 3.2 Installing the OS on a PERC controller. ------------------------------------------ Use the command "Linux dd updates" at the beginning of the Linux installation process if you will be installing the O/S to a disk attached to the PERC controller. This step is required because LSI PCI Ids are not in the kernel's supported device table. This work around will always be necessary for these kernels since they are pre-existing and cannot be patched. Detailed Steps: 1. You will be prompted with "Do you have a driver disk?" 2. Select "Yes" 3. You will be prompted to select the device from which to install drivers. Select fd0 4. You will be prompted to press OK after inserting the driver disk. Select "OK" 5. You will be prompted to load any more drivers. Select "No" 6. Continue with installation. 3.3 Adding the PERC Driver to an Existing Linux system ------------------------------------------------------ 1. Install the DKMS rpm package. Use the command "rpm -ivh " 2. Install the Driver package. Use the command "rpm -ivh " 3. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect. 3.4 Updating the PERC Driver on an Existing Linux system. -------------------------------------------------------- 1. If DKMS installation is needed, use the following instruction to install the package. Install the DKMS rpm package. Use the command "rpm -ivh " 2. Install the Driver package. Use the command "rpm -Uvh " 3. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect. 4. When upgrading from an older to newer version of the driver, first uninstall the older RPM doing: # rpm -e megaraid_sas-- Then install the new rpm doing: # rpm -ivh megaraid_sas--..rpm 4 Fixes or Enhancements in this Release ======================================= 1. Driver changes in place to stop execution of I/O requests if the RAID controller encounters a hang or a fatal error condition. 2. Better interrupt/IRQ handling to avoid installation problems (RH4). 3. Flush command added to the reboot event handler to properly call the shutdown routine. 4. Drive geometry routine changed to return data on the same format independent of driver size. 5. Changes to throttle I/O requests under heavy I/O load conditions to avoid RAID volumes to become read-only under extreme conditions. 6. Support added for RHEL 5. 5 Important Information ======================= 5.1 Power state transition -------------------------- Note that system power state transitions are not validated on Dell platforms under the Linux Operating Systems. If attempted, the system might hang and/or panic resulting in data loss. 5.2 DKMS AUTOINSTALL -------------------- DKMS AUTOINSTALL option should always be disabled in the DKMS configuration file for driver installation. 5.3 Possible Driver Install Issues After Kernel Update ------------------------------------------------------ After a kernel update, the driver needs to be built for the new kernel before rebooting into the new kernel. This is specifically applicable for storage controllers. As the megaraid_sas driver is not native to the kernel, the DKMS "add" and "install" steps have to be performed on the driver. The driver installation might fail if there is another DKMS-installed module which also does not have support in the upgraded kernel, and has to be part of the RAM disk image. Here is the example of the error message: ... Saving old initrd as /boot/initrd-2.6.9-22.ELsmp_old.img Making new initrd as /boot/initrd-2.6.9-22.ELsmp.img (If next boot fails, revert to the _old initrd image) mkinitrd....(bad exit status: 1) WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! There was a problem remaking your initrd. You must manually remake it before booting into this kernel. DKMS: uninstall Completed. ------------------------------ Deleting old modules completely from the DKMS tree. ------------------------------ Done. When building and installing the driver for updated kernel, if this problem occurs, please follow the following steps to install the drivers: a) Manually re-build the initrd image. This will show what modules are missing from kernel module tree. Here is an example of the output of the command: # mkinitrd /boot/test.img `uname -r` No module found for kernel (2.6.9-22.ELsmp ) (Using this as an example), aborting. b) Record the list of missing module name and run the following commands on each of them: dkms build -m -v -k dkms install -m -v -k --directive "REMAKE_INITRD=no" This will install the module, but the initrd will not be rebuilt. c) After this, run the following command on megaraid_sas driver: dkms build -m megaraid_sas -v -k dkms install -m megaraid_sas -v -k This will install module and remake the initrd, including all drivers listed in module configuration file. 6 Known issues ============== Installation problems on SATA I drives: PERC Controller require a minimum of SATA II drives. SATA I drives are not supported. Use only SAS or SATA II drives supported by your Dell system.