Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 Support Notes

Transcription

1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 Support Notes for HP Integrity Servers HP Part Number: Edition: 5

2 Copyright 2011, 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Legal Notices Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR and , Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Acknowledgments Intel and Itanium logo are trademarks or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. RED HAT READY and RED HAT CERTIFIED PARTNER and all Red Hat-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc.

3 Contents About This Document...4 Intended Audience...4 Typographic Conventions...4 Publishing History...4 Related Information...5 Contact HP...5 HP Encourages Your Comments Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL 5.9 Certification and Support Information...7 Ensure Support for RHEL on HP Integrity Servers Operating System Installation...8 Installation Preparation...8 Installation Documentation...8 Downloading RHEL from the Red Hat Web site...8 Methods of Operating System Installation...9 Installing Without Using HP Smart Setup...9 Completing the Installation...9 Registering Software and Getting Updates from Red Hat Network...9 Restoring the Operating System to Factory Defaults Recommendations, Limitations, and Known Issues...11 Recommendations...11 Limitations...11 Known Issues...11 Console...11 Installation...13 Kernel...13 Hardware...14 Software...15 Contents 3

4 About This Document This document provides information specific to the installation and support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.9 on HP Integrity Servers. Intended Audience This document is intended for system administrators responsible for installing, configuring, and managing Linux. Administrators must have knowledge of operating system concepts, commands, and configuration. Knowledge of Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) concepts is also helpful. Typographic Conventions This document uses the following typographical conventions. Command ComputerOut Ctrl-x ENVIRONVAR ERRORNAME Key Term UserInput Variable A command name or qualified command phrase. Text displayed by the computer. A key sequence. A sequence such as Ctrl-x indicates that you must hold down the key labeled Ctrl while you press another key or button. The name of an environment variable, for example, PATH. The name of an error, usually returned in the errno variable. The name of a keyboard key. Return and Enter both refer to the same key. The defined use of an important word or phrase. Commands and other text that you type. The name of a placeholder in a command, function, or other syntax display that you replace with an actual value. [ ] The contents are optional in formats and command descriptions. If the contents are a list separated by, you must choose one of the items. { } The contents are required in formats and command descriptions. If the contents are a list separated by, you must choose one of the items.... The preceding element can be repeated an arbitrary number of times. Separates items in a list of choices. Publishing History The document publishing date and part number indicate the current edition of the document. The publishing date changes when a new edition is printed. Minor changes might be made at reprint without changing the publishing date. The document part number changes when extensive changes are made. Document updates might be issued between editions to correct errors or document product changes. To ensure that you receive the updated or new editions, subscribe to the appropriate product support service. See your HP sales representative for details. Manufacturing Part Number Supported OS Supported Versions Edition Number Publication Date RHEL RHEL Jan RHEL RHEL Mar RHEL RHEL Aug RHEL RHEL Jun RHEL RHEL Jan

5 Related Information Contact HP The Red Hat website: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux for HP ProLiant, Bladesystem & Integrity Servers Overview & Features website: The HP Insight Foundation Suite for Integrity with Linux website: The Intel EFI website: The HP Systems Insight Manager website: hpsim The HP Business Support Center website that contains HP Integrity server technical support information: The Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge (SPOCK) website: For additional information on HP products and services, see the HP website: Sales Contacts For the location of the nearest sales office, call: In the United States: In Canada: In Japan: In Latin America: In Australia/New Zealand: In Asia Pacific: In Europe/Africa/Middle East: For product information, contact any of the HP worldwide sales offices or HP Channel Partners (in the United States, call ). Support Contacts To obtain product or technical support for RHEL on HP Integrity servers, refer to the contact information provided on your HP support agreement. To expedite the support process, please be prepared to provide your Service Agreement Identifier (SAID) number, which can be found on your HP support agreement and verifies your support entitlement to RHEL. Your HP support agreement (including your SAID number) is sent to you within 30 days of the purchase of your RHEL subscription. If you are unable locate your HP support agreement or require support before you Related Information 5

6 have received it, you can obtain the local customer service numbers from the Contact HP Worldwide website: HP Encourages Your Comments HP encourages your comments concerning this document. We are committed to providing documentation that meets your needs. Send any errors found, suggestions for improvement, or compliments to: Include the document title, manufacturing part number, and any comment, error found, or suggestion for improvement you have concerning this document. 6

7 1 Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 This support note provides the additional installation and support information for the use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.9 on HP Integrity servers. This chapter provides the support and certification information related to RHEL 5.9 on HP Integrity servers. RHEL 5.9 Certification and Support Information HP has certified RHEL 5.9 for the Intel Itanium Processor (kernel and glibc ) on HP Integrity servers. IMPORTANT: Do not discard the Red Hat registration card packaged with the Red Hat media. To receive Red Hat updates and comply with HP support requirements, register the serial number on the card with Red Hat Network. For specific information, see Registering Software and Getting Updates from Red Hat Network (page 9). Ensure Support for RHEL on HP Integrity Servers HP recommends that you review the RHEL certification and support matrix for your HP Integrity servers prior to downloading RHEL from the Red Hat website. You should ensure that the distribution of RHEL that you want to install is both certified and supported on your server. Use the following steps to review information about the supported and certified distributions of the RHEL distributions for HP Integrity servers: 1. Go to the Linux certification and support matrix - HP Integrity servers website: 2. On the Red Hat tab, locate the server name of interest, and then click the link. Detailed product information, downloads, documentation, and specific certification information is provided in a categorized listing. RHEL 5.9 Certification and Support Information 7

8 2 Operating System Installation This chapter describes how to prepare your server for operating system (OS) installation. Install the RHEL 5.9 OS on your HP Integrity server, and obtain OS updates directly from Red Hat. Installation Preparation Before you begin installing RHEL 5.9 OS on your HP Integrity server, ensure that you have obtained: all necessary installation documentation, and the RHEL 5.9 for the Intel Itanium Processor installation media set. The following sections describe how to prepare for your OS installation. Installation Documentation HP encourages you to review each of the following documents before you begin installing RHEL 5.9: OS Installation Guide and Release Notes Red Hat provides the installation guide for OS installation and is the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 Installation Guide. Additionally, release notes for the RHEL 5 distribution are provided by Red Hat. These documents are provided with an original OS distribution release notes document (RELEASE-NOTES-en) and separate update release notes documents for each subsequent OS update (RELEASE-NOTES U1 en, RELEASE-NOTES U2 en, RELEASE-NOTES U3 en, and so on). These documents are available on the Red Hat media that shipped with your server, or you can download it in various formats from the RHEL Documentation website: The HP Insight Foundation Suite for Integrity with Linux Recommendations and Known Issues Documentation for the HP Insight Foundation Suite for Integrity with Linux, including the HP Smart Setup application and all complimentary HP value-added server management software in the HP Support Pack, which can be found at: essentials-linux-on-integrity.html. The HP Insight Foundation Suite for Integrity with Linux User's Guide describes how to use HP Smart Setup utility to install RHEL 5.9, install and use the server management software, and download the product using the following URL: SupportManual/c /c pdf? jumpid=reg_r1002_usen The Recommendations (page 11) and Known Issues (page 11) sections provide information that is helpful to be aware of prior to installing RHEL 5.9. Downloading RHEL from the Red Hat Web site In the event that you chose to not receive a media kit from HP containing the RHEL software or you need to create a copy of the RHEL 5.9 media, you must download the RHEL operating system directly from the Red Hat website. 8 Operating System Installation

9 nl NOTE: It is necessary to register at the Red Hat website prior to download, which requires the activation code that you received from HP when ordering RHEL. Register and log in at the Red Hat Network website: Follow the instructions provided to download and use the RHEL 5.9 ISO images for the 64-bit Intel Itanium architecture. See the RHEL Documentation website at for a list of related RHEL 5.9 documents. Methods of Operating System Installation The two methods that can be used to install RHEL 5.9 on your HP Integrity server are as follows. NOTE: Installation of RHEL 5.9 on your HP Integrity server by the factory is not offered. Installing Without Using HP Smart Setup Use the following steps to install RHEL 5.9: 1. Ensure you have the correct server firmware versions before installing RHEL 5.9 by going to the HP website at and selecting Software & Driver Downloads. 2. Under the section Support & Drivers for your products, perform the following substeps: a. Click the Drivers and Software option. b. In the product field, enter the model number of the server (for example, DL980). c. Press Search. d. Click on the product link that you want in the search results field. 3. Select cross operating system (BIOS, Firmware, Diagnostics, and so on) from the list of operating systems. 4. If your server does not have the current firmware, locate it in the categorized list displayed, and then click the adjacent Download button to download the tar file. 5. Install any firmware updates. 6. Install and configure RHEL 5.9 using the installation procedure described in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 Installation Guide: Completing the Installation Once you have installed RHEL 5.9 using one of the previously described options, you can now register your product with Red Hat and receive any updates that are available, see Registering Software and Getting Updates from Red Hat Network (page 9). After you install RHEL 5.9 using any of the installation methods, HP encourages you to install and use the server management tools that are provided in the HP Support Pack as described in the HP Insight Foundation Suite for Integrity with Linux User's Guide: jumpid=reg_r1002_usen Registering Software and Getting Updates from Red Hat Network Ensure you have the most current version of software from the Red Hat Network, including patches for bug fixes, using the following instructions: 1. Install RHEL 5.9 on your system and reboot. 2. Log in as root on the console. Methods of Operating System Installation 9

10 3. Using the registration card number that came with your RHEL 5.9 media, run the rhn_register command to register your system and create an account with Red Hat Network. Communication between your system and the Red Hat Network server begins by determining the installed software packages, and optionally, the hardware. The Red Hat Network server notes any necessary updates and sends to the Red Hat administrator to forward the packages to your system when you request the update. 4. To update your system, run the yum update command on the console to initiate the process with the Red Hat Network, and then follow the instructions provided. NOTE: Red Hat ensures all information transferred is treated as private and confidential. By default, all data sent and received over the network uses the secure sockets layer (SSL). Red Hat provides more detailed information on the update process in its documentation, see the Red Hat Network website: Restoring the Operating System to Factory Defaults The process of restoring your system to the factory-installed operating system is a cold installation (installation from the distribution media). For instructions on this type of recovery, see the HP Insight Foundation Suite for Integrity with Linux User's Guide: jumpid=reg_r1002_usen 10 Operating System Installation

11 3 Recommendations, Limitations, and Known Issues This chapter contains recommendations, limitations, and known issues with the use of RHEL 5.9 on HP Integrity servers. Recommendations Limitations The following recommendations from HP for using RHEL 5.9 on HP Integrity servers should be observed. Upgrading from earlier RHEL versions The RHEL 5 Installation Guide and Release Notes and other previous versions, included with each Red Hat Linux product release, contain upgrading instructions and suggestions. To locate these documents, see Installation Documentation (page 8). Using Xen for virtualization with RHEL 5.9 The RHEL 5.9 update includes Xen virtualization support on HP Integrity servers. HP endorses the use of Xen virtualization technology for those customers interested in early deployments. The virtualization technology documentation (release notes, installation and virtualization guides), describing feature updates, known issues, minimum and maximum configuration limits for RHEL 5.9 virtualization on HP Integrity servers is recommended reading. To locate these documents, see Installation Documentation (page 8). The following section describes the limitations of RHEL 5.9 on HP Integrity servers. Supported kernel memory maximum The RHEL 5.9 kernel supports a maximum memory size of 2 TB, which is also supported by HP. Simultaneous RHEL installations Known Issues Console Configuring a system that can boot either RHEL 4.x or RHEL 5.x requires that the RHEL 4.x system be installed and configured before installing the RHEL 5.x system. This section contains known issues with the RHEL 5.9 on HP Integrity servers, which undergoes rigorous testing before each release. From HP test activities to date, the following issues have been discovered. System appears to hang during installation or boot If the system appears to hang during boot or installation, messages similar to the following are displayed: Loading initrd initrd el.img...done This can occur when the firmware setting for the primary console is not set correctly for the console device being used. Use the EFI Boot Manager interface, that is initiated during the power on sequence, to set the system console firmware properly for the device being used by choosing one of the following: If the device is a keyboard, VGA, or mouse (KVM), then set (or confirm) the firmware setting for the primary console to VGA as follows: Recommendations 11

12 1. Select the Boot Configuration option then press ENTER to display the Boot Configuration menu. 2. Select Console Configuration then press ENTER to select it. 3. Select the VGA entry then press P. 4. Press ESC to return to the previous menu. 5. Press Y to save the new console setting. If the device is a serial device such as a terminal emulator, then set (or confirm) the firmware setting for the primary console to Serial as follows: 1. Select the Boot Configuration option then press ENTER to display the Boot Configuration menu. 2. Select Console Configuration then press ENTER to select it. 3. Select the Serial entry then press P. 4. Press ESC to return to the previous menu. 5. Press Y to save the new console setting. 6. Exit from the EFI Boot Manager to the Linux boot prompt then enter: ELILO Boot: console=ttys0 Use of a serial console when a VGA card is present If the Red Hat kernel detects a VGA card, it defaults to using the VGA display as system console. To use serial console, use the EFI Boot Manager to select the serial device as the primary (or only) console device as described in the previous issue. Applications may hang when opening Management Processor UART The Management Processor UART on all HP Integrity servers running RHEL do not supply the carrier detect signal. This causes applications to hang when opening the UART device because no carrier detect is sent unless the O_NDELAY or O_NONBLOCK flag is set. For example, the command echo foo > /dev/ttys0 would hang. Typically, this is not a problem because /dev/ttys0 is usually used as a console, the agetty process opens it with O_NONBLOCK, and processes spawned by agetty generally inherit the already-opened device. However, there are some cases where the device must be opened again so applications will observe the hang. Use the following procedure to resolve the problem: 1. Add the -L option to the agetty line in the /etc/inittab file as follows: co:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L ttys vt100-nav 2. Signal the init process to re-read the inittab file with the following command: kill -HUP 1 3. If you are logged in to the console, exit then log in again to restart the agetty process. Using integrated Lights Out remote console during installation may cause firstboot program to fail When using the HP Integrity Integrated Lights-Out remote console during a RHEL 5.x installation, the firstboot program that runs during the installation may generate large amounts of output and fail though the installation completes. After installation, the firstboot program can be rerun, as root, and does not create any display problems. 12 Recommendations, Limitations, and Known Issues

13 Installation Kernel Installation failure when using autopartition The installation of RHEL 5.9 might fail if using the autopartition function on a server with multiple disks. If you encounter this issue, remove all disks from the server except those on which you are installing RHEL 5.9. Replace the removed disks once the OS installation on the targeted disks is complete. You may then need to edit the device file name of the /boot/efi mount point in the /etc/fstab file because the device file may have changed when the disks were replaced. Load order of drivers may be altered If you are transitioning to RHEL 5.9 from previous versions, recognize that the load order of storage and networking drivers in this OS version is the reverse of the previous versions. The numbers on the device file names for your NICs appear in the opposite order than the previous versions of RHEL. Load of RHEL failed error After installing the operating system, if a message similar to the following is displayed, you must take action. Loading.: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Load of Red Hat Enterprise Linux failed: Not Found Press any key to continue Execute the following steps from the EFI shell: 1. Enter the following commands to reconnect and regenerate all mappings: Shell> reconnect -r Shell> map -r 2. Boot to the operating system by exiting the shell by entering exit. 3. Select the EFI boot menu entry for the installed operating system. If this does not resolve the problem, try turning off the boot entry caching with the EFI ioconfig command: Shell> ioconfig fast_init off Fast initialization: Disabled Driver and disk device list order may change after installation The driver load and disk device file name order during installation may not be the same as it is when the installation has completed on the system. To avoid mount errors that occur due to the change in the driver load order, use either Logical Volume Manager or disk labels. IPv4 installation selections based on console type When installing Linux using a graphics console, the base group of packages must be selected for IPv4 networking to be operational. Conversely, installing using a text-based console does not require a specific package group to be selected for IPv4 networking to be operational. Updating the MPT Fusion driver on rx2660 servers The MPT Fusion driver included in RHEL 5.9 does not have the necessary agent components required by HP System Insight Manager. This issue only effects rx2660 servers. If you are running HP Insight Management Agents for these SAS controllers on one of the listed servers, you must update the MPT Fusion driver using the following steps: 1. Go to the web site. Known Issues 13

14 Hardware 2. Click on the appropriate product link for your server. 3. Click the Download drivers and software link. 4. Select a software/driver language from the list. 5. Click on the appropriate Linux distribution link. All of the available driver and software updates are provided in a categorized listing for your selection. 6. Click the Download button for the latest MPTLinux Driver Update for Integrity Servers driver to download the tar file. 7. Install the driver on your system: # rpm -ivh <downloaded driver name> 8. Reboot your system. For additional information, see the documentation that is included with the MPT Fusion driver update. HP does not recommend the use of the CPU Hotplug (also known as CPU online/offline) functionality. Using this functionality may impact kernel stability in some circumstances. Intermittent FTP data truncation when using an HP Procurve 4108gl switch If you are using an HP Procurve 4108gl switch on a heavily loaded system, you may experience intermittent data truncation with FTP transfers through the network. This can be avoided with the following steps: 1. Connect to the HP Procurve 4108gl switch using telnet or serial console, and then login. 2. From the switch command line interface, enter the config command. 3. Enter the no int all lacp command. System panics resulting from Fibre Channel storage arrays directly connected to the system System panics may occur on HP Integrity servers running RHEL when Fibre Channel storage arrays are directly connected to the system. If you plan to connect Fibre Channel storage arrays to HP Integrity servers running RHEL, you must connect through a Fibre Channel switch. Correctable hardware events logging configuration Correctable platform events, such as, single-bit memory errors, are routinely logged into NVRAM. To ensure errors are logged into the /var/log file, configure the salinfod file to start at boot. As root, execute the following: 1. cd /etc/init.d 2. To configure: chkconfig salinfod on 3. To start salinfod without rebooting: service salinfod start Contiguous memory unavailable on cell-based server causing an MCA When Linux boots on an HP Integrity mid-range or high-end cellular server with discontiguous memory, a cell may boot to a state in which it has too little contiguous memory available and could cause an MCA. 14 Recommendations, Limitations, and Known Issues

15 If this occurs, try one of the following methods to resolve the problem: Change the memory configuration so that the memory in each cell is equal Change the CLM (Cell Local Memory) setting to increase the size of contiguous memory. If the system was working previously, at the EFI prompt, run the pdt command. If there are PDT entries, consider replacing the bad memory identified. Software 32-bit emulation and other 32-bit functionality The 32-bit emulation is not automatically installed with RHEL 5.9. To obtain this functionality, install the ia32el package from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Supplementary CD. You can install any additional compatibility binaries needed from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Supplementary CD. For instructions, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Release Notes as described in Installation Documentation (page 8). Known Issues 15