Smart Array P400 & P800 supported?

[troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk]

Hi,

I'm new to Linux (and ESOS), and I'm trying to use some old but serviceable kit as an iSCSI SAN. I've got a HP ML370 G5 with 2 x Smart Array P400s and a P800, with about 4 TB of attached storage (1/2 local disk, 1/2 in an attached MSA), and I would appreciate it if anyone can tell me if these cards are supported in ESOS.

Thanks

TT

[Marc Smith]

Hi Troy,

I believe those RAID controllers are supported via the
CONFIG_SCSI_HPSA option which is enabled in ESOS:
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/SCSI_HPSA.html

So, yes, those should be supported, although you'll need to manually
configure the RAID volumes via the BIOS/boot setup, or using the CLI
tool (be sure to include it when using the ESOS installer).


--Marc

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[troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk]

Thanks Marc, much appreciate your quick response! I've been able to add the CLI RPM to the build as per your suggestion.

[troy.tempest%b...@gtempaccount.com]

I've tried booting this on both the ML370 G5 and also a DL380 G5, also with a p400, and the program terminated with "Something bad happened, dropping to shell". Any idea what this may indicate?

Has anyone used ESOS on a Proliant G5?

How much free space needs to be on the USB device? a 4GB USB key just barely fits the executable plus the CLI, although there were no errors with the build.

TIA

TT

[Marc Smith]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 7:40 AM, troy.tempest%blueyonder.co.uk via
esos-users <esos-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> I've tried booting this on both the ML370 G5 and also a DL380 G5, also with
> a p400, and the program terminated with "Something bad happened, dropping to
> shell". Any idea what this may indicate?

What do the lines just above that say? How much physical RAM does the
machine have?

>
> Has anyone used ESOS on a Proliant G5?
>
> How much free space needs to be on the USB device? a 4GB USB key just barely
> fits the executable plus the CLI, although there were no errors with the
> build.

4 GB should be fine, and you would have received an error if it didn't
fit. It may be worthwhile to try creating the ESOS USB boot drive
again, maybe with a different brand/model of flash drive too. The bits
of data from the archive are copied to the flash drive, there is no
verification. I've seen where the devices are not bootable at times
due to issues with the installation process.


--Marc

[troy.tempest%b...@gtempaccount.com]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for getting back to me -

The 2nd last line is: "Error resolving the root device node!"

There is 64GB RAM in the server - which is one of the reasons I'm keen to utilise it!

Cheers

TT

[Marc Smith]

Okay, that is helpful, thanks. That error comes from this snip in the
initramfs script:
# Attempt to resolve the FS label here
root_fs_dev="$(findfs LABEL=esos_root)" || \
(echo "Error resolving the root device node!"; rescue_shell)

So, "findfs LABEL=esos_root" is failing. When you get put into the
shell, you can try running the command again manually to see if it
works. If it does, it could be a timing issue... we already wait some
seconds for devices to "settle".

If the command above fails when you're at the shell too, then its
possible your USB host driver isn't enabled in the ESOS kernel. You
can try looking through the output of 'dmesg' but if you're new to
Linux, that might not go far.

And to confirm, you are using a USB flash drive for this and not some
other storage (eg, RAID controller, etc.) for the boot disk?

Another idea: Try the ESOS USB flash drive in some other system, a
desktop machine, or whatever, and just confirm it boots there.

And one more idea: Try a ESOS package from the "master" branch --
maybe a newer kernel will get you further with that hardware:
http://download.esos-project.com/packages/master/esos-master_bdf679d_dgvs.zip


--Marc

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 11:22 AM, troy.tempest%blueyonder.co.uk via

[troy.tempest%b...@gtempaccount.com]

Thanks Marc,

Yes, it's booting off a USB 2.0 4GB flash drive - I've tried it on a DL380 G5 (also with a P400 smart array) and get the same problem.

I'll try findfs LABEL=esos_root at the shell, and if that doesn't work I'll try it in a newer server (ML350p Gen8), just to check if I've somehow got a duff build.

TT

[Marc Smith]

Did you build ESOS yourself, or are you using one of the packages
provided on esos-project.com?

--Marc

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 11:47 AM, troy.tempest%blueyonder.co.uk via

[troy.tempest%b...@gtempaccount.com]

Hi Marc,

I downloaded the latest stable build esos-0.1.9.zip from esos-project.com and followed the instructions to create the bootable USB drive.

I tried the same USB on the ML350p Gen8 and got the exact same error, after "Waiting for devices to settle".

I've tried running the command you refer to, but I'm not sure of the exact synatx or what the outcome should be - or if it requires elevated privileges.

Thanks

TT

[Marc Smith]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 12:19 PM, troy.tempest%blueyonder.co.uk via

esos-users <esos-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> Hi Marc,
>

> I downloaded the latest stable build esos-0.1.9.zip from esos-project.com
> and followed the instructions to create the bootable USB drive.
>
> I tried the same USB on the ML350p Gen8 and got the exact same error, after
> "Waiting for devices to settle".
>
> I've tried running the command you refer to, but I'm not sure of the exact
> synatx or what the outcome should be - or if it requires elevated
> privileges.

It should print a device name (eg, "/dev/sda1"). If it prints nothing,
then it can't find the device.

Can you try the ESOS USB flash drive on some other machine, even a
non-server like your local desktop computer?


--Marc

[troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk]

Hi Marc,

I will try your suggestion in a couple of days.

Thanks

TT

[troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk]

Well, some success, but still failing.

I tried booting the esos-0.1.9 on a couple of my home PCs, and got the same failure (something bad happened). I rebuilt the USB key on a different USB drive on a different PC and got the same problem, so I don't think it's the USB key.

I tried downloading and building the USB from esos-0.1.8.zip, but that failed to create the USB drive at all. Maybe there's a problem with the Windows scripting.

I then tried downloading esos-master_bdf679d_dgvs, which did build the USB drive, and I added the HP hpssacli rpm (which is for later Smart array cards, as I was going to test on a newer server), and this seemed to have booted the ML370 G5 correctly. However, the boot process didn't seem to find any of the 3 Smart Array controllers, or any of the drive arrays that are already configured on them. I noticed that the start-up process only goes to line number 4.x, whereas previously it would get to line 39.x or so.

At least I know what the TUI looks like now, and I know that at least the network cards are recognised on the ML370 G5, but maybe the P800 and P400 aren't supported, because I couldn't find any physical drives in the TUI.

I then tried building a new USB drive with the same esos-master_bdf679d_dgvs, adding the hpacucli rpm, and while it created the USB drive successfully, it failed to boot ESOS with "something bad happened" again.

Possibly there's a problem with incorporating the hpacucli rpm, so I'll try esos-0.1.9 without it and see if that works any better.

If you have any further suggestions Marc I'd be happy to try them.

Thanks

TT

[Marc Smith]

On Sat, Dec 17, 2016 at 12:19 PM, <troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Well, some success, but still failing.
>
> I tried booting the esos-0.1.9 on a couple of my home PCs, and got the same
> failure (something bad happened). I rebuilt the USB key on a different USB
> drive on a different PC and got the same problem, so I don't think it's the
> USB key.
>
> I tried downloading and building the USB from esos-0.1.8.zip, but that
> failed to create the USB drive at all. Maybe there's a problem with the
> Windows scripting.
>

Could be -- maybe if you have a Linux machine, try running the ESOS
installer from the Linux host. I'll be honest, this is the first
report we've had of this type of issue. I gotta imagine if the newer
version of ESOS works, it may be something with your USB controller in
the server and a driver issue. But I believe those HP servers are
pretty popular and common, so I'd bet other users are running ESOS on
them.

> I then tried downloading esos-master_bdf679d_dgvs, which did build the USB
> drive, and I added the HP hpssacli rpm (which is for later Smart array
> cards, as I was going to test on a newer server), and this seemed to have
> booted the ML370 G5 correctly. However, the boot process didn't seem to find
> any of the 3 Smart Array controllers, or any of the drive arrays that are
> already configured on them. I noticed that the start-up process only goes to
> line number 4.x, whereas previously it would get to line 39.x or so.
>
> At least I know what the TUI looks like now, and I know that at least the
> network cards are recognised on the ML370 G5, but maybe the P800 and P400
> aren't supported, because I couldn't find any physical drives in the TUI.
>

That's good that it boots with an image from the master branch. I'd
stick with this, as it will soon be the next release branch. For HP
RAID controllers, you won't be able to use the TUI to create the
virtual/logical drives, you have to use the CLI tool (hpssacli) from
the shell (in the TUI, Interface, Exit to Shell).

> I then tried building a new USB drive with the same
> esos-master_bdf679d_dgvs, adding the hpacucli rpm, and while it created the
> USB drive successfully, it failed to boot ESOS with "something bad happened"
> again.
>
> Possibly there's a problem with incorporating the hpacucli rpm, so I'll try
> esos-0.1.9 without it and see if that works any better.

Hmm... the lines above the "something bad happened" are what is
interesting and will tell us whats wrong. If the machine boosted
previously with the master branch image, and you ran into this same
issue after creating a new/different flash drive, it does sound like
something going wrong with the installation.


--Marc

>
> If you have any further suggestions Marc I'd be happy to try them.
>
> Thanks
>
> TT
>

[troy.tempest%b...@gtempaccount.com]

Thanks Marc,

The problem is that even when it boots successfully with the newest master branch image the installation does not seem to find the P400 / P800 Smart Array controllers, nor any of the logical disks I've already created on them via the BIOS - I don't think that I need to use the HP CLI to do that, as the logical disk creation has already been done.

If I'm missing something, please let me know!

TT

[Stuart Hopkins]

According to the cciss driver page (http://cciss.sourceforge.net/) it appears that the P400/P800 controllers are only supported by the cciss driver, not the in-kernel hspa driver. I found some bug reports where people couldn't them working. Someone did mention you can try the hspa driver if you add the following boot option:

hspa.hspa_allow_any=1

It might be worth editing the bootline as the system starts and appending that option to see if it will recognise the controller. If not, it likely means the cciss driver would need to be installed, and some modifications made (potentially) to ESOS.

[troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk]

Thanks Stuart,

That fits with what I'm seeing. Unfortunately, your suggestion is beyond what I can achieve with Linux - TBH I don't even have a Linux device that I can use to edit the boot options on the USB drive.

TT

[Stuart Hopkins]

Perhaps Marc can comment, but I thought you could edit the bootloader option on-the-fly when the system boots (and shows you the two options for production/debug). That way you just need to edit the option before it loads.

[Marc Smith]

Troy: So, you're going to stick with the "master" package, and when
the system is booting, and you see the GRUB menu, hit 'e' on your
keyboard. You'll then get a list of options/text on your screen.
Scroll down to the line that lists "linux /PRIMARY-bzImage-esos.prod
crashkernel=128M slot=PRIMARY console=tty0" and use the arrow key and
scroll all the way to the right of that (the end of the line) and add
"hspa.hspa_allow_any=1" then hit F10 to boot.

--Marc

[troy.t...@blueyonder.co.uk]

Marc, Stuart,

Thanks - I'll give that a go.

TT