dmraid and ICH7 / LSI embedded RAID controller on an Asus RS120-E3 (PA4)

mdk-666 · 09-12-2007, 12:01 AM

It looks like the URL I post way back doesn't work any more So
I have grabed the text off an archive.

Building your own driver disk for clone RHEL versions
This document will help you in rebuilding your driver diskette for one of those RHEL clones like TAO linux, Centos, SPLAT, ..... You need a working Linux system to perform these steps. There is no waranty this procedure will work for everyone but it did work for me. The samples are based on the work I did with an Adaptec 1420SA driver disk (image) to make them work with XOSLINUX 4.

First let me show you a (small) table of kernel versions as reported with `uname -r` and the OS name:

`uname -r` Short name Long name
2.4.9-34cp SPLAT NG FP3 Check Point Secure Platform NG FP3
2.4.9-39cp SPLAT NG R54 Check Point Secure Platform NG R54
2.4.9-42cp SPLAT NG R55 Check Point Secure Platform NG R55
2.4.9-43cp SPLAT NG R55 Check Point Secure Platform NG R55
2.4.9-44cp Connectra Check Point Connectra
2.4.18-10cp VSX Check Point VSX
2.4.18-10cp04 VSX NG AI Check Point VSX NG AI
2.4.21-4 RHEL 3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
2.4.21-20 RHEL 3 U3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 3
2.4.21-20cp SPLAT NGX R60 Check Point Secure Platform NGX R60
2.4.21-21cp SPLAT NGX R60A Check Point Secure Platform NGX R60A
2.6.9-11.EL RHEL 4 U1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 1
2.6.9-11.EL Centos 4
2.6.9-11.EL.XOS.1 XOSLINUX 4

If you have additional entries for this table please share them.

Now the steps to cook your own driver disk:

Copy floppy image to /tmp directory.
For example: cp apdsata.rhel4qu1.i686.img /tmp/floppy
Create mount point.
For example: mkdir /mnt/floppy
Mount floppy image as loopback device.
For example: mount -o loop /tmp/floppy /mnt/floppy
Create a work directory.
For example: mkdir /tmp/driver-disk
Go into this work directory.
For example: cd /tmp/driver-disk
Unpack the drivers with gzip and cpio in this directory.
For example: gzip -d -c /mnt/floppy/modules.cgz | cpio -i -d
Rename the module directories to point to the kernel name that fits your distribution.
For example: mv 2.6.9-11.EL 2.6.9-11.EL.XOS.1
mv 2.6.9-11.ELhugemem 2.6.9-EL.XOS.1hugemem
mv 2.6.9-11.ELsmp 2.6.9-11.EL.XOS.1smp
Note: These are directories!
Create a filelist for cpio.
For example: find . > /tmp/modules.list.txt
Repackage the modules.
For example: cpio -o --format=crc < /tmp/modules.list.txt | gzip -9 > /mnt/floppy/modules.cgz
Unmount the floppy image.
For example: umount /mnt/floppy
Now you have an updated driver disk image which will work for your favorite RHEL clone.

This description is based on the details I found on http://web.archive.org/web/200701261...art.com/fedora.

mdk-666 · 09-12-2007, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jang

Since everybody seems to know Asus RS120, I have an offtopic question. Using RHEL update 4, how do you know if one of the drives fail under RHEL? There seems to be no beep whatsoever from the RS120 hardware to inform admin of defective or degraded partition, is there any utility under RHEL to do so? And in case you do spot the problem via ESP

and replace the degraded hard drive while inside OS (RHEL), how would you know the status of rebuilding?

If you do reboot, you will see that it's rebuilding, but in case disk0 is the one that's being rebuilt, how will you go back into operating system?

If in case disk1 is the one that's being rebuilt, will you be able to go back into OS? From what we experienced, this is not the case. It reports of swap partition problem, or swap file problem, and doesn't go in. I thought it was supposed to be Raid 1 mirroring (hardware), how come with Disk0 alone, we can't boot into RHEL?

Thanks, any help will be appreciated.

I'm using a hardware raid card that allows me to be alerted.
Other wise I don't think you can with the RS120 hardware.

urza · 09-15-2007, 05:53 AM

If you want a raid which goes for every linux, step on 3ware products: almost all of its cards run flawlessy on linux...
Also raid controller built-in in dell computer work out of the box...

mdk-666 · 10-16-2007, 11:31 PM

Yeah I looked that them to, but the price was just out side of my reach.

fdelarosa · 05-19-2008, 03:55 AM

Hello,

I have a server ASUS Server RS120-E3 (PA4) that comes with 4 Sata hard drive.

When I try to get REHL4 after making the RAID Hardware, still visualizing the 4 hard drive. If I try to install the REHL3 gives me wrong installation.

Any help or comment that might be helpful, please help me