The usual IT babble
Posts tagged RDAC
New IBM RDAC version (or not)
Sep 9th
A week ago (September 02nd), I received a mail detailing the release of IBM’s new multipathing device driver for the DS4×00 series, which finally works with SLES11 (the available software up till now doesn’t — as in fails with kernels > 2.6.26 iirc).
ESC+ notification detailing the release
There wouldn’t be any trouble, if IBM (or rather the vendor providing the driver — LSI) would actually release the driver … up till today, I have yet to see the new version appear on the download page. I already tried to notify IBM about the trouble, but as usual there is lack of ways to actually get this to the right person.
Well, IBM just replied to my feedback and apparently the download is available (it is right now, after two weeks hah — finally).
Novell KMP: Useable version of ibm-rdac-ds4000
May 9th
After some more tinkering, a lot more looking at the macros in /usr/lib/rpm/rpm-suse-kernel-module-subpackage and /usr/lib/rpm/suse_macros, I think I finally have a usable RPM’ified version of IBM’s Multipathing driver ready for use.
There is still one major annoyance left: each time you install a new ibm-rdac-ds4000-kmp RPM, you also need to reinstall the corresponding ibm-rdac-ds4000-initrd package, as the macros in /usr/lib/rpm don’t allow for custom %post or %postun.
As mentioned before, I’m gonna send them to LSI/IBM for review, and maybe, MAYBE they are actually gonna make use of that.
Without further delay, here’s the list of packages. Just a short explanation: you need mppUtil-%version, in order to install the ibm-rdac-ds4000-kmp.
- mppUtil-09.03.0C05.0030-0.2 (i586, x86_64, SRPM)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-09.03.0C05.0030_2.6.16.60_0.37_f594963d-0.2 (SRPM)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-bigsmp (i586)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-debug (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-default (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-kdump (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-kdumppae (i586)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-smp (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-vmi (i586)
- ibm-rdac-kmp-vmipae (i586)
- ibm-rdac-ds4000-initrd-09.03.0C05.0030_2.6.16.60_0.37_f594963d-0.2
- ibm-rdac-initrd-bigsmp (i586)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-debug (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-default (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-kdump (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-kdumppae (i586)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-smp (i586, x86_64)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-vmi (i586)
- ibm-rdac-initrd-vmipae (i586)
This package should be usable with System Storage DS4000 as well as System Storage DS3000 (they use the exact same source code).
I also know, that this solution isn’t really perfect. I’ve been looking at the %triggerin/%triggerun macros, but right now I can’t draw up a scenario (an easy one at that) to successfully use triggers in this situation. Only idea coming up looks like this:
- Put the triggers into ibm-rdac-ds4000
- When installing the kernel module packages,
write the kernelversion/-flavor into a temporary file(impossible, since the macros don’t let you influence %post), and then let the trigger create/update the MPP initrd
If anyone knows a better solution (as in easier, without the writing to a separate file), I’m all ears.