Installing PowerPath 5.3 on RHEL5.2 generates awk and logger error

Question

After installing PowerPath 5.3 on a RHEL 5.2 64bit server I noticed that upon reboot the startup of PowerPath resulted in errors being displayed. The errors are script errors about not being able to find /usr/bin/awk and logger. After the server started the command /etc/init.d/PowerPath start could be executed without the errors. After some DEEEEEP thinking and a search through /etc/rc.sysinit the conclusion was that /usr (which is a seperate filesystem in our setup) isn't mounted yet when PowerPath is started at boot-time. Why anyone would use /usr/bin/awk (which is a symlink to /bin/awk) instead op just awk eludes me (the PATH variable is setup to find tools in /bin and /usr/bin..) (btw /usr/bin/grep, also used in the /etc/init.d/PowerPath script, doesn't even exist on a RHEL5 system..) But logger is by default located in /usr/bin and cannot be used at startup in our setup (because of our separate /usr filesystem, which isn't yet mounted...) Reverting to PowerPath 5.1.2 cleared all these problems.... no use of /usr/bin/awk and no use of logger ????? Is version 5.3 not fully tested or is our setup (with separate /usr, /opt, /var, /tmp, /home and root filesystem on lvm) so exceptional ? Rene

SKT2 · Answer

'(with separate /usr, /opt, /var, /tmp, /home and root filesystem on lvm) ' is not exceptional

reneke1 · Answer

Glad to hear more people take advantage of lvm to be able (in case of emergency) to shuffle OS storage around.

Hopefully you will never need it, but it is always nice to have a extra feature to use if you ever run into trouble.

BUT this also means that PowerPath 5.3 for Linux wil not run nicely on these setups......

fes010 · Answer

Hello,I just got the same errors two weeks ago. Due I was working on replacing a server and version 5.3 was recommended by EMC field engineers, I asked them about these errors and they sent me note id emc210766 which includes the following statement 'EMC does not recommend and does not support a separate /usr file system. It should be the part of the root file system'. Funny thing: 5.1x worked fine and I was unable to find any reference in 'EMC PowerPath for Linux version 5.3 Installation and administration guide' (P/N 300-008-344 Rev A02). I believe such approach is a mistake due awk is really under /bin and logger only function is to send messages to the log facility. Did you get a work around from EMC about this issue? do you downgrade to version 5.1?

JTG2 · Answer

I have RHEL 5.3, not sure if this will help, but I was able to get around this by moving the PowerPath code in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysint to the location as follows:

insert the PowerPath init code before the below statement in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysint:

# Start the graphical boot, if necessary and not done yet.

That way all of your LV's are mounted and the commands that are trying to run execute.

HTH
JTG

PowerPath

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