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930

September 27th, 2007 01:00

No psuedo device names on boot - RHEL4

O.k. I've got a good one for you. I've check all previous forum posts and the KB and found nothing. Here is a growing problem I am seeing in my Linux enviroment:

On RHEL boxes (mostly 4.0) I am starting to see the following issues:

1. The PowerPath modules are not loaded at boot.
2. And/or the psuedo device names do not get assigned on boot (after they have been assigned and saved).

I have found this old code from older version of PP that was in the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysint file:

echo -n $" storage" <--Insert just after this line
###BEGINPP
# Configure and initialize PowerPath.
if [ -f /etc/init.d/PowerPath ]; then
/etc/init.d/PowerPath start
fi
###ENDPP

And that seems to allow PP to load at startup now. But now I don't get psuedo device names whenever PP loads up (see details below)

Has anyone else seen this problem? Here is an example of what I am talking about:

OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4 (Nahant Update 5)
Kernel: 2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp #1 SMP Thu Aug 23 11:11:20 EDT 2007 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
PPVersion: EMCpower.LINUX-4.5.3-003
NaviVersion: naviagentcli-6.24.1.5.0-1
HBABIOS: Latest QLA EMC support (1.08 I think)
HBAFirmware: Firmware version 4.00.23 [IP] ,
HBADRIVER: Driver version 8.01.04-d8

Has Oracle 10G RAC using ASM with RAW devices.

oracleasm-support-2.0.3-1
oracleasmlib-2.0.2-1
oracleasm-2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp-2.0.3-1
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp/kernel/drivers/char/hangcheck-timer.ko hangcheck_tick=30 hangcheck_margin=180 get's loaded out of /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Rawdevices does not start and the Pseudo names do not get assigned devices are not assigned.

Example:

CLARiiON ID=APM000XXXXXXX [XXXXXXX1]
Logical device ID=60060160A95C1C0012EE0D57C3F9DB11 [LUN-X]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP A
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx sdc SP A1 active alive 0 0
1 qla2xxx sdf SP B0 active alive 0 0
2 qla2xxx sdi SP A0 active alive 0 0
2 qla2xxx sdl SP B1 active alive 0 0


CLARiiON ID=APM000XXXXXXX [XXXXXXX1]
Logical device ID=60060160A95C1C0013EE0D57C3F9DB11 [LUN-Y]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP B, current=SP A
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx sdd SP A1 active alive 0 0
1 qla2xxx sdg SP B0 active alive 0 0
2 qla2xxx sdj SP A0 active alive 0 0
2 qla2xxx sdm SP B1 active alive 0 0

CLARiiON ID=APM000XXXXXXX [XXXXXXX1]
Logical device ID=60060160A95C1C007E6978F4ADEDDB11 [LUN-Z]
state=alive; policy=CLAROpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0
Owner: default=SP A, current=SP A
==============================================================================
---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats ---
### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors
==============================================================================
1 qla2xxx sdb SP A1 active alive 0 0
1 qla2xxx sde SP B0 active alive 0 0
2 qla2xxx sdh SP A0 active alive 0 0
2 qla2xxx sdk SP B1 active alive 0 0

Is ANYONE running into this? I'm going to have to open a case with EMC but if anyone else is seeing this that is leverage to fix the problem :)

Thanks,
Shmac

28 Posts

October 5th, 2007 06:00

Hi Shmac,

I have an open case for a similar issue, but with PowerPath v5.0.1 with RHEL 5.

Boot error:
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/emcpowere1


I noticed that power devices will mount at boot if you disable boot filesystem check for that device.

For example, changing /etc/fstab from
#with filesystem check
/dev/emcpowere1 /home4 ext3 defaults 1 2

(to)

# without filesystem check
/dev/emcpowere1 /home4 ext3 defaults 1 0

I've been suggested with some changes, but at the moment I'm probably stuck; I'm not being able to recompile the initrd image, one of the configured modules isn't working properly, so I'm back with the old inird.

For now I'm keeping the workaround that I got with...

If I get success from this issue I'll share the update, non-the-less, I'll ask you the same :)

Many thanks.

Celso Capao.

3 Posts

October 30th, 2007 08:00

Can you keep me updated on this case as well. We are having the same problem, and I find it hard to believe there aren't a lot of customers out there using or trying to use RHEL 5.

November 17th, 2008 12:00

We had to use the _netdev option in the /etc/fstab. This will cause the filesystems to mount after the network starts. This is hidden in the documentation under the iscsi section of the PP manuals.

341 Posts

November 17th, 2008 15:00

Hi

The _netdev change has been discussed on these forums previously here:

http://forums.emc.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=505822񻟞

At the time of writing this only affected PP5.x on RHEL5 only.

The workaround is detailed in PP5.1 release notes p30:
===
The _netdev option in /etc/fstab
PowerPath devices should be mounted with "_netdev" option in
/etc/fstab to permit boot-time fsck. For RHEL 5 and 5.1, in an iSCSI
setup, PowerIscsi is run as service S24. This configures the PowerPath
devices and makes them available to S25netfs to perform fsck on
them.
===
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