PowerPath 5.0.0-157 problems on SLES10-x86-64?

Question

Each time I install PowerPath 5 on a new SuSE Linux 10 system, my filesystem goes down and any command entered on the command line produces this error:

input/output error

After cycling power and rebooting, the system comes up to Run Level 5, but then freezes at the login prompt on the console. Same happens when going to Single User mode or Safe Mode (run level 3).

I have the QLogic QLE220 HBA properly installed with the dkms driver for SLES10.

Anyone else having this problem or know what to do?

Additional Details:
1. kernel version 2.6.16.27-0.9-smp
2. server is Dell PowerEdge 2950
3. storage array is Dell/EMC AX-150 SP (single processor)
4. QLogic HBA driver is qla2xxx-8.01.06-1dkms

Message was edited by:
ksz

Kiran3 · Answer

have you checked the compatibility using elab navigator for this setup?

shizzy1 · Answer

HiI have the same problem with :1. kernel version 2.6.16.27-0.9-smp on SUSE SLE 102 - server is Dell PowerEdge 68503 - storage array is Dell/EMC CX3-204 - QLogic HBA driver is qla2xxx-8.01.07

ksz1 · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked and found that only the 8.01.04-k version of the QLogic driver has been tested with the Clariion AX150 and SLES10. Unfortunately, this version of the driver is not available for download.

ksz1 · Answer

We are going to escalate this incident with Dell/EMC. Have you received any technical assistance on this yet?

shizzy1 · Answer

HiThe only solution ( for now ) is reinstall the hosts and use the native multipath for the storage connection.

ksz1 · Answer

We identified the problem with help from EMC:

PowerPath 5.0.0.x on SLES10 with our QLE220 HBAs is NOT currently compatible with XFS filesystem.

The PowerPath 5.0.0.x Release Notes states on Page 11, Tabe 5 that XFS is supported on SLES10 without any reservations or exceptions noted.

However, this is an error. XFS may be supported with some combination of HBAs on SLES10, but not all.

We went back to reiserfs.

MartinGR1 · Answer

The 8.01.04-k driver is bundled on the SLES 10 distribution, you shuld find it there.Good luck.

ksz1 · Answer

I should have added this long ago, but XFS is not the problem. PowerPath 5 continues to hang regardless of the filesystem on root or the filesystem on the storage array. EMC has reproduced and acknowledged the problem. PowerPath 5 is simply not stable on SLES10_64.

We switcht to native multipath which provides failover but not load-balancing. This is okay since we're primarily concerned with reliability.

WouterC1 · Answer

We have also this problem. It has been escalated to Dell/EMC and EMC is working on it.

The problem appears to be the combination of powerpath and naviagent. Running both at the same time freezes the system almost directly.

Olku · Answer

We have the same problem here with a PE1955 5 Node Cluster running ocfs2 as filesystem. Someone got a solution yet?

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PowerPath 5.0.0-157 problems on SLES10-x86-64?

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