rhel 5 powerpath 5.0.1 problem

Question

Here's the problem I'm having. I have rhel5 2.6.18 kernel, and PowerPath 5.0.1 patch b022 on a Dell 2950. If I have the /dev/emcpower device or an emcpower device LUN wrapped in LVM, in the fstab file, the host fails to boot complaining it cannot find the device.

Looking at the rc.sysinit file, it seems the host runs an fsck on all the filesystems in fstab (if they have that option enabled) before PowerPath is loaded. So, any partition that's in fstab, that has the fsck option set, won't work. If I set the fsck option to 0, which I don't want to do, it works fine.

**Looks like another forum member Celso Capao, has run into the same problem, using the same work around**

Message was edited by:
buffcoat

Message was edited by:
buffcoat

jem3 · Answer

We're also having this problem. Just wondering if there's been any update?

rawstorage · Answer

Mounting the PowerPath devices with '_netdev' option permits boot-time fsck on PowerPath pseudo-devices (and also on Logical Volumes created out of PowerPath pseudo-devices). The fsck is performed by S25netfs after network services are up (PowerPath is already started by then). The fsckorder (6th column on /etc/fstab) may be marked as necessary (a value greater than 0 performs boot-time fsck).Sample /etc/fstab file:-----------------------/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 / ext3 defaults 1 1/dev/emcpowerl /mnt/mnta ext2 _netdev 0 2/dev/emcpowerd /mnt/mntb ext3 _netdev 0 0/dev/vg_emcp_xov/lvol0 /mnt/mnto ext2 _netdev 0 3/dev/vg_emcp_xov/lvol0 is a LV created out of PowerPath pseudo-devices. It needs to be documented that PowerPath devices should be mounted with '_netdev' option in /etc/fstab to permit boot-time fsck. The documentation will be updated to reflect this.

dynamox · Answer

Paul,is _netdev requirement something new that has to be done with PP5, we have never used _netdev with PP4.5 ..but i wonder if this is something we have to pay attention to when we upgrade to PP5.Thanks

rawstorage · Answer

Dynamox, this is specific to version 5.x

rawstorage · Answer

This issue has been documented in the Linux 5.1 Release Notes;These are not available on powerlink as yet..Message was edited by: PaulCork

dynamox · Answer

Thank you

Conor · Answer

The PP5.1 release notes are now available on PowerLink: from 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.
===

dynamox · Answer

CB,does it also apply to RHEL 4 with Powerpath 5.1 ?Thanks

Conor · Answer

Hi Dynamox,the Release notes are non-specific regarding RHEL version, I have checked the OPT that this bug was reported to EMC and it was on the RHEL5 platform... I will do more reseach into previous cases and see if RHEL4 is affected the same way... Will update you shortly.

dynamox · Answer

great ..thank you

Conor · Answer

This seems on only affect RHEL5 with PowerPath 5.x. No previous cases with RHEL4 or earlier...

dynamox · Answer

great ..thank you for verifying that.

PowerPath

rhel 5 powerpath 5.0.1 problem

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