Dell Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5 Manual

Dell PowerEdge Systems Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (x86_64, x86)

Installation Instructions and Important Information

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.

WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.

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Contents

1 Installation Instructions............................................................................................................. 7

Overview...................................................................................................................................................................7

Latest Available Operating System...........................................................................................................................7

System Configuration Requirements........................................................................................................................ 7

Operating System Architecture..........................................................................................................................7

Reviewing Preconfiguration Options........................................................................................................................8

Operating System Packages Pre-Installed By Dell............................................................................................8

Storage Partitions.............................................................................................................................................. 8

Enabling MUI Support........................................................................................................................................ 9

Installing And Re-installing Your Operating System.................................................................................................9

Installing Using The Dell Systems Management Tools And Documentation Media......................................... 9

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Using The Red Hat Media..................................................................... 10

Installing With Dell Unified Server Configurator .............................................................................................11

Obtaining The DKMS Framework For Device Drivers............................................................................................ 12

Using Dell dkms Drivers After Kernel Upgrade................................................................................................12

Updating Your System Packages Using Red Hat Network.....................................................................................12

2 Important Information...............................................................................................................13

General Issues........................................................................................................................................................13

DKMS Missing File common.postinst Message Displayed..............................................................................13

IPMI Commands May Result In High Processor Utilization.............................................................................13

KVM Switches May Cause Video Issues During Installation...........................................................................13

Running Kudzu Fails To Configure Network Interfaces Properly.....................................................................14

TEAC CD Drives Display Error Messages In The System Log..........................................................................14

Driver Update Model Updates Kernel Entries On GRUB Boot Selection Screen.............................................14

USB Devices Are Reset During Stress Test.....................................................................................................14

Programs Or Utilities Related To RPM May Fail To Complete......................................................................... 15

lspci Reports Unknown Devices...................................................................................................................... 15

Issues Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 9............................................................................................. 15

Release Notes Missing From Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 8 Installer.................................................. 15

Unable To Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7 And Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 8 Using

Dell Deployment Methods................................................................................................................................15

Issues Fixed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 8..............................................................................................16

Ipfc Driver Throws Timeout Error Messages in Runlevel 3 With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 8.......... 16

A USB Cable Error Message Is Displayed After Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7....................16

An ACPI Error Message Is Displayed After Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7...........................16

Known Issues in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7...........................................................................................17

C-State Function Is Unavailable.......................................................................................................................17

Systems With Intel Multiport i350 rNDC And PCI Add-in Adapters Report Incorrect/Duplicate Mac

Address............................................................................................................................................................ 17

System Hangs Intermittently While Booting.................................................................................................... 18

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7 Not Available In SBUU And USC Installation Methods.........................18

Assigning iSCSI LUN Target To Intel 10G Network Controller Stops The Operating System From Booting....18

Error Message On Starting IPMI Drivers While Installing OMSA....................................................................18

Incorrect Processor Information Displayed.....................................................................................................19

Issue Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7............................................................................................... 19

Error Message During Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation.......................................................................... 19

Issues Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 6............................................................................................. 19

Kernel Panic Occurs On AMD Opteron 6000 And AMD 4100 Processor-Based Systems............................... 19

System Unreachable In A Cluster Scenario.....................................................................................................19

Issues Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 5............................................................................................. 20

Segmentation Fault With DHCPv6 Client..........................................................................................................20

Drop In Network File System (NFS) Read Performance.................................................................................. 20

Installing The Operating System On Drives Attached To SAS 5/iR Or SAS 6/iR Controllers May Cause

The System To Stop Responding On Boot........................................................................................................20

Issues Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4............................................................................................. 21

Power Capping Not Functional With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.................................................................... 21

Kernel Panic With Channel Bonding And IPv6.................................................................................................21

iSCSI Login To Dell EqualLogic Storage Array Over IPv6 Might Fail............................................................... 22

CPU Soft Lockup On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 3 Xen Kernel............................................................22

USB Resets On AMD System........................................................................................................................... 22

Bonding Driver Cannot Be Successfully Unloaded..........................................................................................22

Issues Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 3............................................................................................. 22

X Window Fails Intermittently.......................................................................................................................... 23

Virtual Media With DRAC 4P Or DRAC 4I Is Not Recognized In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 2............23

Installation Fails On Systems With 10G Base-T Single Port Intel 82598AT Adapter ....................................... 23

iSCSI Boot May Not Occur With Certain iSCSI Target iqn Names.................................................................. 23

Power Management May Cause Problems To USB Devices.......................................................................... 24

AMD Power Management Module (powernow k8) Reports The Total Number Of Processor Cores............. 24

Issues Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 2............................................................................................. 24

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 With DBS Enabled May Cause The System To Stop Responding During

Shutdown......................................................................................................................................................... 24

LED Errors On USB Keyboards.........................................................................................................................24

System Stops Responding Intermittently While Booting Into Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 x86 64

Operating System.............................................................................................................................................25

X Window System Does Not Start On Systems With ATI ES1000 Chipset.......................................................25

System Stops Responding With Direct I/O On Pre-formatted Tape Media Using Tar Commands..................25

Network Channel Bonding Packet Loss Under kernel-xen..............................................................................25

DRAC 4 Virtual Media Reset May Cause System Instability ........................................................................... 26

Input Output Errors Occur When A Fiber Channel Card Is Connected Without A LUN................................... 26

Network Channel Bonding May Cause Call Trace Messages.........................................................................26

System Stops Responding Intermittently At Starting udev.............................................................................. 27

Slow Boot And Warning Messages On SATA................................................................................................. 27

AMD Power Management Driver (powernow k8) Does Not Change The CPU Speeds Independently.......... 27

Issue Fixed In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 1............................................................................................... 27

The snmpd Error Messages While Using Channel Bonding............................................................................ 27

Finding More Information....................................................................................................................................... 27

3 Getting Help................................................................................................................................29

Contacting Dell....................................................................................................................................................... 29

Related Documentation.......................................................................................................................................... 29

Locating Your System Service Tag.........................................................................................................................29

Documentation Feedback.......................................................................................................................................29

Installation Instructions

Overview

This document provides the following information:

• Instructions for installing and reinstalling the operating system on your Dell system.

• Sources of additional information.

Latest Available Operating System

The latest update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is Update 10. This update provides fixes for certain issues in the previous releases.

System Configuration Requirements

The minimum amount of memory required for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is 512 MB.

Table 1. Maximum Supported Memory Configurations

Kernel Name Architecture Maximum System RAM

kernel x86 4 GB

kernel-PAE x86 16 GB

kernel-xen x86 16 GB

kernel x86_64 256 GB

kernel-xen x86_64 256 GB

NOTE: The maximum system memory supported by the kernel may be greater than the value listed in the table above.

NOTE: Dell PowerEdge R815 supports a maximum system memory of 512 GB.

NOTE: Dell PowerEdge M910 and Dell PowerEdge R810 support a maximum system memory of 1 TB.

NOTE: Dell PowerEdge R910 supports a maximum system memory of 2 TB.

Operating System Architecture

Most Dell PowerEdge systems offer processors that include either Intel 64 or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD64) processor technology. If your processor includes Intel 64 or AMD64 technology, either the x86 version or the x86_64 version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system can be installed on your system. If your processor does not include Intel 64 or AMD64 technology, only the x86 version of the operating system can be installed on your system.

NOTE: To check if your Dell PowerEdge system supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, see the operating systems support matrix at dell.com/ossupport.

Reviewing Preconfiguration Options

This section describes packages and options that are installed or preconfigured by Dell.

Operating System Packages Pre-Installed By Dell

Dell has pre-installed on your system a set of operating system packages that provide the features desired by system users, while enhancing the stability and security of your system.

Dell has placed the binary Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) modules for additional packages in the /usr/src/dell/RPMS directory. The source RPM modules for those packages reside in the /usr/src/dell/SRPMS directory. The archived and compressed source code for the RPM modules, if any, resides in the /usr/src/dell/SOURCES directory. These packages, which may include additional drivers and software, are not located on the Red Hat installation media. These packages are available at dell.com/support.

NOTE: If you require functionality not provided by the packages, install additional packages from the Red Hat installation media shipped with your system.

Storage Partitions

Dell uses the partition scheme listed in the following table.

Table 2. Storage Partition Scheme

Mount Point Size (MB) Partition Type Volume Group

Utility Partition 32 FAT 32 N/A

/ 4096 Linux Logical Volume

Manager (LVM)

/boot 200 Linux native N/A

Swap 2048 Linux swap VolGroup00

/usr 8192 Linux LVM VolGroup00

/tmp 4096 Linux LVM VolGroup00

/var 4096 Linux LVM VolGroup00

/home 4096 Linux LVM VolGroup00

VolGroup00

NOTE: The size of the default LVM partitions such as (/usr, /tmp and so on) is based on a single 36 GB hard drive. If you have a larger hard drive or multiple hard drives, use the various native LVM tools to resize the existing partitions as well as to create new partitions, according to your requirements.

Table 3. Memory Swap Size

Memory Swap Space (GB)

4 or less 2

4–16 4

4 8

64–256 16

NOTE: The size of your swap must never be less than 32 MB. For physical RAM more than 2 GB, the size of your swap must be equal to the amount of physical RAM above 2 GB.

Enabling MUI Support

Your system is pre-installed with the Red Hat operating system multi‑language user interface (MUI) for the following languages:

• English

• French

• German

• Korean

• Spanish

• Japanese

• Simplified Chinese

In the X Window system, the default language is set to English. To change the default setting to another language:

1. Select System → Administration → Languages in the System Panel Settings Menu.

2. Select the appropriate language.

NOTE: Only languages that are pre-installed are available for selection.

Changing Keyboard Type

To change the keyboard type:

1. Select System → Administration → Keyboard in the System Panel Settings menu.

2. Select the appropriate keyboard.

Displaying Japanese Or Chinese Text

If Japanese or Chinese (Simplified) characters do not display correctly in a text console:

1. Log into the console and at the command prompt, type: modprobe vga16fb

– To enable the display of Japanese characters, type: export LANG=ja.UTF–8

– To enable the display of Chinese (Simplified) characters, type: export LANG=zh_CN.UTF–8

2. At the command prompt, type bterm.

The text-based user interface now displays Japanese or Chinese (Simplified) characters.

Installing And Re-installing Your Operating System

CAUTION: Back up all data from the system before installing or upgrading the operating system.

To install or re-install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on your system, use any of the following:

•

Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation

• Custom installation using Red Hat installation media

• Dell Unified Server Configurator (USC)

Installing Using The Dell Systems Management Tools And Documentation Media

It is recommended that you use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Dell Systems Management Tools and Documentation

media

media to install or re-install

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