Oracle Enterprise Linux installation can't see local disks on HP ProLiant DL360e Gen8

Question

I am installing Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 on HP ProLiant DL360e Gen8. There are 2 300GB disks and they are configured in RAID 1 from ACU. During the installation installator can not see local hard drive (Which i mentioned).

There are external hard drives that installer is able to detect. But OS must be installed on local disks. External drives are for data storage.

Does anyone have some experience about it to help me?

Thanks in advanced for replay.

UPDATE: The same for Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.2 and 6.4

I'm running the same OS on the same hardware and not encountered this issue. In EL5, the internal disks appear as `/dev/cciss/cXdX`, not `/dev/sdX`. This changed in EL6. — James O'Gorman, Mar 30 '13 at 12:20
Thanks. but I can not install os at all. because while installing in "Select the drive(s) to use for this installation." is blank. There are no local disks listed. Maybe i've misleaded some config in ACU (from where i created RAID 1 and by the way RAID 0 doesn't work too.) — Zango, Mar 30 '13 at 12:31
@JamesO'Gorman doesn't Oracle Enterprise Linux need any driver software? — Zango, Mar 30 '13 at 12:38
In ACU, you have to configure an array and then a logical drive on the array. Did you do this second step? — James O'Gorman, Mar 30 '13 at 12:39
In ACU i also set it as Primary Boot Logical Drive/Volume. Did you used some drivers except that is on cd? — Zango, Mar 30 '13 at 13:01
I tried 6.2 and also 6.4. Neither of them can see local smart array RAID 1. It can only see multipath disk. Is some configuration needed other than done from ACU? — Zango, Mar 30 '13 at 16:32
Perhaps you could try an alternative OS to ensure nothing more sinister is at play? — Dan, Mar 30 '13 at 16:42
I aslo tried fedora 18 and it can not see local drive too! I do not know if i am missing some configuration... I create Smart Array of 2 disks in ACU and then logical volume of RAID 1. — Zango, Mar 30 '13 at 19:06
@JamesO'Gorman Can you tell me please if your servers have HP Dynamic Smart Array B320i Controller? or older one? — Zango, Mar 31 '13 at 09:20

ewwhite · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-31T13:34:29.087

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You need the equivalent of EL5.7 or 5.8 in order to have an installer that supports the newest generation of Smart Array controller.

Please see the footnotes on the HP/OEL technical exceptions matrix.

You need Oracle Linux/UEK 5.8. That's the minimum-supported installer version.

What version is your OEL installer?

Edit:

This was an issue with multiple elements. First, the OS the original poster was installing was too old for the server hardware. That was resolved by viewing the technical exceptions matrix from HP for Oracle Enterprise Linux. The same applied for RHEL and CentOS.

Second, I assumed the OP was using a proper Smart Array RAID controller. The P420i is the right controller for this setup. Instead, he is using a "Dynamic Smart Array B320i", which is a fakeraid controller. See these notes from the CentOS forum. It uses a software-side closed-source driver to enable RAID functionality. Terrible.

Red Hat explains that the servers with this controller are shipped in a bad default configuration that will prevent installation.

Resolution: Systems with these controllers will ship from HP with the Software RAID mode enabled by default. You can either load a driver disk/USB key at installation for your OS or disable the RAID...

This mode requires a closed source driver that is not shipped or supported by Red Hat. In order to install RHEL on these systems without the closed source driver and RAID support, the Software RAID mode must either be disabled (B320i controller) or switched to SATA AHCI support mode (B120i SATA controller).

For systems with the B320i SAS controller:
1. Boot the server into System Options
2. Navigate to HP Smart Array B320i Raid Configuration
3. Change to DISABLED

edited Mar 31 '13 at 13:34

answered Mar 30 '13 at 13:27

ewwhite

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I've Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.5 I will download and try 6.4. Then I will write what will happen. – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 13:41
You either need 5.8... or 6.x. These days, I'd use the 6.x series unless you have a specific need to run 5.x. – ewwhite Mar 30 '13 at 13:42
OK. I will try 6.4 and see if it will work. – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 13:54
Ah, that's interesting. I believe my machines were installed at 5.7 (and subsequently upgraded) which explains why they worked. Thanks for that bit of info @ewwhite. Good to know. – James O'Gorman Mar 30 '13 at 14:13
I tried 6.2 and also 6.4. Neither of them can see local smart array RAID 1. It can only see multipath disk. Is some configuration needed other than done from ACU? – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 16:30
I think you're doing something wrong. The smart array controller will be /dev/sda under EL6.x – ewwhite Mar 30 '13 at 17:03
/dev/sda is shown as Multipath device not smartarray. smartarray is nowhere... – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 17:10
also /dev/sdb /dev/sdc and /dev/sdd are Multipat device – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 17:14
Disconnect your external storage during the installation. – ewwhite Mar 30 '13 at 18:02
When i disconnect external storage then nothing appears in device list while installation ... – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 19:02
I aslo tried fedora 18 and it can not see local drive too! I do not know if i am missing some configuration. I create Smart Array of 2 disks in ACU and then logical volume of RAID 1. – Zango Mar 30 '13 at 19:05
My server has HP Dynamic Smart Array B320i Controller. While searching i found the link http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201203-10850/ where is written that ubuntu 12.04 server doesn't supports that controller. I did the same steps as described in the link and now I can install OEL 6.4 but on one 300GB disk I can't use RAID 1 for two 300GB disks. But on HP's official site there is not writter this. – Zango Mar 31 '13 at 09:15
I found this link http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/General/CentOS-6-3-unable-to-install-in-DL360e-Gen8-Server/td-p/5887823 and maybe it will help me too. I will try and write reulst. – Zango Mar 31 '13 at 09:40
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You didn't mention the controller type. I assumed a proper P420i controller. The one you have isn't a real RAID controller. It's a "fake raid" that requires OS software to work. – ewwhite Mar 31 '13 at 12:56
Thank you very much. By the way I've downloaded drivers for RHEL 6.2 where is HP Smart array B32i driver included. Loaded them during installation of OEL 6.2 and OS installed successfully. But When i start the system Kernel Panic - not syncing attempted to kill init happens. Then i changed kernel version from grub and booted successfully. Let's see if i will configure everything normally. – Zango Mar 31 '13 at 13:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 09 '13 at 15:50

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I had the same issue with but with a diffrent distro. For the installer, no disk existed in hardware since P420i was not enabled properly. To solve it, add "hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1" as a kernel boot parameter to call the HPSA module at boot. The disks will be recognized as /dev/sdX depending on your RAID configuration (and the card itself as /dev/sg0). After install, please make sure you add the hpsa parameter in Grub to boot automatically (I did not tested in LILO but it should work too). As a note, the kernel version I used for this test was 2.6.39.

answered Apr 09 '13 at 15:50

morriset

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This shouldn't be necessary for a P420i controller, as it is in the kernel. What distribution are you speaking about? – ewwhite Apr 09 '13 at 16:17
Hi ewwhite. Yes you right, hpsa is in the kernel since I did not had to built the module or something like that. But in mi case, the hpsa_allow_any parameter seems to be 0. That's the workaround actually made the raid to be recognized. On the test that I performed I used Mdv2011 x64. – morriset Apr 25 '13 at 20:36

Oracle Enterprise Linux installation can't see local disks on HP ProLiant DL360e Gen8

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