[Xen-users] [HOWTO] Update megaraid_sas driver in Linux 2.6.32.x to make it boot and work with Dell/LSI RAID adapters

[Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>]

Hello,

I noticed the default megaraid_sas driver version in upstream Linux 2.6.32.25
is pretty old, version 4.01, and it seems to be very buggy. 
It fails to bring up disks and boot fails. 

Many people have reported this issue on various hardware using LSI RAID 
adapters, 
and on various Dell servers (R310/R410/R510/R710) using Dell PERC H700 RAID 
adapters 
(which are rebranded LSI adapters).

This problem is not Xen specific at all, it's just a broken driver version 
included in Linux 2.6.32.x kernel. 

Based on posts to various Xen related mailing lists and IRC channels
it seems this issues affects many Xen users, so I decided to post
this small howto here. Hopefully it helps.

Workaround is to manually update the driver:

        - Assumption: You have Linux kernel version 2.6.32.25 already installed.

        - Download new megaraid_sas driver. I tested with version 4.33.
          It's available at least from 
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=493093
          As an attachment in comment #16 . 
          I've mirrored the driver here: 
http://pasik.reaktio.net/xen/drivers/lsi-megaraid_sas/RH5_4.33.zip
          LSI support site has Linux driver updates aswell, but atm they only 
had version 4.31 there.

        - Extract RH5_4.33.zip
        - Extract megaraid_sas-v00.00.04.33-src.tgz
        - cd megaraid_sas-v00.00.04.33
        - make -C /lib/modules/2.6.32.25/build M=$PWD modules
        - mv 
/lib/modules/2.6.32.25/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko 
/lib/modules/2.6.32.25/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas_orig.ko
        - cp -a megaraid_sas.ko 
/lib/modules/2.6.32.25/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko
        - depmod -a 2.6.32.25

        - And now you need to re-generate new initrd image for your kernel to 
include 
          the new megaraid_sas driver version 4.33. 
          Method how to update the initrd image depends on what Linux distro 
you're using.

        - Back up the existing initrd image: 
                mv /boot/initramfs-2.6.32.25.img 
/boot/initramfs-2.6.32.25.backup.img

        - Re-generate initrd example for Fedora: 
                dracut -f /boot/initramfs-2.6.32.25.img 2.6.32.25

        - Re-generate initrd example for Debian/Ubuntu: 
                update-initramfs -u -k 2.6.32.25

        - Reboot and test.


Good luck! :)

-- Pasi


_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users