Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for HP Integrity Servers

Integrity system using the MP console port as the Linux system console. This problem does
not exist on mid-range and high-end Integrity platforms.
When rebooting the system, the user should either manually confirm the system has booted,
or use scripts to track the system boot on the serial console and automatically intervene as
necessary. The only intervention required to continue the boot process is to send a character
to produce a receiver interrupt on the console UART (for example, pressing a key). Note
that while experiencing this console hang is rare, it can happen multiple times on the same
boot cycle.
19. The cdrecord program may hang when burning a CD-RW disk with unsupported media
using certain models of CD/DVD-ROM Combo and DVD+RW drives shipped in rx2620 and
rx4640 servers.
Use only approved HP CD-RW media to prevent burn hangs. Try different brands of media
if HP media is not available.
20. The ELILO bootloader can pass command-line options to the Linux kernel. The max_addr=
and mem= options limit the amount of memory used by the kernel.
Some versions of the kernel handle these arguments incorrectly, resulting in an MCA that
crashes the system during boot. If the system boots successfully, there is no risk of a crash
due to this problem.
Booting with max_addr= or mem= is sometimes useful for debugging problems, but is not
a tested feature. A similar effect can be achieved by deconfiguring (with the EFI dimmconfig
command) or physically removing DIMMs.
21. System panics may occur on Integrity servers running Linux that have fibre channel (FC)
storage arrays directly connected.
If you plan to connect FC storage to Integrity Servers running Linux, you must connect
through a FC switch.
22. This problem is specific to the LSI1068 SAS I/O controller in the rx2660.
The mpt driver included in RHEL 5 does not have the necessary agent components required
by HP System Insight Manager.
To fix this problem, HP has qualified a special version of the mpt driver, which can be
downloaded from the drivers area of www.hp.com .
23. The initial release of RHEL 5 does not support the following fibre channel host bus adapters
(HBAs):
• A7538A — 2GB single port Qlogic
• A6826A — 2GB dual port Qlogic
• AB429A — 4GB PCI-x single port Qlogic
• AB379A/B — 4GB PCI-x dual port Qlogic
• AE311A — 4GB PCI-e single port Qlogic
• AD300A — 4GB PCI-e dual port Qlogic
• AD167A — 4GB PCI-x single port Emulex
• AD168A — 4GB PCI-x dual port Emulex
• A8002A — PCI-e single port Emulex
• A8003A — PCI-e dual port Emulex
Initial support for the Emulex HBAs will be with RHEL 5.1. The Qlogic HBAs will be
supported with RHEL 5 upon completion of qualification testing. Current target date is end
of June 2007.
24. This problem affects all Integrity servers running RHEL 5.
On large multiprocessor machines, an application that opens and closes many block devices
can cause enough lock contention to trigger the soft lockup detector.
10 Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5