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

Known Issues
1. HP has identified an issue with the RHEL5 ext3 file system which under some conditions
may result in system panics. Red Hat has provided an errrata to include a correction for this
issue. This errata is available to subscribers of the Red Hat Network at the following URL:
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2007-0376.html
HP recommends that you install this errata.
2. For the RHEL 5 pre-install, HP uses the non-virtualized kernel, kernel-2.6.18-8.el5. HP does
not pre-install the virtualized kernel, kernel-xen-2.6.18-8.el5 because that is currently a
technology preview for the Itanium architecture.
3. The Xen-based virtualization capabilities of RHEL5 are offered on Itanium2-based servers
as a technology preview. Technology preview features are currently not supported under
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 subscription services and are included as a customer convenience
to provide the feature with wider exposure. Although HP endorses this technology preview,
HP endorsement does not imply a formal support statement. For more information, please
see the Red Hat RHEL5 release note for ia64 platforms at the following URL:
https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/release-notes/RELEASE-NOTES-ia64-en.html
4. HP does not recommend using the drivers in the RHEL5 installation for HP-branded fibre
channel cards.
To obtain the drivers that HP supports for these cards:
a. From the following Web site, click on the "Driver Downloads" link:
http://www.hp.com
b. Click the radio button preceding "Download drivers and software" on the Software &
Driver Downloads page, enter the card number in the text box.
c. Click "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (Itanium)" under the "select operating system" heading
on the specify operating system page.
d. Scroll down the download drivers and software page for your specified card, and click
the download button for the required driver.
5. HP recommends backing up all data and doing a cold install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 if upgrading from v.4, v. 3 or v. 2.1.
6. In the absence of a console= argument, RHEL5 uses the primary console device as
the system console. Use the EFI Boot Configuration menu to select the primary console.
7. The installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux v. 5 may fail if using the autopartition function
on a server with multiple disks. If you encounter this problem, remove all disks from the
server except those on which you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux v. 5. Replace the
removed disks when operating system installation on the targeted disks is complete. You
may then need to edit the device file name of the /boot/efi mount point in the
/etc/fstab file because the device file may have changed when the disks were replaced.
8. If you are transitioning to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 from a previous Red Hat Enterprise
Linux release, note that the load order of storage and networking drivers is not always in
the same order as the previous release.
9. If using an HP Procurve 4108gl switch with a heavily loaded system, you ay experience
intermittent data truncation with FTP transfers through the network. To avoid this problem:
a. Connect to the HP Procurve 4108gl switch using telnet or serial console and login.
b. From the switch command line interface, enter config.
c. Enter no int all lacp.
10. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel supports maximum memory of 2 TB, which is also
supported by HP.
8 Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5