Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 for HP Integrity Servers
Known Issues
1. HP recommends that you review the latest Red Hat Release Notes for RHEL 5.1 before
installation. The most recent copy of that document can be found at the following URL:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/
2. HP has identified an issue with the RHEL 5.1 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.
3. For the RHEL 5.1 pre-install, HP uses the non-virtualized kernel, kernel-2.6.18-53.el5. HP
does not pre-install the virtualized kernel, kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.el5.
4. You can install a RHEL 5.1 virtualized kernel from a media kit or from the Red Hat Network
(RHN). For information on installing from the RHN, see the RHEL 5.1 installation guide at:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/
5. HP recommends the use of HP provided drivers for use with HP-branded fibre channel
cards. HP provided fibre channel drivers are not currently supported for use in the Xen
kernel.
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.
6. HP recommends backing up all data and doing a cold install of RHEL 5.1 if upgrading from
v.4, v. 3 or v. 2.1.
7. In the absence of a console= argument, RHEL 5.1 uses the primary console device
as the system console. Use the EFI Boot Configuration menu to select the primary console.
8. The installation of RHEL 5.1 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 RHEL 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.
9. 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.
10. If using an HP Procurve 4108gl switch with a heavily loaded system, you may 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.
11. The RHEL 5.1 kernel supports maximum memory of 2 TB, which is also supported by HP.
12. 32-bit emulation is not automatically installed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Refer to the
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Release Notes for instructions on installing the IA32 emulation
layer and other IA32 compatibililty libraries.
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