Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS V.4 Update 4 for HP Integrity Servers

Integrity Superdome systems with five or more cells (threads enabled), or nine or more cells
(threads disabled) need the largesmp kernel.
A standard RHEL4 installation works even when more than 64 CPUs are present, but ignores
extra CPUs. After the installation, manually install the largesmp kernel. For RHEL4 U4, this
is the command:
# rpm -i RedHat/RPMS/kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-42.EL.ia64.rpm
A reboot is required after installing the largesmp kernel.
If you want to enable more than 64 CPUs enabled on your Integrity Superdome/sx2000, you
must install the package named kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-42.EL.ia64.rpm. This file
is located on binary CD #2 of the set of RHEL4 U4 installation media.
Use The following set of commands to mount the CD and install the media. These examples
assume that the device file used is /dev/cdrom:
[root@superdome]# mkdir /tmp/mnt
[root@superdome]# mount /dev/cdrom /tmp/mnt
[root@superdome]# rpm -ivh
/tmp/mnt/RedHat/RPMS/kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-42.EL.ia64.rpm
[root@superdome]# umount /tmp/mnt
Alternatively, if you have downloaded the RHEL4 U4 ISO images from the Red Hat Network
(RHN), you can loopback-mount the ISO image for CD. To perform this, replace the previous
mount command with the following:
[root@superdome]# mount -o loop RHEL4-U4-ia64-disc2.iso /tmp/mnt
Installing the kernel-largesmp package creates a new elilo.conf boot-stanza in the file /boot/efi/efi/redhat/elilo.conf:
image=vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.ELlargesmp
label=2.6.9-42.ELlargesmp
initrd=initrd-2.6.9-42.ELlargesmp.img
read-only
append="root=LABEL=/"
image=vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL
label=linux
initrd=initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img
read-only
append="root=LABEL=/"
However, the default boot kernel is still the original RHEL4 U4 kernel (2.6.9-42.EL); this can
be seen when examining the default= line in elilo.conf:
default=linux
The "linux" label corresponds to the boot stanza with the 2.6.9-42.EL kernel. To make the
RHEL4 U4 largesmp kernel the default boot kernel, this line should read as follows:
default=2.6.9-42.ELlargesmp
NOTE: It may be convenient to rename the label 2.6.9-42.ELlargesmp to something
shorter and easier to remember, such as linux-large or largesmp.
27. Due to a bug in the RHEL4 Update 4 installation routines, the wrong driver is loaded for
the following HP fibre-channel host bus adapters:
• AB429A and AB379A QLogic 4 Gb/s PCI-x HBAs
• AD300A and AE311A Qlogic 4 Gb/s PCI-express HBAs
• 403619-B21 2-port 4Gb FC mezzanine adapter for BL860c blade server
This bug results in a nonfunctioning HBA during and after installation, and thus Boot from
SAN cannot be performed.
This problem affects installation of RHEL4 Update 4 onto storage connected to these devices
on all supported Itanium servers.
Use the following procedure as a workaround.
12 Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS v.4 Update 4