Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AS Version 4 on vinu March 16, 2006 Before, I had Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 installed on vinu. Here was the state of affairs before installing RHEL AS v4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vinu is an IBM xSeries 365 server, with - four 2.7 gigahertz Intel Xeon processors - 4 gigabytes of main memory. - 7 PCI slots (0-6), slot 1 = video adapter and slot 6 = "RAID Controller" - 2 LSI 1030 SCSI adapters, with no devices on them - 1 IBM ServeRAID-6M adapter, with 6 drives. - 1 36 GB drive , SCSI ID 0 , configured as a RAID 0 array, used for the OS. - 5 147 GB drives, SCSI IDs 1-5, configured as a RAID 5 array, netting me a 560GB drive. No Hot Spares. When vinu boots, the blue LED on its display blinks until the POST is done. This takes a few minutes, so the flashing blue light is not an indicator that something's wrong. BTW, that blue light is also used as a "locator" (similar to SSA disks' "Identify" function) so you can find this server in a sea of server racks. When you see the big "IBM eServer" splash screen, it stays up for a while, but then quickly adds 4 lines at the bottom left of the screen and doesn't give you enough time to read, absorb what you've read, and make a selection. The 4 options are F1 = Configuration/Setup F2 = Diagnostics Alt-F1 = System Partition Boot F12 = Network Boot Later on, it allows you to type ctrl-s to enter a different "MBA Configuration menu", aka "Broadcom NetXtreme Ethernet Boot Agent v6.1.3", which sounds like an automated network install capability. There's nothing useful here. Later on, you can type ctrl-c to enter the "LSI Logic Configuration Utility". This is NOT where you define the SSA Arrays. It's where you can - View or change SCSI IDs for attached devices - Set SCSI prtocol parameters on SCSI hard disk drives - Perform a low-level format on a SCSI hard disk drive but since we have no SCSI devices installed on these adapters, this isn't too useful. You can view the RAID configuration (but not set them) with the next prompt, which is ctrl-i, entering you into the IBM ServeRAID Mini Configuration - Main Menu screen. Selecting "View controller status" from that main menu, gets you to the IBM ServeRAID Mini Configuration - Logical Drive Status screen, where you can see that I have these drives configured as follows Logical Size RAID Logical R5E/R5EE Stripe Write Read Date Created Drive (MB) Level State State Size Policy Ahead mm/dd/yyyy ======= ====== ===== ======= ======== ====== ====== ===== ============ 1 34715 0 Okay 8KB TempWT ADP 05/21/2004 2 560052 5 Okay 8KB TempWT ADP 05/21/2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To configure the RAID on this server, you need to find and boot the IBM ServeRAID 6.10 Support CD and how do you know to do this? RTFM, specifically the IBM eServer xSeries 365, Types 8861 and 8862, Installation Guide In Chapter 4, "Configuring the Server", and page 38, "Using the RAID configuration programs" Fortunately, when we got this box, the drives were already configured like this, so I didn't have to do anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 100692 25727 69766 27% /boot /dev/sda2 31864068 3341428 26904040 12% / /dev/sda3 1007992 856896 99892 90% /usr/vice/cache /dev/sdb1 98435316 166224 93268872 1% /db/ipnnc /dev/sdb2 100002912 32828 98969960 1% /big AFS 1419077039063 0 1419077039063 0% /afs There's an old (October, 2004) Net Commerce database on /db/ipnnc and nothing in /big, so both can be removed. I'll be getting rid of AFS, so /usr/vice/cache can go, too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- fdisk -l /dev/sda (With added commas and spacing for legibility) Disk /dev/sda: 36.4 GB, 36401315840 bytes 254 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4442 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16002 * 512 = 8193024 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 103,981+ 83 Linux /dev/sda2 14 4059 32,372,046 83 Linux /dev/sda3 4060 4187 1,024,128 83 Linux /dev/sda4 4188 4442 2,040,255 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda5 4188 4442 2,040,223+ 82 Linux swap ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- fdisk -l /dev/sdb Disk /dev/sdb: 587.2 GB, 587257085952 bytes 254 heads, 63 sectors/track, 71677 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16002 * 512 = 8193024 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 12499 100,004,467+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 12500 24999 100,012,500 83 Linux ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpts from /etc/sysconfig/hwconf: class bus device desc Other Data ===== ==== ====== ==================================== ============= CDROM IDE hda Note this isn't a DVD reader VIDEO PCI ATI|Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE] HD SCSI sda Ibm SERVERAID host: 2 id: 0 HD SCSI sdb Ibm SERVERAID host: 2 id: 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cat /etc/fstab LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 LABEL=/usr/vice/cache /usr/vice/cache ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0 LABEL=/db/ipnnc /db/ipnnc ext3 defaults 1 2 LABEL=/big /big ext3 defaults 1 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- tail -25 /etc/passwd inst1:x:201:201::/home/inst1:/bin/bash dasusr1:x:203:203::/home/dasusr1:/bin/bash ipnfenc1:x:220:220::/home/ipnfenc1:/bin/bash ipnnc:x:221:221::/home/ipnnc:/bin/bash ipsadmin:x:401:401::/home/ipsadmin:/bin/bash ipsrun:x:402:402::/home/ipsrun:/bin/bash blaine:x:14616:14616:Blaine Sollazzi:/u/blaine:/bin/ksh cht:x:10086:10086:Carol H. Thompson:/u/cht:/bin/ksh dbsys03:x:14718:14718:Sandy Cottingham:/u/dbsys03:/bin/ksh edward:x:16009:16009:Edward Salatovka:/u/edward:/bin/ksh eric:x:14387:14387:Eric Van Stegeren:/u/eric:/bin/ksh jasper:x:10167:10167:Rick Jasper:/u/jasper:/bin/ksh jhees:x:20005:20005:Jim Hees:/u/jhees:/bin/ksh jmorrow:x:16012:16012:Jeff Morrow:/u/jmorrow:/bin/ksh kinwong:x:11558:11558:Kin Wong:/u/kinwong:/bin/ksh klittle:x:16010:16010:Kathy Little:/u/klittle:/bin/ksh mcrom:x:20004:20004:Mike Crom:/u/mcrom:/bin/ksh penny:x:20008:20008:Penny Peng:/u/penny:/bin/ksh rcollins:x:20009:20009:Richard Collins:/u/rcollins:/bin/ksh rebecca:x:14294:14294:Rebecca Hernandez:/u/rebecca:/bin/ksh sander:x:15478:15478:Sander Berents:/u/sander:/bin/ksh santokh:x:15867:15867:Santokh Sidhu:/u/santokh:/bin/ksh tom:x:13155:13155:Tom Griffin:/u/tom:/bin/ksh xemployee:x:666666:666666:Catch-all File Owner:/u/Xemployee:/dev/null hwasu:x:16016:16016:Hwasu Kim:/u/hwasu:/bin/ksh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cat /etc/sysconfig/network NETWORKING=yes HOSTNAME=vinu.delphion.com cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 # Broadcom Corporation|NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet DEVICE=eth0 BOOTPROTO=none BROADCAST=10.222.211.255 HWADDR=00:09:6B:F5:1F:66 IPADDR=10.222.211.32 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=10.222.211.0 ONBOOT=yes TYPE=Ethernet USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes GATEWAY=10.222.211.1 cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 # Broadcom Corporation|NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet DEVICE=eth1 BOOTPROTO=dhcp HWADDR=00:09:6B:F5:1F:67 ONBOOT=no TYPE=Ethernet cat /etc/resolv.conf search delphion.com eagan.tshmg.com nameserver 199.221.80.141 nameserver 199.222.82.28 ======================================================================================== To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS v4, I had to get RHEL on CD's, not DVD since the CD drive doesn't read DVD's. (sigh) Once that was done, I booted from CD, but that hung. A google search said I had to update the microcode on the IBM x365 box. I did this and it booted ok. (another sigh) I tried setting up w3 to allow me to boot via HTTP (see my Copying_Install_CDs), but when I booted the first CD, it never gave me that option. Did RedHat do away with this mechanism? That's too bad if they did. 1) Boot first RHEL AS Version 4 CD. 2) Selected - Graphical Install by hitting - English as my language - and "U.S. English" keyboard. 3) To partition the drives correctly, a) Go ahead and allow "Disk Druid" to "Automatically partition". I'll modify that later. b) Install Linux on sda only, the 34707 MB drive, not the big 560,047 MB drive. So I had to unselect sdb. c) Yes, "Remove all partitions on sda". I changed Disk Druid's partitioning to Mount Point/ Size Device RAID/Volume Type Format (MB) Start End ========== =========== ======== ====== ====== ===== ====== LVM Volume Groups rootvg 34560 lv0 / ext3 Yes 32544 swaplv swap Yes 1984 Hard Drives /dev/sda /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 Yes 102 1 13 /dev/sda2 rootvg LVM PV Yes 34,606 14 4,442 /dev/sdb sdb1 FreeSpace 560,052 1 71,397 4) "Edit" the eth0 network adapter to NOT "Configure using DHCP" and specified its "IP Address:" as 10.222.211.32 and its "Netmask:" as 255.255.255.0 and its "Hostname:" to vinu.delphion.com and its "Gateway:" to 10.222.211.1 and its "Primary DNS:" to 199.221.80.141 and its "Secondary DNS:" to 199.222.82.28 5) !!! Disabled the firewall ('cause I still don't know how to control it, that's why). 6) Didn't install additional languages. 7) Set "Time Zone Selection" to "America/Los_Angeles". 8) Set the root password. 9) After the first reboot, logged on from another machine, and modified .bashrc -> Uncommenting those # alias rm='rm -i' # alias cp='cp -i' # alias mv='mv -i' lines -> Adding my own customization, set -o vi alias c='echo \\n\\n\\n\\n\n ... \\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n;clear' if [ "$TERM" = "aixterm" ] then alias rc='echo -e "\033[10;97;101m"' else alias rc='echo -e "\033[10;94;106m"' fi .bash_logout -> Uncommenting that clear line. .vimrc -> My own vi customizations 9) On the main console, - accepted their license agreement, - did not create any non-root userids, - Registered with Red Hat Network (RHN), selecting the "Use one of my existing, active subscriptions" option. 10) Configured NTP, pointing to afs1 (10.222.211.37) - system-config-date Removing the 3 default pool.ntp.org NTP servers, and adding afs1.delphion.com (10.222.211.37). 11) Added the NFS-mounted file systems. - Add sunas1:/dfs /dfs nfs soft,timeo=100 0 0 sunas1:/home /export/home nfs soft,timeo=100 0 0 to /etc/fstab. - mkdir /export /export/home /dfs - mount -a 12) Add the extra Linux filesets cd /dfs/software/linux/RHEL_v4_i386 ./install.extra.packages 13) Configured up2date to use the shared directory I have set up, up2date-config On "Retrieval / Installation" screen, 1) Check "After installation, keep binary packages on disk" 2) Set the "Package storage directory:" from its default of /var/spool/up2date, to /dfs/software/linux/RHEL_v4_i386/up2date Installed latest fixes, which wasn't much. 14) Added eagan.tshmg.com to /etc/resolv.conf file. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------