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StrataDOC (Linux Version): Release 6.0.6.0

This document contains supplemental information for ftServer System Software for the Linux Operating System, Release 6.0.6.0. It was published on February 3, 2011.

For general release information, see the Release Notes: Stratus ftServer System Software for the Linux Operating System (R005L-11) or the complete set of documentation for ftServer System Software for the Linux Operating System, Release 6.0.3.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release Information

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux™, Release 5.6 is now supported for use with ftServer System Software for the Linux Operating System, Release 6.0.6.0.

MINIMUM KERNEL: kernel-2.6.18-238.el5

MINIMUM JAVA: java-1.6.0-sun

Minimum Java Required

RedHat has removed the previous version of java, java-1.5.0-sun, from the supplementary CD. The latest version is java-1.6.0-sun. Therefore, installation of java-1.6.0-sun is mandatory for this ftSys software release. This requirement supersedes the reference in the Stratus ftServer System Software: Installation for Linux Systems (R013L) manual to an earlier java product.

You may install, or upgrade to, the java-1.6.0-sun RPM using the RHEL 5.5 (or later) Server Supplementary CD #1. Find the java RPM on this CD, and install it. The following instructions assume this Server Supplementary CD #1 is mounted at /mnt. 

# rpm -ivh `find /mnt -name 'java-1.6.0-sun-1.6*.rpm'`

Or you may upgrade java from Red Hat Network (RHN) if the RHEL Supplementary software channel has been enabled for your system. 

# yum install java-1.6.0-sun

To enable the RHEL Supplementary software channel for your system:

1.
Log into your RHN account.
2.
Click Systems, then click on a system name to manage.
3.
On the Software tab, click Software Channels.
4.
Under the heading Release Channels for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for x86_64, make sure that the box by: RHEL Supplementary (v. 6 for 64-bit x86_64) Info is checked.

[You may also use java-1.6.0-sun from a RHEL Supplementary channel later than version 6.]
5.
Click Change Subscriptions.

Minimum Firmware Required for ftSys 6.0.6.0

Please update your firmware levels to the following revisions when running ftSys 6.0.6.0 or above.

CPU BIOS: 3.1.19

BMC: 2.10/1.01/1.24

VTM: 3.3.34

The new BIOS and BMC firmware are available on the ftSys 6.0.6.0 installation CDROM. The new VTM firmware is updated when the lsb-ft-vtm_fw RPM is installed, for systems having a Virtual Technician Module.

For instructions on updating firmware, see the Stratus ftServer System Software: Installation for Linux Systems (R013L) manual. Follow instructions in the "Updating ftServer System Firmware" section of this manual.

Upgrading the Linux Operating System and Stratus ftServer System Software

Note: Do not reboot the system in between upgrading the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system, and upgrading the Stratus ftSys software.
1.
To upgrade the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system follow the procedure "Upgrading or Restoring the Linux Operating System" detailed in the Stratus ftServer System Software: Installation for Linux Systems (R013L) manual.

DO NOT REBOOT the system when the Red Hat upgrade completes. If a dialog window appears asking to reboot, select no.

2.
To upgrade the Stratus ftSys software follow the procedure "Upgrading or Restoring ftSSS" detailed in the Stratus ftServer System Software: Installation for Linux Systems (R013L) manual.

Once the upgrade is complete, reboot the system.

Revision Checking for BIOS and BMC Firmware

During an upgrade install.sh will check BIOS and BMC revisions and if not at the minimum revision will exit with comments that an upgrade of the BIOS, BMC, or both is required.

During a clean install or upgrade, ft-retrieveChipsetDumps warns of below-revision firmware for the BIOS and BMC in the /var/log/messages file.

Using a RHEL 5.6 Rescue CD

To boot up from a rescue CD, you will need to add mem=2000M to the boot command. 

# boot: linux rescue mem=2000M nmi_watchdog=0 nosoftlockup 
piix.intel_via_libata=1

Use of Uppermem in grub.conf

Uppermem is now added to grub.conf to advise grub to use the upper memory region, as the ramdisk is now overlapping into the fusion-H memory hole. The 32G will work for any memory size, 32G being the maximum.

Removal of Stratus Disk Scrubber

The disk scrubber goes through the raid1 devices and does a check or repair on them.

The Stratus version consists of two scripts, /opt/ft/sbin/ft-scrubmds and /etc/cron.weekly/lsb-ft-scrubmds, delivered through the lsb-ft-storage RPM.

In RHEL 5.4, Red Hat introduced their own version of a disk scrubber. This version consists of /etc/cron.weekly/99-raid-check and /etc/sysconfig/raid-check.

Since both Stratus and Red Hat versions perform the same function, the Stratus version has been removed.

Note that the Stratus script would normally repair any disk blocks found to be unequal on the disks; whereas the RHEL facility only checks for differences and reports them in /var/log/messages. Tailoring to return to the Stratus default behavior is done in /etc/sysconfig/raid-check, by changing CHECK=check to CHECK=repair.

Red Hat Network Registration

Starting with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 5.5, the haldaemon service must be running in order to register a system with the Red Hat Network (RHN) to check for and download RHEL updates. However, the haldaemon interferes with Stratus fault tolerant operation, and is therefore diasabled on ftServer systems. To register with Red Hat Network:

1.
Temporarily enable the haldaemon with the command:

service haldaemon start

2.
Register your system with the Red Hat Network, using the command:

rhn_register

3.
When the rhn_register command completes: disable the haldaemon with the command:

service haldaemon stop

Once registered on the Red Hat Network, your RHEL software can be updated using the Program Updater graphical interface, or via the yum command line interface. The haldaemon does not need to be running when checking for, and downloading updates.

Adding Stratus RPM Repositoires to the Software Updater Configuration

The following information supersedes the information provided in the Release Notes: Stratus ftServer System Software for the Linux Operating System (R005L-11).

To enable Software Updater to recognize Stratus updates, you must provide an Active Service Network (ASN) siteID and Connection Password to authenticate your access to these updates. You can do this with a text editor, or with the Package Manager application.

Notes:
 
 
1.
Before you can obtain Red Hat updates, your system must be registered with Red Hat and have entitlement on the Red Hat Network (RHN) server. Enter the command rhn_register to use the Red Hat Desktop interface; or rhn_register --nox to use the command-line interface. See your Red Hat documentation for further information.
 
 
2.
After you have enabled Stratus updates (as explained below), you can use either Software Updater or the yum command. To access the Software Updater, from your Red Hat Desktop, select the following sub-menu item: Applications -> System Tools -> Software Updater.

To use the yum command, review its man page. Useful options include:

yum clear all
yum check-update
yum update

If your site has configured the ASN for inbound service connections, then to obtain Stratus updates: (1) enable the two Stratus-provided repositories.

If your site has not chosen to configure the ASN for inbound service connections, to obtain Stratus updates, you must then: (1) enable the two Stratus-provided repositories; and (2) provide the ASN connection information in the ft-updates.conf file.

The next two subsections tell how to perform these two configuration tasks.

Enable the Stratus RPM Repositories

To enable the Stratus-provided repositories, you may either use a text editor to modify the repository description files; or may use the Package Manager application to enable these files.

Enabling the Repo Files with a Text Editor

After you install ftSSS, two Stratus repository description files are available at:

  • /etc/yum.repos.d/Stratus.repo
  • /etc/yum.repos.d/Stratus-debuginfo.repo

Each of these files contains the line:

enabled=0

Use a text editor (e.g., vim(1) or emacs(1)) to change enabled=0 to enabled=1 in both files. Save this change to each file; do not change any other lines in the files.

Enabling the Repo Files with Package Manager
1.
On the Red Hat Desktop, select the sub-menu item:

Applications -> Add/Remove Software

2.
In the Package Manager window, in the Edit menu select item: Repositories
3.
In the Repositories window, check the boxes next to Stratus and Stratus-debuginfo repositories to enable them; then click Close.
4.
Back in the Package Manager window, the left-hand scoll box should now show Fault Tolerance and Fault Tolerance debuginfo items. If these groupings do not show up, click the List tab; then click the Browse tab to refresh the display.
5.
Close the Package Manager window.

Provide ASN Connection Information

If you have configured the ASN software to accept inbound service connections, the Software Updater will automatically use this ASN configuration information to grant access to Stratus updates. No further action is needed.

If you choose not to configure the ASN software to accept inbound server connections, but you do wish to receive Stratus updates by Internet, then you must still generate an ASN configuration file for your site (a Configssn.ini file); data in this file is used to authenticate your right to access Stratus updates.

See the Stratus Active Service Network Configuration Guide (R072) for information on creating that file and downloading it to your site:

http://stratadoc.stratus.com/linux/6.0.3/r072-02/index.html

In the ActiveService Network Configuration Overview chapter, follow instructions in the section titled: Using the ASM Manager Web Site to Configure ASN Support.

Use data from the Configssn.ini file, as follows:

1.
Display two lines from the Configssn.ini file, using the command: 
grep -E 'siteID|pppPassword' Configssn.ini
2.
Use a text editor to modify the yum plugin configuration file:
 
/etc/yum/pluginconf.d/ft-updates.conf

Update the line: ft_user = ASN, by replacing "ASN" with the value in the siteID line of the preceding output.

Update the line: ft_password = ASN, by replacing ASN with the value displayed in the pppPassword of the preceding output.

Save changes to this plugin configuration file, and exit the editor. You have now enabled the Stratus repositories, and provided authentication information to permit access to the Stratus updates.

Upgraded Bug Grabber Script

Buggrabber has been upgraded with new features. A buggrabber_README file is located in /opt/ft/doc/lsb-ft-cstools* directory for more details.

The tool buggrabber.pl can be configured using a new configuration file buggrabber.conf located in /etc/opt/ft/cstools.

The following can be turned on or off.

  • verbose mode
  • VTM data collection
  • /sys data collection
  • /proc data collection
  • storage data collection (ftScalable)
  • dumps
  • minimal data collection

The following can be configured.

  • Temporary directory where data is collected before being added to tar file.
  • Name of tar file.
  • Location of tar file.
  • User and passwd information for storage if not using defaults.
  • User and passwd information for ftp storage if not using defaults.

Some of the data is now compressed and all of the data is added to a single tar file.

 
 
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