Installation of Linux on PRIMERGY RX2510 M1


Contents

Linux drivers for PRIMERGY servers

An overview of all avaliable Linux documentation you can find here:
http://partners.ts.fujitsu.com/com/products/servers/primergy/opsys/linux
and here:
http://ts.fujitsu.com/products/standard_servers/os

An overview of all avaliable Linux readmes you can find here: http://www.fujitsu.com/fts/primergy-linux-docs.
For a more detailed description on the specifics of Linux drivers, the tool primesetup and errata kernels please have a look at the elaborate "PRIMERGY Linux Drivers Readme" document. You can find this information offline in the /Unix/Linux/Doc folder on the FUJITSU ServerView SuiteTM DVD-ROM. Here you can find the newest published version of this document: http://www.fujitsu.com/fts/primergy-linux-docs.
For a more detailed description on the specifics PRIMERGY server you find an overview here:
http://manuals.ts.fujitsu.com
and here:
http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/manuals

General hints

The ACPI states S1 and S4 are currently not supported under every Linux OS.

BIOS Configuration/Setup Utility

General BIOS setup [F2]


Released Distributions

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 x86 & x86_64 (Update 7 and newer)

Please read first the "Release Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6": https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/.

Installation with FUJITSU drivers

Install update kernel

NOTE
Red Hat and FUJITSU recommend updating the installed kernel with the latest errata kernel (patch kernel). Newer errata kernels will be released on a regular basis and should be applied.

Errata kernels for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 are available for registered users through the Red Hat Network located at https://access.redhat.com/.

Install the update kernel following your Linux distributor's instructions.

Hints and restrictions

NOTE memory poisoning
RHEL6 supports memory poisoning (HWPOISON, aka uncorrectable recoverable memory errors), but only with the kernel parameter "transparent_hugepage=never".

NOTE FUJITSU ServerView software
The tools BIOS ASP's, ServerView Agents and ServerViewRAID have dependencies to the 32bit versions of the packages openssl, compat-libstdc++-33 and pam.
It is not possible to choose any 32bit packages during the system installation of the 64bit version of RHEL 6.
So you have to install the packages openssl.i686, compat-libstdc++-33.i686 and pam.i686 after the system installation.

NOTE Network configuration
With the NetworkManager which is default enabled in RHEL 6 it is not possible to configure a network configuration like channel bonding or bridges. And there is no other tool to do this.
So you have to disable the Networkmanager and to configure by hand-editing the ifcfg* files.
This is a limitation for RHEL 6.
But:
If adding a new LAN Card to an already existing OS installation it's easier to make the detection via NetworkManager because it automatically detects the new HW and script files are made.

NOTE Video configuration
There is only very limited support for switching color depth and resolution under RHEL6.
The following Red Hat knowledge base articles describe the procedure to change color depth if necessary:
How to create xorg.conf:
https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/node/5263
How to change the display depth of desktop:
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-43178
How do I add desired display mode in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6:
https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/solutions/86603

Using this method has disadvantages, because the resulting static Xorg configuration will prevent plug-and-play operation of the X server (e.g. adding monitors on the fly).
Because Kronos 4 offers 1600x1200 pixel only at 16bpp, and X operates at 24/32 bpp by default, 1600x1200 can only be achieved by following the above procedure to change the color depth. Because this is cumbersome for users, so it is recommended to restrict Kronos 4 support to max. 1280x1024 for RHEL6.

NOTE KDUMP configuration
Using the system-config-kdump tool is not recommended for configuring kdump, because the GUI is irritating and sometimes makes wrong settings. Hand-editing /etc/kdump.conf is easier and less error-prone.
This is a limitation for RHEL 6.

When a "raw" partition is entered in /etc/kdump.conf, kdump does write a dump to the partition but the dump is not automatically recovered at the next reboot.
When raw partitions are used for dumping, the dump must be recovered manually after reboot using "makedumpfile -R" (e.g. makedumpfile -R vmcore < /dev/sdb).

Enabling the power capping functionality
To make the power meter device fully functional on PRIMERGY under RHEL 6, use the kernel parameter "acpi_power_meter.force_cap_on=1".
If the sysfs files power_cap, power_cap_min, etc. are visible in sysfs, power capping is available.

When trying to boot from RHEL 6.4 Installation DVD, a dark screen is displayed
The problem only exists if a NVidia NVS300 is installed in PRIMERGY systems and if BIOS setting "Above 4G Decoding=enabled".

The BIOS Post is displayed correctly, but instead of getting the initial graphical Installation Boot Menu of RHEL 6.4, a dark screen is displayed.

Workaround:
1. Presss ESC when dark screen is displayed, the boot prompt is displayed then.
2. Enter "linux", then installation of RHEL6.4 starts and graphic display will be available again!

The BIOS setting "Above 4G Decoding=enabled" currently is only necessary for systems with GPGPU/Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor cards installed.
NVidia NVS300 together with GPGPU/Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor cards is not a preferred configuration.

NOTE Power Control Mode
The PRIMERGY RX2510 M1 doesn't boot RHEL 6 if the Power Control Mode is set to "Minimum Power" from the iRMC WEB Interface.
The Power Control Mode can only be used with the default value "O/S controlled".

Very sporadically the system can hang during boot with a CPU IERR.
Workaround:
Disable USB 3.0 in BIOS (XHCI = Disabled)

Released host bus adapters

The following host bus adapters are released:

Please use the latest driver offered by FUJITSU, which you can find on the Support web page under http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download or on the FUJITSU ServerView Suite DVD. If there is no driver offered on the Support web page please use the native driver.

For configuration and administration of the Emulex FC HBA's please use the tool OneCommandManager (OCM) and for configuration and administration of the QLogic FC HBA's please use the tool SANsurfer, which you can find on the Support web page under http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download or on the FUJITSU ServerView Suite DVD.


Onboard LSI SAS/SATA SW RAID (driver megasr)

For the installation of the onboard LSI SAS/SATA SW RAID (MegaSR) controller the driver megasr is needed.

With a SAS key installed, this controller supports SATA as well as SAS disks. Without this key, only SATA disks are supported

NOTE
Please use the latest driver offered by FUJITSU, which you can find on the Support web page under http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download or on the FUJITSU ServerstartCD.

NOTE RHEL 6.3 problem with the driver megasr
The "tboot" (Trusted Boot) package under RHEL 6.3 sets the kernel parameter "intel_iommu=on" by default. This may cause problems with the megasr driver which doesn't fully support the IOMMU (this has been reported to LSI).

Workarounds:
a) deselect the "tboot" package during installation
b) add the additional boot parameter "iommu=pt" on the GRUB kernel command line at the first reboot and later in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

NOTE Virtualization
Running virtual machines under the KVM hypervisor is unsupported with the megasr driver 16.x and later.


iSCSI-Boot

iSCSI-Boot is released for RHEL 6.1 and newer.
Please set the kernel parameter "ip=ibft netboot=iscsi iscsi_firmware" during the installation.
Disable I/OAT in system BIOS, it has no performance benefit anyway.
The NetworkManager has to be disabled.
iSCSI-Boot does not support channel bonding and/or MultiPath SW.
Kdump is not possible with iSCSI-Boot.
iSCSI-Boot is released for the Onboard-LAN controller (LOM).


Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 x86_64 (Update 1 and newer)

Please read first the "Release Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7": https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/.

Installation of RHEL 7.x
On some systems during the installation of RHEL 7.x this System Event Log (SEL) entry is created:
"Generic IPMI event: GenId '00', SensorType 'OS Boot', EventType '6F', SensorName '', EventData: 07 00 00"

This message can be ignored.

Installation with FUJITSU drivers

Install update kernel

NOTE
Red Hat and FUJITSU recommend updating the installed kernel with the latest errata kernel (patch kernel). Newer errata kernels will be released on a regular basis and should be applied.

Errata kernels for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 are available for registered users through the Red Hat Network located at https://access.redhat.com/.

Install the update kernel following your Linux distributor's instructions.

Hints and restrictions

NOTE Video configuration
The RHEL 7 video driver for iRMC S3/iRMC S4 (Kronos3/4 Matrox/MGA-G200e) works in 24bpp mode.
Therefore the highest resolutions (>1440x900) aren't available under RHEL 7 with the Video Redirection via the iRMC.

Workaround:
Use the kernel parameter "mgag200e.preferreddepth=16"

Very sporadically the system can hang during boot with a CPU IERR.
Workaround:
Disable USB 3.0 in BIOS (XHCI = Disabled)

An unexpected system reboot or system freeze can occur or a lot of rcu messages are reported.            !!! ATTENTION !!!
Under heavy system load frequent messages "INFO: rcu_sched detected stalls on CPUs/tasks" can occur.
Also spontaneous resets of a server or system hangs during heavy system load can occur.

Workaround:
Please use the kernel parameter

rcuupdate.rcu_stall_suppress=1

Released host bus adapters

The following host bus adapters are released:

Please use the latest driver offered by FUJITSU, which you can find on the Support web page under http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download or on the FUJITSU ServerView Suite DVD. If there is no driver offered on the Support web page please use the native driver.

For configuration and administration of the Emulex FC HBA's please use the tool OneCommandManager (OCM) and for configuration and administration of the QLogic FC HBA's please use the tool SANsurfer, which you can find on the Support web page under http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download or on the FUJITSU ServerView Suite DVD.


Onboard LSI SAS/SATA SW RAID (driver megasr)

For the installation of the onboard LSI SAS/SATA SW RAID (MegaSR) controller the driver megasr is needed.

With a SAS key installed, this controller supports SATA as well as SAS disks. Without this key, only SATA disks are supported

For the installation of RHEL 7 with the driver megasr the kernel parameter modprobe.blacklist=ahci is required.

NOTE Virtualization
Running virtual machines under the KVM hypervisor is unsupported with the megasr driver 16.x and later.

NOTE
Please use the latest driver offered by FUJITSU, which you can find on the Support web page under http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/download or on the FUJITSU ServerstartCD.

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All hardware and software names are trademarks of their respective manufactures.
Linux_Readme_RX2510M1_v1_2.html

Last update: June 20, 2016