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Re: Debian 6.0.0 squeeze unable to detect RAID Controller and NIC Card on Dell R720 2U Rack Server




Am 13.10.2012 um 13:15 schrieb Stan Hoeppner:

On 10/13/2012 5:06 AM, Kaushal Shriyan wrote:

I am installing Debian 6.0.0 squeeze with kernel version
2.6.32-5-amd64 on Dell R720 2U server(
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/dell-poweredge-r720-spec-sheet.pdf),
the installer is unable to detect the RAID Controller and NIC Card.
Details of lspci -> http://paste.debian.net/199820/ Any clue to this
issue?
Please let me know if anyone needs any further information.

A quality sysadmin would have checked and ironed out OS compatibility
issues before ever ordering the hardware.  Keep that for future
reference.  You'll need to do that legwork now:

Check Dell's website for Debian Stable and Testing support.  

That's not 100% reliable.

Also check
the minimum Linux kernel version required to support the H series RAID
cards and Broadcom 5720/5800 series embedded NICs.  I don't keep up with
Dell, but this appears to be relatively new hardware: PCIe 3.0, embedded
10GbE NICs, hot swap PCIe SSD, etc.  2.6.32 was released Dec 2009,
almost 3 years ago.  I'm guessing the latest 2.6.32-5 Squeeze kernel
doesn't include the necessary drivers and/or firmware blobs for these
devices.

Right. 

I run R510s with PERC H700 and as a minimum an instaalation with non-free firmware is needed. I used this image:

I know that R510 does not compare to R720. But even on R510 I have problems with outdated drivers.

- the current OMSA 7 makes problems wit the old 2.6.32 kernel
- megaraid_sas (the kernel driver for the PERC) should be upgraded to a newer version
- inserting a second PCIe Intel GB NIC with dual head causes heavy packet loss on the first Intel NIC, this is AFAIK a PCIe kernel problem solved in newer versions


In the future, do your homework *before* you buy, saving yourself from
these headaches.

Subscribing linux-poweredge@dell.com is a must.


Helmut Wollmersdorfer


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