Solaris

Hi Guys,
Anyone done Solaris 10 installation on a x2100 / or any x86 system? How can I configure H/W RAID? Must I do it before installation of the OS? Can I use a raidctl command or should I use the BIOS.

If Im using the BIOS to configure the H/W raid, can I power off the system , then on again to start the OS installation by booting off the dvd? (My question is, will the H/W raid synchronisation get disrupted when I shutdown the system straight after I configure the system?)

If I want o attach an IBM tape drive to a x2100, any special drivers needed?
I need to do an upgrade on the disks and memory on this x2100. followed by os install, patching, and raid etc.

@incredible

I have done HW raid on x86 machine, its blade 6000 series. While the OS boots, i guess after bios in the black screen, you can see type ctrl+A to enter raid set-up. Hit that key combo and you enter a raid utility. Configuring is pretty simple from there. Make sure you have backed up all data, coz everything will be lost. As it was a new blade I had nothing to backup, please remember to back-up data. I did raid 1.

Once you are done with raid you can start the installation from the DVD, latest release is solaris 10 05/08, you probably know it.., I downloaded the ISO and saved it to another solaris machine in same network and from the ilom of the new blade I mounted this iso image and started installation. It took about 20 minutes or so for the installation to complete.

I guess you would need drivers for the tape drive, not sure of that...

Hope this helps...

Thanks rcmrulzz !... My installation is tomorrow. User will backup data. I will remove off the 2 146G disks and replace them with 500G. Then I will you a DVD to install the OS. Btw H/W and raid 1 different right? I remember if Im not wrong, its ctrl+C or Ctrl+L.. something like that.. but you told its Ctrl +A? Will it actually prompt you for Ctrl+A?

@incredible

Yea...it will prompt for it, saying hit ctrl+A to enter raid set up. be ready coz it will stay only for few seconds. If you miss it you will have to reboot machine.

After you enter the utility after hitting ctrl+A, you can choose from raid 0 to raid 5. From that I chose raid 1. As you have said two 500 GB HDD, I think you will have to go for raid 1. For raid 5 you will need atleast 3 HDD etc etc. Just make sure which raid you want to go ahead with. Raid 0 is default and it does not give you any redundancy. Raid 1 does mirroring, if one HDD fails all you have to do is insert a new one and it will build the mirror raid by itself.

Enjoy...

Brother, I came across this doc from SUN which said like this:
To configure RAID for the Solaris Operating System if you have the LSI Logic SAS3041E-R card installed, follow the procedure below:

1. Install the optional LSI Logic SAS3041E-R card (Sun part number
SG-PCIE4SAS-Z).

See the Sun Fire X2100 M2 Server Service Manual for instructions on installing and cabling the card.

2. Power on the server.

3. During the boot process, press Ctrl-C to enter the LSI utility when the LSI SAS card is recognized.

4. Create your RAID.

See the LSI Integrated RAID User's Guide at

www.lsilogic.com - /files/docs/techdocs/storage_stand_prod/ PCISCSICont/Software/ir_ug.pdf

5. Save your work and exit the utility.

6. Install the Solaris Operating System.

See Operating System Installation Methods.

7. Download the LSI utilities for managing RAID from the following site:

LSISAS3041E-R : Basic Connectivity Line : SAS/SATA HBAs : Host Bus Adapters : Products : Storage : LSI

@incredible
Maybe it differs from the company whose raid utility we use, our sun blade's raid has "adaptec" raid utility, which says ctrl+A...Anyway thanks for that useful document
The basic working and configuration from the utility should be the same...

Do let us know how everything goes...BOL

The existing system already uses H/W raid. When I inserted the new disks, I booted from dvd to single user. I used the raidctl command instead to perform the RAID (in the BIOS, after doing Ctrl+C, there was no raid status shown as stated in a SUN manual). I verified using raidctl -l c1t0d0 and it created the RAID 1 successfully and showed the both disks status as GOOD. So I just proceeded to do OS installation.

What we need to do now is, after OS installation etc,etc is completed, we need to swap these 2 disks onto ANOTHER x2100 server (which is using H/W raid now itself too). Will the H/W raid still be intact if I move the disks from systemA to systemB.? Both system are x2100 servers.