How to install Wheezy OS in PowerEdge R630 having Perc H330 Controller.

How to install Wheezy OS in PowerEdge R630 having Perc H330 Controller.

Disclaimer:-DebianWheezyOSisnotofficiallysupportedonDellPowerEdge13^thGenerationServer.

This wiki iswrittenbyTamilarasanJfromDellCustomsSolutionsEngineeringandthis talks about installing a custom Perc Driver to install the wheezy OS in PowerEdge R630.

Debian Wheezy is not supported in Dell 13G servers as there is no driver available in the OS for the Perc H330. Customers running the applications in the Wheezy OS when they upgrade the server hardware from 12G to 13G i.e., PowerdEdge R630, the Perc driver throws an error while examining the storage devices as there is no driver with the Wheezy OS. The mega raid should be an updated one to have the storage devices discovered.

The Jessie OS which is recent than the Wheezy has the updated megaraid version compared to the Wheezy. There is NO Dell Official supportfor this process and should be at your own risk.

Please contact your Sales/Account Team for the custom PERC drivers. Perform the below operations when you have OS mounted in the server via iDrac Virtual Media or via CD/DVD Drive

For Dell Sales/Accounts Teams only: Please Open a Support Request in salesforce.com to engage CSE team. The process for entering the request is mentioned here:

1. Go to salesforce.com
2. Go to the opportunity tab
3. Open or create a new opportunity
4. Click on Alert that says engage PG Custom solutions engineering
5. This will  open a support request (SR) with usss
6. Please note that This SR is in Incomplete status until you enter all the required fields.

Before we start, below is the versions of the megaraid SAS driver on both the OSes.

Wheezy : 00.00.06.12-rc1

Jessie : 06.803.01.00-rc1ss

As there is no official document to have the Wheezy OS installed in the R630, below are the difficulties which the customers are facing installing the same.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=131894

Below are the version of the iDrac Firmware and BIOSss.

BIOS : 2.3.4

Firmware Version : 2.21.21.21

Lifecycle Controller Firmware : 2.21.21.21s

When you try installing the OS, we find the similar screen after the language selection as there is no driver available for the Perc H330.

Installing the MegaRAID Driver on Storage Managed by a MegaRAID Controller during installation.

1. Copy the drivers (megaraid-xx.tgz) to a USB flash and have it plugged in the server.

2. Boot from the Debian installation CD1 and select Install.

3. Press Ctrl + Alt + F2 to switch to console2 when the language screen appears.

NOTE: The system should detect the USB flash as scsi device /dev/sda1. To check for SCSI devices, type the following command and press Enter: dmesg | grep sd

4. Type the following commands and then press Enter.

      # mkdir /mnt2 /lsi

     # mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt2

     # cp /mnt2/megaraid-6.18-deb6-3.2.0.tgz /lsi

     # cd /lsi ; tar zxvf megaraid*

     # umount /mnt2

     # insmod wheezy/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/weak-updates/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko

NOTE Make sure that you remove the USB flash drive before you execute the insmod command.

5. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to return to the installer, and continue the normal installation procedure. Do not reboot after the installation is complete.

6. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to switch to console 2 again.

7. Type the following commands and then press Enter:

 # cp wheezy/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/weak-updates/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko o /target/lib/modules/2.6.32-5- amd64/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid

# chroot /target # /sbin/depmod -a 3.2.0-4-amd64

# update-initramfs -u -v -k 2.6.32-5-amd64

# exit

8. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to return to the installer screen.

9. Reboot to complete the installation

Disclaimer:-Debian WheezyOSisnotofficiallysupported onDellPowerEdge13^th GenerationServer.