[tarballed]

Well, im really excited today. Not only do I have the go ahead to put FreeBSD on the network, but I have full range here now. I make the calls on all servers now.

Here is my first task:
The first step is, do I replace my current Samba PDC running LDAP on RH 7.3 with FreeBSD 4.9?

I would do a very similar setup, although this time, Samba may be stable 3.0 (if it can be) and LDAP would be 2.1.22.

Right now, the PDC is not in production, but they are talking about doing it late this week or next week. But, I have the option to stall that and redo the server and install FreeBSD as the OS.

I have mixed emotions about this, and wanted to hear some feedback on this.

My thoughts are, why should I put up this server in production, knowing that it is going to need to be redone in the future? It's RH, will no longer be supported after 12/31/2003 and could cause a boat load of problems.

SO, I can push back the release date and immediately begin working on the new PDC.

Anyone care to comment on this?

Second part: Hardware:
Server is:

Xeon 2.8ghz (room for 2nd CPU)
2gig RAM
3 36.6 320 Ultra scsi drives (room for total of 6)

FreeBSD should have no problems with it.

I look forward to hearing suggestions and ideas here. I respect everyones ideas and input.

Thanks everyone.

Tarballed

[tarballed]

Quick update here.

I found out that FreeBSD 4.x does not support NSSwitch, which is important when running LDAP. Without NSSwitch, you have to add each user as a normal UNIX account, instead of directly into the LDAP tree.

I did find out that 5.1 does in fact support NSSwitch as well as ACL's.

How stable is 5.1 for a production server?
Good idea?
Bad idea?
Horrible idea?

I'd like to have the NSSwitch ability for LDAP. But if it's going to cause too much of a problem, i'd prefer to go the safe route.

Tarballed

[soup4you2]

i've had no troubles w/ 5x

i'm not sure about NSSwitch never actually hard of it..

but if you can get smbldap-tools to work it comes with some migration tools, add user tools, etc...

also you can get PWDUMP from samba's ftp site which if you use it you can dump the windows SAM database into a file for easy reading in SMB

it dumps it like:

<user>:<id>:<lanman pw>:<NT pw>:<comment>:<homedir>:

then if you can get smbtools to work you can then

smbldap-migrate-accouts.pl < pwdump-file.txt

if you can get smbtools to work let me know...

[tarballed]

Well, I popped in 4.9 today getting ready for the install and ran into a problem. It did not detect the Hard drive(s) in the server.

It's an IBM server (SrvrWorks) with 3 scsi drives setup in a RAID 5.

Here is some output from dmesg on another server:

SvrWks CSB5: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:0f.1
SvrWks CSB5: chipset revision 147
SvrWks CSB5: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
SvrWks CSB5: simplex device: DMA forced
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x0700-0x0707, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
SvrWks CSB5: simplex device: DMA forced
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x0708-0x070f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA

SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
Warning: Adapter 0 Firmware Compatible Version is MR600, but should be SA510
Warning: Adapter 0 BIOS Compatible Version is MR600, but should be SA510
Warning ! ! ! ServeRAID Version Mismatch
scsi0 : IBM PCI ServeRAID 5.10.21
Vendor: IBM Model: SERVERAID Rev: 1.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: IBM Model: SERVERAID Rev: 1.00
Type: Processor ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: IBM Model: 32P0032a S320 1 Rev: 1
Type: Processor ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 142192640 512-byte hdwr sectors (72803 MB)


[/code:1:0ebef5f07b]

Like I said, IBM server running ServRAID.

I looked on the hardware list for 4.9:

[code:1:0ebef5f07b]ServerWorks CSB5 ATA66/ATA100[/code:1:0ebef5f07b]

Should work, right?

Any suggestions?

Tarballed

[tarballed]

Doing research, I found out that these IBM servers use the ips scsi host adaptor.

Haven't been able to verify if 4.9 supports this.
Anyone?

Any ideas?

On a side note, I tried to install 5.1 and I get all sorts of errors.

Tarballed

[bmw]

Well, I popped in 4.9 today [...] [code:1:3d1960dc54]
Warning: Adapter 0 Firmware Compatible Version is MR600, but should be SA510
Warning: Adapter 0 BIOS Compatible Version is MR600, but should be SA510
Warning ! ! ! ServeRAID Version Mismatch[/code:1:3d1960dc54]

Like I said, IBM server running ServRAID.

I looked on the hardware list for 4.9:

[code:1:3d1960dc54]ServerWorks CSB5 ATA66/ATA100[/code:1:3d1960dc54]

Should work, right?
I think it's telling you that the FreeBSD SCSI driver code doesn't support this card. It does support the server when using ATA drives. I bet that firmware rev of ServeRAID is not supported.

I hate to break it to you, but you likely have a SCSI card that's too new for FreeBSD. It does happen, since manufacturers tend to install the latest chipsets and stuff and FreeBSD driver writers have trouble keeping-up. Sometimes, getting non-disclosure agreements with the chipset makers is hard or impossible.

We had to send an IBM server like that back to IBM because we couldn't get a Promise RAID card to work in it (with any OS at all).

Have you got any other hardware around? Can you swap in an Adaptec SCSI card for instance?

[tarballed]

I hate to break it to you, but you likely have a SCSI card that's too new for FreeBSD. It does happen, since manufacturers tend to install the latest chipsets and stuff and FreeBSD driver writers have trouble keeping-up. Sometimes, getting non-disclosure agreements with the chipset makers is hard or impossible.

:(

I'm beginning to think this is correct.
Where can I find out when this particular piece of hardware may be supported? I dont think any of the *BSD's support this SCSI card, yet.
This really bums me out now.

Have you got any other hardware around? Can you swap in an Adaptec SCSI card for instance?

I may order a card, and swap it out. I think the reason why the went with this particular card is that is all IBM hardware and you can configure the RAID through a nice little GUI that they love and the ability for it to automatically kick in a new drive if one goes down.

I'll try though...
Any other suggestions?

Tarballed

[tarballed]

FYI, just found this out from a freebsd developer:

The ServeRAID driver (ips) only exists in 5.x, not 4.x

:(

Im going to try and play with 5.1, but the sysinstaller keeps crashing for some reason.

Tarballed

[frankcheong]

I have tried to install FreeBSD 4.9, 5.1, 5.2.1 onto a IBM x345 while FreeBSD cannot recognize any disc.

I have read several post regarding the installation issue with serveRaid and know that there are problem with the vendor ID and device ID with adaptec and so FreeBSD cannot correctly recognize the serveRaid 6i.

Post below contains instruction on how to install the FreeBSD on serveRAID 6M with internal and external Disc.
http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20031&highlight=serveRAID

http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/htdig/freebsd-scsi/2004-February/001012.html

Post below about exp for FreeBSD 2-BETA with servRAID 4MX
http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16705&highlight=serveRAID

But I have the following question
1. I don't have 6M card
2. Is the Device ID of 6M is that same as 6i and what is the Device ID of 6i if they are different ?
3. Is 2-BETA suitable for production environment ?
4. Is 2-BETA fixes also for serveRAID 6i ?
5. Anyone can help list of the detailed steps to build a bootable installaion floopy (fixit ?) so as to correctly recognize my serveRAID 6i for installation ?

Any help is much appreciated.

[Strog]

Here's a post on a 6M that uses a different vendor/device ID (adaptec vs ibm labelled). I know it's not quite the same model but it seems to be the same problem. I've also read that the ips driver is only supporting hard drives and not tape/cd-rom/etc. because it needs a bit of work on the pass-through to make that happen. Hard drive support seems stable and solid from what bits and pieces I've gathered.
http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=0+0+archive/2004/freebsd-scsi/20040229.freebsd-scsi

The 6i is a PCI controller that uses the connectors on the motherboard to connect the devices while the 6M is all-in-one. They both seem to be identical as far as chipset, etc. but I wouldn't be surprised that IBM assigned a different device ID on it. Here's a pretty good spec page http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/tips0054.html?Open#ServeRAID-6i

We image a lot of Windows machines with ghost. I built a boot disk that scans the pci bus and loads the right drivers for each vendor/device ID. Every time I run into a new device to add to the disk, I just run the pciscan program off a boot disk to get the appropriate IDs. PCIscan (http://www.nu2.nu/utils/#pciscan). Just put it on a DOS bootable floppy/CD/etc. and run pciscan.exe -v and it will give you the output you are looking for. There's also lspci command in linux and available in ports(sysutils/pciutils). You might try a LiveCD like Freesbie, Knoppix, etc. and see if they have lspci on them. Once you have the correct vendor and device ID then you can edit your ips.h in the source and plug those in (directions on the 1st link).

You can take your modified kernel and drop it on a the boot.flp install image. You will need to mount the image using mdconfig. It will need to be gzipped (kernel.gz). You might want to drop some hardware in the config when you are building to make sure it still fits(this may not be necessary). You can burn this modified image onto a CD and should be able to go from there. You could drop the modified kernel into the kern.flp image if you want to go with floppy install.

Let us know how it goes or if you get stuck somewhere. 8)

[frankcheong]

Thx very much, will try the lspci to check the device ID. In the mean time, I've found that the ips.h and ips.c have been modified on 19 March, 2004

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/ips/ips.h.diff?r1=1.6&r2=1.7
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/ips/ips_pci.c.diff?r1=1.9&r2=1.10

And I have also downloaded all source with tag CVS-CURRENT and checked the ips.c and ips.h have been modified.

My question is how can I build a bootable CD or floppy with installation program so that I can take out to install on the x345 serveRAID 6i ?

[Strog]

You can build a release with the source. (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/releng/release-build.html)

There's also current snapshot isos available if you want to go that route. It's at 3-24 when I just looked. Does cvsweb show the changes after that or is that going to cover it?
(ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/i386/ISO-IMAGES)

[frankcheong]

O thx.
I have checked the cvs and found that the ips.c and ips.h have been modified on 19 March, 2004 and thus I think the image must include them (hope so).

Anyway I am downloading the image from the web will inform you guys when done.

One question is it a mini insst ? as the size of a normal iso should be over 600MB. Anyone ?

[Newt]

I see that the snapshot still uses the rev 1.7 drivers ips. We need the 1.8.
I want to build a custom floppy or cd to boot a modified kernel.

Conform:You can take your modified kernel and drop it on a the boot.flp install image. You will need to mount the image using mdconfig. It will need to be gzipped (kernel.gz). You might want to drop some hardware in the config when you are building to make sure it still fits(this may not be necessary). You can burn this modified image onto a CD and should be able to go from there. You could drop the modified kernel into the kern.flp image if you want to go with floppy install.

Cn you please explain me step by step the way to do it.
Thanxs in advance

[Strog]

(I suspect that you know how to patch source and build a kernel but I'll post the links to be thorough and to benefit others reading this.)

1. The first things is to grab the source so you can do your patching. You can use cvsup or just extract it from the 5.2.1 CD if that's what you are using. There's 4 patches right now for 5.2.1 and you could apply them now or worry about it later if you just want to get it running now. The proper tag for 5.2.1+patches in cvsup is RELENG_5_2. (
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html )

2. You will need to get the updated ips driver patch and apply it to your source tree. (updated ips.h, ips.c, etc.)

3. Build the custom kernel http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html

You now have your custom kernel in /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC/kernel (assuming you used GENERIC otherwise substitute the name of your config). You will need to gzip it to make sure it fits on the image. Let's take the kernel.gz file and replace the one in the image.

mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ./boot.flp <-- This will return the name of the device configured. (md0 if it's the first one, etc.)

mount /dev/md0 /mnt <-- The boot.flp is UFS so you don't need a filesystem argument but you would if you were mounting an iso or something (cd9660, msdosfs, etc.)

mdconfig -d -u 0 <-- This releases the md device after you umount it. 0 is the number of the device. It could be more if you are mounting multiple images.

Take your modified kernel and throw it in your boot.flp while it's mounted. You could just burn this on a CD and load up now. Don't forget to go to the console and copy the modified kernel to the new install before you reboot or you won't be loading up your OS. You could go all the way and build a new install CD with your modified kernel without too much more work.

Copy the CD to a directory. Replace boot.flp with your modified one. Put an uncompressed kernel in /boot/kernel and replace the exisiting one.

mkisofs -d -D -N -R -T -V "FreeBSD5.2.1-Custom" -P "Distribution made by me Copyright 1934" -o /some/dir/image_name.iso -b floppies/boot.flp -c floppies/boot.catalog /path/to/copied/files

Take the iso in /some/dir/ and burn that with your favorite burning program. You should be rolling now. Anyone jump in if I missed anything. Ill reread this in a bit to make sure it still looks good to me. 8)

Let us know how it's going.

[Newt]

I was wondering if it isn't possible just to use a ips.ko file (taken from the /boot/kernel/ directory) and somehwo make a loadable module of it on floppy?

[Strog]

There is the drivers floppy that you can use when doing a floppy install. That should work for the install if you put the replace the stock module with your updated module.

I still think it would be better compiled in on the kernel you will be booting the OS after the install. You might be able to get it to boot using a module but it's going to be more complicated to setup and fix if you ever have to recover. It probably could be done if you are netbooting but I don't know if it would be worth it.

[frankcheong]

Hi Strong,

Thx for the information. While I have failed again. Here is what I do :-

1. I have tried to download the current from cvs and try to install based on the floppies from that release while it cannot even finish the boot up successfully with error message "Stopped at softdep_disk_rewrite+0x3b: testb $0x10 0x7b (%eax)" and stop at the db> prompt.

2. I have tried to download the floppies from current dated 24 March, 2004 thru the URL you posted with current image, while "No Disks Found" again.

While I have new thought and don't know if it is working or the right way of doing which needs your comments.


Can I downgrade my FreeBSD on other machine with completely different configuration to 5.2.1-RELEASE and then only update the ips.ko only ? I assume yes.

Anyone know if I can do what I wanted using the steps below ?

downgrade to 5.2.1-RELEASE (RELENG_5_2
download the cvs-repository (with what tag ? RELENG_5_2 ?)
download the latest ips.c & ips.h from cvs manually
make buildworld
make release

then create the floppies using the image inside the folder (release_root)/R/stage/floppies/*.flp

Anything left ?

[frankcheong]

By the way, I just checked out the ftp://current.freebsd.org and found that they have a new image on 8 April, 2004

I also checked the cvsweb repository for the ips.h and found that the last modified date is 27 March, 2004 and so 8 Image must have incorporated it. Whie can I know from the pciconf extract below and the partial contents inside the ips.h that the latest 5-CURRENT already support that SCSI device ?

Abstract of pciconf -lv

none1@pci8:2:0: class=0x010400 card=0x028c1014 chip=0x02509005 rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Adaptec'
class = mass storage
subclass = RAID

Abstract of the latest ips.h
#define IPS_VENDOR_ID 0x1014
#define IPS_VENDOR_ID_ADAPTEC 0x9005
#define IPS_MORPHEUS_DEVICE_ID 0x01BD
#define IPS_COPPERHEAD_DEVICE_ID 0x002E
#define IPS_MARCO_DEVICE_ID 0x0250
#define IPS_CSL 0xff
#define IPS_POCL 0x30

Any help is much appreciated !

[Newt]

As far as I know this is revison 1.8 of the ips driver so thsi should work!

[Newt]

I am trying to download the latest snapshot, it is awfully slow(':(')
Will to install next week on the IBM x345 with a ServeRAID 6M controller.
Ia have it already working through a workaround and it is a very fast card(':lol:')

[frankcheong]

I also tried to download the latest 8, Apr, 2004 ISO image at home and also got problem in booting up.

Now I am trying to download everything back to 5.2.1-RELEASE and then remake the release
while I don't know how to download the cvs (/home/ncvs) back to 5.2.1-RELEASE.

Any one got idea ?