Level: Introductory Da Shuang He (hedas@cn.ibm.com), Software Engineer, IBM
06 May 2008 The IBM® BladeCenter® S chassis is the first IBM
BladeCenter to integrate server and storage. In this article, learn how to install
SUSE Linux® 10 on the blade's attached disk and then how to boot the blade
server from the attached disk.
The IBM BladeCenter S is the newest BladeCenter designed for small and medium
businesses. It is also the first BladeCenter to integrate the server and
storage systems. This article shows you how to install SUSE
Linux 10 on the BladeCenter S attached disks and then boot the blade from
the operating system so the blade can work without a local disk. This makes it easier
for users to implement high-availability systems and to migrate an
application from one server to another just by remapping the disk from one blade
to another blade.
Step 1. Check the storage and
blade status
In this step, you check whether the storage status is okay and if the
blade can use the attached disks.
Check the storage status
Log in to the IBM BladeCenter Advanced Management Module and click the system status. Scroll down
to the I/O Modules section and:
- Check whether the SAS Connectivity Module's status is OK.
- Check whether the status of Storage Module 1 is OK.
- Check whether the status of disk 1 on Storage Module 1 is OK.
Map the first disk on Storage Module 1 to the blade 1, and determine that
their statuses are OK (as shown in Figure 1).
Figure 1. Storage status
Can the blade use the attached disks?
Click the I/O compatibility link shown in Figure 1 and then check whether the
Compatibility Status of blade 1 is OK. Figure 2 shows the status is OK; it
means that the first blade can use the storage in the BladeCenter S.
Figure 2. Blade I/O compatibility
Let's install the OS on the attached disks from the first blade and boot the first
blade from it, so you only need to check the compatibility status of the first
blade.
For a blade to use the BladeCenter S attached disks, you should install an
SAS daughter card; the SAS daughter will make sure the blade has another disk
controller that attaches the BladeCenter S attached disks to the blade.
Now let's map the disk to the blade.
Step 2. Map the disk to the
blade
First map the first disk on Storage Module 1 to the first blade.
Log in to the SAS Connectivity Module Web
interface
Click the node Zoning under the node Configuration; we choose
the user-defined zoning configuration so we can edit the configuration. In this
case, we'll use the configuration User Defined Config 03.
In Figure 3, notice the zone group ID of the first blade is 34, and
zone group ID of disk 1 on the first storage module is 61:
Figure 3. Use the user-defined
configuration
Map disk 1 on the DSS 1 to blade 1
To map disk 1 on the DSS 1 to blade 1:
- Click the tab Basic Zone Permission Table.
- Choose the zone group ID 34, which is the group ID of the first blade; all the
mapped information of this blade is shown in that table.
- Select zone group ID 61, which is the group ID of disk 1 on the Storage Module
1 in the permission table.
- Click the button Add to Permission Table to add the disk 1 to the
permission table of blade 1.
Now you've mapped the first disk on Storage Module 1 to the first blade, and
the zoning configuration has been updated (as shown in Figure 4):
Figure 4. Mapping the disk to the
blade
Activate the new configuration
After updating the zone configuration, you need to activate the new
configuration by clicking the button Activate this Configuration.
Next you see the
message "Zone configuration has been successfully activated" as shown in Figure 5:
Figure 5. Activating the zone
configuration
Now you have successfully mapped the first disk on Storage Module 1 to the
first blade. Now let's configure the blade as bootable.
Step 3. Configure the mapped disk as
boot media
In this step, you configure the LSI controller to make sure the blade can
boot from the attached disk.
Enter LSI controller configuration
interface
Power on the blade. During the blade boot process, you see the
screen in Figure 6:
Figure 6. Blade boot screen
Press keys Ctrl+C to enter the LSI Controller Configuration
screen.
Configure attached disk as bootable
Select the controller of the SAS daughter "SAS1064" as shown in Figure 7 and
then press Enter to see the controller configuration screen.
Figure 7. LSI controller
configuration screen
Change the boot support option
In the LSI controller configuration screen, choose Boot Support, and then
click Enter to change the value to "Enabled BIOS & OS" as
shown in Figure 8:
Figure 8. Single LSI controller
configuration screen
This option will enable the blade to boot from the BladeCenter S attached disk.
Step 4. Start the OS install
Now let's install the operating system in five relatively easy steps:
- Put the OS image CD into the CD-ROM drive.
- Change the blade boot sequence to make sure the first boot media is the CD-ROM
drive.
- Boot the blade from the CD to start the installation of the OS.
- After the blade is booted, choose the installation. The installation process
will start the OS installation on the attached disk. Use all the default
settings and just wait for the installation process to finish.
- After successfully installing the OS, change the blade boot sequence to make
the first boot media the hard disk and reboot the blade again. The blade will
boot into the OS installed on the attached disk.
Step 5. Resolve any installation
errors
Errors can happen even in the best installs. The most common error yields this message:
The partitioning on disk /dev/sda is not readable by the partitioning tool
parted, which is used to change the partition table.
To solve this error:
- After the blade is booted, return to the LSI configuration screen as shown in
Figure 8.
- Choose the option SAS Topology and then press Enter. The
topology is shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9. Storage module selection
screen
- In the screen in Figure 9, choose the DSS1 and then press Enter to see
the disk attached (Figure 10).
Figure 10. Storage disk selection
screen
- After you choose the disk as shown in Figure 10, press keys
Alt+D to see the disk operation menu panel as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11. Storage disk operation
menu
- Choose the Format option as shown in Figure 11. Then you see the disk format
screen as in Figure 12.
Figure 12. Storage disk format
screen
- Press F to start the formatting of the disk; the formatting process is shown
in Figure 13.
Figure 13. Storage disk
formatting screen
- After the disk is formatted, return to the previous screen as shown in
Figure 11. This time, choose Verify to verify the disk and make
sure there is no error on the disk; the disk verification screen is shown
in Figure 14.
Figure 14. Storage disk
verification screen
After the disk has been formatted and verified, you can start the OS
installation again, and this error will disappear.
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About the author  | | | Da Shuang He is a software engineer at the IBM China Development Lab in
Shanghai, China. He is currently working on system management software; he focuses
on creating self-bootable servers, remote operation system installation, and power
management. |
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