10
Chapter 5. Installation-Related Notes
This section includes installation-related information for this Service Pack.
• Installation using Persistent Device names
If you plan to add additional storage devices to your system after the OS installation, we strongly
recommend to use persistent device names for all storage devices during installation. The installer by
default uses the kernel device names.
How to proceed:
During installation, enter the partitioner. For each partition, select "Edit" and go to the "FStab Options"
dialog. Any mount option except "Device name" provide you persistent devicenames.
To switch an already installed system to using persistent device names, proceed as described above for
all existing partitions. In addition, rerun the boot loader module in YaST to switch the bootloader to
using the persistent device name also. Just start the module and select "Finish" to write the new proposed
configuration to disk. This needs to be done before adding new storage devices.
For further information please look at http://en.opensuse.org/Persistant_Storage_Device_Names.
• MD Devices on top of iSCSI not possible
iSCSI devices cannot be used for Linux Software RAID. Using MD devices on top of iSCSI triggers
a cyclic dependency that leads to a crash.
• Using qla3xxx and qla4xxx driver at the same time
QLogic iSCSI Expansion Card for IBM BladeCenter provides both Ethernet and iSCSI functions. Some
parts on the card are shared by both functions. The current qla3xxx (ethernet) and qla4xxx (iSCSI)
drivers support Ethernet and iSCSI function individually. They do not support using both functions at
the same time. Using both Ethernet and iSCSI functions at the same time may hang the device and cause
data lost and filesystem corruptions on iSCSI devices or network disruptions on Ethernet.
• Using iSCSI Disks When Installing
To use iSCSI disks during installation it is necessary to add the following parameter to the kernel
parameter line:
withiscsi=1
During installation, an additional screen appears that provides the possibility to attach iSCSI disks to
the system and use them in the installation process.
Since SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 booting from an iSCSI server on i386, x86_64 and ppc is
supported, when an iSCSI enabled firmware is used.
On ppc, a single bootfile (zImage.initrd) instead of yaboot is used.
• Using EDD Information for Storage Device Identification
If you want to use EDD information (
/sys/firmware/edd/<device>
) to identify your storage
devices, change the installer default settings using an additional kernel parameter.
Requirements:
• BIOS provides full EDD information (found in
/sys/firmware/edd/<device>
)
