DASD partitions not recognized on SLES 15 SP3 KVM guest

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3

Situation

The situation applies to DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) on s390x.

After attaching a DASD device to a KVM guest as virtio block device and partitioning on the guest (with `fdasd -a`), the guest does not recognize the DASD's partition.

Partitioning before attaching does not change that behavior, although it is possible to use `partprobe -s` on the guest to occasionally make the partition appear and disappear.

Resolution

A KVM quest on DASD should not be installed directly from the SLES 15 SP3 ISO.

The required fixes were released as Maintenance Update right after release of SLES15SP3 and are included in the first SLES 15 SP3 Quarterly Update (QU1) iso image which can then be used for direct installation again.

When not using QU1 or later, a custom installation repository can be used as alternative, but it is necessary to replace the kernel with at least kernel-default-5.3.18-59.5.2 from the Updates repository.

For instructions how to create a custom installation medium refer to the SLES documentation:
https://documentation.suse.com/sbp/all/single-html/SBP-SLE15-Custom-Installation-Medium/

Also see the "Deployment Guide", Part IV - Setting up an installation server:
https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP3/html/SLES-all/part-installserver.html

Disclaimer

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