Updating SLES10 to SLES11 with HP cciss to hpsa driver change

This document (7012465) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

Upgrading from SLES10 to SLES11 fails to find the system partition on HP servers with some models of HP Smart Array controllers.

Resolution

In order to resolve this situation, prior to beginning the upgrade to SLES11, manually change the cciss devices to the new naming convention of the hpsa driver. The name changes required are specific to each environment, but the changes are normally similar to the following:

   /dev/cciss/c0d0      --> /dev/sda
   /dev/cciss/c0d0p1 --> /dev/sda1
   /dev/cciss/c0d1      --> /dev/sdb
   /dev/cciss/c0d1p1 --> /dev/sdb1
   ...
   /dev/disk/by-id/cciss-3600508...0021             --> /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600508...0021
   /dev/disk/by-id/cciss-3600508...0021-part1 --> /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600508...0021-part1
   /dev/disk/by-id/cciss-3600508...7022             --> /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600508...7022
   /dev/disk/by-id/cciss-3600508...7022-part1 --> /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600508...7022-part1

In order for the upgrade to succeed, all references to cciss devices in /etc/fstab should be modified to the new syntax.

Cause

In SLES10, the driver used for HP Smart Array controllers is the cciss driver. In SLES11, some HP Smart Array controllers (such as the P222 and P420) require the newer hpsa driver. Changing to the hpsa driver changes the naming convention used for disks, and will cause existing entries in /etc/fstab to be invalid. As system partitions can no longer be located, the upgrade will fail.

Additional Information

For a complete list of HP Smart Array controllers which require the new hpsa driver, please see
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02677069.pdf

Disclaimer

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