The Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 5 family requires software drivers to operate with the Microsoft® Windows®, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®, and SUSE® Linux operating systems.
This chapter contains the procedures for installing the drivers for the following operating systems.
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server family
Windows Server® 2003 (includes Standard, Enterprise, and Small Business Servers)
Windows Server 2003 DataCenter
Windows XP
Windows Vista™
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, and 5
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
NOTE: See the Dell Support website at support.dell.com to check operating system compatibility.
The two methods for installing a driver that are discussed in this chapter are:
During operating system installation. Use this method if you are performing a new installation of the operating system and want to include the drivers.
Updating existing drivers. Use this method if the operating system and PERC 5 controller are already installed and you want to update to the latest drivers.
Creating a Driver Diskette
Perform the following steps to create a driver diskette.
Browse to the download section for the system from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Locate and download the latest PERC 5 controller driver to the system. The driver should be
labeled as packaged for a diskette on the Dell Support website.
Follow the instructions on the Dell Support website for extracting the driver to the diskette.
Installing the Driver During a Microsoft Operating System
Installation
Perform the following steps to install the driver during operating system installation.
Boot the system using the Microsoft Windows 2000/Windows XP/Microsoft Windows Server 2003 CD.
When the message Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver appears, press
the <F6> key immediately.
Within a few minutes, a screen appears that asks for additional controllers in the system.
Press the <S> key.
The system prompts for the driver diskette to be inserted.
Insert the driver diskette in the diskette drive and press <Enter>.
A list of PERC controllers appears.
Select the right driver for the installed controller and press <Enter> to load the driver.
NOTE: For Windows Server 2003, a message may appear that states that the driver that you provided is older or newer than the existing Windows driver. Press <S> to use the driver that is on the floppy diskette.
Press <Enter> again to continue the installation process as usual.
Installing a Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2000,
or XP Driver for a New RAID Controller
Perform the following steps to configure the driver for the RAID controller on a system that already has Windows installed.
NOTE: Windows Vista™ has PERC 5 driver native on the Windows Vista installation CD. For the latest supported drivers, go to the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
The Windows operating system detects the new controller and displays a message to inform the user.
The Found New Hardware Wizard screen pops up and displays the detected hardware device.
Click Next.
On the Locate device driver screen, select Search for a suitable driver for my device and click Next.
Insert the appropriate driver diskette and select Floppy disk drives on the Locate Driver Files screen.
Click Next.
The wizard detects and installs the appropriate device drivers for the new RAID controller.
Click Finish to complete the installation.
Reboot the server.
Updating an Existing Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003,
Windows XP, or Windows Vista Driver
Perform the following steps to update the Microsoft Windows driver for the PERC 5 controller already installed on your system.
NOTE: It is important that you close all applications on your system before you update the driver.
Select Start®Settings®Control Panel®System.
The System Properties screen appears.
NOTE: For systems running a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system, click Start®Control Panel® System.
Click on the Hardware tab.
Click Device Manager.
The Device Manager screen appears.
Double-click on SCSI and RAID Controllers.
NOTE: In Windows Vista, PERC is listed under Storage Controllers.
Double-click the RAID controller for which you want to update the driver.
Click the Driver tab and click Update Driver.
The Upgrade Device DriverWizard screen appears.
Insert the appropriate driver diskette.
Select Install from a list or specific location.
Click Next.
Follow the steps in the Wizard to search the diskette for the driver.
Select the INF file from the diskette.
NOTE: For systems running a Windows Server 2003 operating system, select the name of the driver, not the INF file.
Click Next and continue the installation steps in the Wizard.
Click Finish to exit the wizard and reboot the system for the changes to take place.
Installing Windows Vista for a New RAID Controller
Perform the following steps to configure the driver when you add the RAID controller to a system that already has Windows Vista installed.
Insert the Windows Vista DVD and reboot the system.
Select location information, such as your country and language.
Enter the Windows key.
Select the drive you want to install Windows on by highlighting your choice.
Select Load Driver if needed.
NOTE: You do not need this for PERC or SAS installation as the driver is native on Windows Vista.
The driver can be provided by CD, diskette, DVD, or USB flash driver.
Browse to the proper location and select the driver.
Select Next if selected unallocated space is the target location.
Select Advance to create a partition for the operating system.
If a partition is manually created, it should at least be 10 GB.
NOTE: See the Windows Vista user documentation to determine the partition size.
Select Next.
The operating system installation starts on the highlighted choice (partition or unallocated volume) and the system will reboot several times.
Do not press any keys to start from the CD/DVD.
Enter user and password information.
Enter the computer name.
Select the automatic Windows protection level.
Set the time, date, and time zone.
Click Start.
Windows checks your system and prompts you for the login password after a few minutes.
Installing the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Driver
Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (versions 3 and 4) and ES (versions 3 and 4). The driver is updated frequently. To ensure that you have the current version of the driver, download the updated Red Hat Enterprise Linux driver from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Creating a Driver Diskette
Before beginning the installation, copy the drivers from the Service and Diagnostic Utilities CD or download the driver appropriate for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (versions 3 and 4) from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com to your temporary directory. This file includes two Red Hat Package Managers (RPMs) and driver update disk files. The package also contains the Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) file.
The package is a gzipped tar file. After downloading the package to a Linux system, perform the following steps.
Execute gunzip on the package.
Execute tar xvf on the package.
Note that the package contains DKMS RPM, the driver RPM (dkms enabled) and the Driver Update Diskette (DUD) image(s).
Use the dd command to create a driver update disk. Use the appropriate image for the purpose.
dd if=<name of the dd image file> of=/dev/fd0
Use the diskette for operating system installation as described later in this section.
File and Directories Needed to Create the Driver Update Diskette (DUD)
The following files are needed before you create the DUD.
NOTE: The megaraid_sas driver package installs these files. You do not need to do anything at this point.
There is a directory /usr/src/megaraid_sas-<driver_version>, which contains the driver
source code, dkms.conf, and specifications file for the driver.
In this directory, there is a subdirectory called redhat_driver_disk which contains the files needed to
create the DUD. The files needed are disk_info, modinfo, modules.dep, and pcitable.
To create the DUD image for pre-Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, the kernel source package must be
installed to compile the driver. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 distribution, the kernel source is
not needed.
Creating a Driver Update Diskette
Perform the following steps to create the DUD using the DKMS tool:
Install the DKMS-enabled megaraid_sas driver rpm package on a system running a Red Hat Enterprise
Linux operating system.
Complete the installation as directed by the installation program.
The driver will be installed.
Installing the Driver Using an Update RPM
The following steps explain the installation procedure for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AS (versions 3 and 4) operating systems and the appropriate RAID driver using an update RPM.
Installing the RPM Package With DKMS Support
Perform the following steps to install the RPM package with DKMS support:
Uncompress the zipped file of the DKMS-enabled driver package.
Install the DKMS package using the command rpm -Uvh <DKMS package name>.
Install the driver package using the command rpm -Uvh <Driver package name>.
Reboot the system to load the new driver.
Upgrading the Kernel
If you run the up2date utility to upgrade the kernel, you must reinstall the DKMS-enabled driver packages. Perform the following steps to update the kernel:
Installing the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (Version 9 or 10) Driver
Use the procedures in this section to install the driver for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (version 9 or version 10). The driver is updated frequently. To ensure you have the current version of the driver, download the updated SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (version 9 or 10) driver from the Dell Support website at support.dell.com.
Installing the Driver Using an Update RPM
The following procedure explains the installation procedure for the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (version 9 or 10) operating system and the appropriate RAID driver using an update RPM.
Installing the RPM Package With DKMS Support
Perform the following steps to install the RPM package with DKMS support.
Uncompress the zipped file of the DKMS-enabled driver package.
Install the DKMS package using the command rpm -Uvh <DKMS package name>.
Install the driver package using the rpm -Uvh <Driver package name>.
Reboot the system to load the new driver.
File and Directories Needed to Create the Driver Update Diskette (DUD)
The following files are needed before you create the DUD.
NOTE: The megaraid_sas driver package installs these files. You do not need to do anything at this point.
The directory /usr/src/megaraid_sas-<driver_version> contains the driver source code, dkms.conf,
and specifications file for the driver.
In this directory, the subdirectory redhat_driver_disk contains the files needed to create the DUD.
The files needed are disk_info, modinfo, modules.dep, and pcitable.
DUD Creation Procedure
Perform the following steps to create the DUD using the DKMS tool.
Install the DKMS-enabled megaraid_sas driver rpm package on a system running a SUSE Linux
operating system.
Perform the following steps to install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (version 9 or 10) using the DUD. See Creating a Driver Diskette for information about creating a driver diskette.
Insert the appropriate SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (version 9 or 10) Service Pack (SP) CD in
the system.
Select Installation from the menu options.
Select the following key for the driver update disk, depending on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
version you are installing:
For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, select <F6>.
For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, select <F5>.
Press <Enter> to load the Linux kernel.
At the prompt Please insert the driver update floppy/CDROM, click OK.
The system selects the driver from the diskette and installs it. The system then displays the message DRIVER UPDATE ADDED with the description of the driver module.
Click OK.
If you want to install from another driver update medium, continue with the following steps.
The system displays the message PLEASE CHOOSE DRIVER UPDATE MEDIUM.
Select the appropriate driver update medium.
The system selects the driver from the diskette and installs it.
Upgrading the Kernel
If you run the up2date utility to upgrade the kernel, you must reinstall the DKMS-enabled driver packages. Perform the following steps to update the kernel:
