OpenSuse 12.1.10 - x86_64 with XEN on Proliant DL360/DL380/DL385 and cciss Driver

rdeipw2 · February 9, 2012, 5:28pm

Date: 2012-02-09
Current Situation: HP/Compaq Proliant DL385 or DL360 with RA 53xx or RA 64xx = cciss driver

On an 800 Gigabyte RAID5 Array I install up to 18 “logical” drives - later to be used as drives for virtual maschines -
on each logical drive (Linux detects each one as a physical drive)
I have a swap partition and an ext4 root partition and an ext4 data partition.

If I install the virtual maschine one by one (or clone it) and format (and fill) the partitions,
either “yast2 partitioner” and “gparted” show errors on every formatted ext4 partition.

If I boot this server with the “gparted 2011 CD” (based on debian) or later, this gparted 0.5.9 detects all partitions as totally ok.

On my Suse 12.1.10 DOM 0 all ext4 drivers are available, nothing is missed. So whats wrong ?
The Server is booting fine and all VMs are booting fine. So there seems to be no error.

What does Debian Linux better than Suse Linux ???

I hate wrong, confusing and mistakenly displayed messages. It consumes a lot of time,
to remember and ignore such messages and focus the brain on real mistakes.

Thanks for your hints and tips

Gert

hcvv · February 9, 2012, 6:26pm

To me it seems to be more of a Virtual problem then a Hardware problem. And those knowing more about Virtualisation are of course searching for chalenging Virtialisation problems in the Virtualisation subforum.

Also, when you say that there are error messages, most people want then to know what they are (them being not clairvoyant).

DenverD · February 9, 2012, 6:30pm

On 02/09/2012 05:36 PM, rdeipw2 wrote:
>
> On my Suse 12.1.10

what operating system are you using? i ask because there is no such
thing (that i’m aware of) named “Suse 12.1.10”

> What does Debian Linux better than Suse Linux ???

SUSE Linux is part of the correct name for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
(SLES) is that what you are running?

but, there is no SLES 12.x.x (as far as i know)

there is an openSUSE 12.1, but that is not an enterprise OS, it is more
like Fedora…in fact the openSUSE relationship to SLES is similar as
Fedora to Red Hat…

i’d guess your HP/Compaq hardware is certified for both Red Hat and
SLES, but neither openSUSE nor Fedora…

–
DD
Read what Distro Watch writes: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

hcvv · February 9, 2012, 7:21pm

12.1.10 - x86_64

Yes, I missed that completely. I can only add my ??? to DD’s.

rdeipw2 · February 9, 2012, 9:40pm

Hi to all,

I think, there are some misunderstandings in my single question. The question was:

What does Debian Linux better than Suse Linux ???

Ok, we agree, we are within an opensuse forum, not talking about SLES.
If I name it SUSE - now since 15 years - within an opensuse forum, this should be ok.

My action was : I did run yast partitioner (from opensuse 12.1.10 - as ist was named within the welcome page at the end of the installation)
and see warnings for almost all of my partitions, showing errors, that the partitons are bad or so.

Taking my old gparted CD from 2006 or 2010 and booting exactly this Proliant hardware, all partitions are ok and
ext4 is detected as well as the right size and cylinders. To confirm that by downloading the very new gparted ISO “gparted-live-0.11.0-10.iso” from today, burning it on CD, it runs the gparted 0.11.0, and all partitions are displayed as ok too.
The author says, it is based on debian.

Booting suse 12.1 as DOM 0, I did install gparted 0.9.1 from suse repository,
it shows a warning on the ext4 partition and the information says:

e2label: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/cciss/c0d0_part2

the hint says : check for e2fsprogs v.1.41+ — and that is installed.

That means : running gparted on debian shows no warnings or errors -
running gparted on suse 12.1 shows warnings.

Because the server is running well, the message is confusing.

I can live with that - my intention was, to help you with qualified error descriptions, not ot talk about SLES or opensuse or HP certifications.
That is not my intention.
My intention is, to give you as much feedback as the time allows, to fix all little weaknesses as soon as possible.

There has been an update within my personal profile. If you like to read more about me, look at This is the international page of RDE Network Systems Germany: International .
If you like to see some of my installation pages, look at Sie befinden sich auf “software.rde.de” im Bereich : i) Suse 12.1/64 XEN (6) Protokoll (fully German)

I do that much work to help others to setup their servers using my experience and learning from each other.

However, thank you for your comments.
It helps me, to rethink the own ideas, seen from another viewpoint / angle.

Gert

hcvv · February 9, 2012, 10:36pm

Sorry, I do not understand all you are saying. But I will add some remarks below that may or may not help you in understanding a few of the things that DD and I posted bove.

This is the openSUSE forums, where normal openSUSE users like you try to help each other. Thus when you say “My intention is, to give you as much feedback as the time allows, to fix all little weaknesses as soon as possible.” you are in the wrong place. We are not the openSUSE developers. When you have a technical problem/question, you may ask here and we, your fellow users, may succeed in helping you out. When you want to bring bugs/design errors and the like to the attention of the maintainers of openSUSE you could file a bug at openSUSE:Submitting bug reports - openSUSE or join one of the mailing lists.
Very often new members show up here and ask questions. Either from the start, but often much later, we find out that they do not use openSUSE, but SLES/SLED. That is due to sloppyy usage of terms like SUSE, SuSE, S.U.S.E, and more. Thus when somebody does not say explicitly that he has openSUSE and also that he has a strange level (because none of has has 12.1.10), I think it is normal to ask what it is realy before a massive misunderstanding (with maybe wrong and damaging advice) may develope. And to know what you have, please do:

cat /etc/SuSE-release

Also because not all our members want to spoil time in reading questions about subjects they have no special knowledge, we have split the forums in several subforums. For you, to get to help as fast as possible and as good as possible, it is important to choose carefully the subforum where you ask. While many people will point you to the correct forums when you used the wrong one, it is lost time for you and others. In short ineffective.
As long as you do not post the exact error message (as I asked earlier), I guess almost nobody here can be of any help to you.

Hope this helps in understanding why we posted what we posted above.

rdeipw2 · February 9, 2012, 11:44pm

Thank you Henk for your hints,

you are right, I am in the wrong forum. I didnt realize that up to now.

However I am a little bit confused, when DD gave me the hint (within another topic),
allways to update to the last revision and check what was fixed there.

using “cat /etc/SuSE-release” says really simple:
(this command is well known for years)

openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64)
VERSION = 12.1
CODENAME = Asparagus

but that is unqualified for serious discussions.

My last screen shows (I dont know to add a gif file here)

Version:
12.1.10 (2012-01-02) Copyright …

This is the qualified OS version I am using today.

Some days earlier I was running “12.1.9” and after updating to “12.1.10” some workarounds have been fixed.

I will look for your link to join the maintainers and I hope, this will help others,
to select the right forum in advance.

again thank you for your time

Gert

rdeipw2 · February 9, 2012, 11:44pm

Thank you Henk for your hints,

you are right, I am in the wrong forum. I didnt realize that up to now.

However I am a little bit confused, when DD gave me the hint (within another topic),
allways to update to the last revision and check what was fixed there.

using “cat /etc/SuSE-release” says really simple:
(this command is well known for years)

openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64)
VERSION = 12.1
CODENAME = Asparagus

but that is unqualified for serious discussions.

My last screen shows (I dont know to add a gif file here)

Version:
12.1.10 (2012-01-02) Copyright …

This is the qualified OS version I am using today.

Some days earlier I was running “12.1.9” and after updating to “12.1.10” some workarounds have been fixed.

I will look for your link to join the maintainers and I hope, this will help others,
to select the right forum in advance.

again thank you for your time

Gert

DenverD · February 10, 2012, 12:30am

On 02/09/2012 09:46 PM, rdeipw2 wrote:
> see warnings for almost all of my partitions, showing errors, that
> the partitons are bad or so.

a large number of warnings is usually not a good thing (i bet you knew
that!)…

i wonder, if before installing the install disk was self-tested, like
this: http://tinyurl.com/3qde66h

or, if you self test it now does it check out ok…what you describe
could be caused by corrupted install code.

–
DD
Read what Distro Watch writes: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

DenverD · February 10, 2012, 12:32am

On 02/09/2012 11:46 PM, rdeipw2 wrote:
> My last screen shows (I dont know to add a gif file here)
>
> Version: 12.1.10 (2012-01-02) Copyright …
>
> Some days earlier I was running “12.1.9”

i would love to see that, because i never have and i wanna track down
(if i can) why you have that as far as i know, no one else does…

would please upload both the .10 and .9 it to
http://tinyurl.com/69dzb3w

and, if you see 12.1.11 please come back and post that also…this is
simply intriguing!

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Software
Read what Distro Watch writes: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

rdeipw2 · February 10, 2012, 5:04pm

Hi DD,

by accident, I did click that post and read your request. Again, debian boot cd with gparted shows no warnings and suse boot with gparted shows warnings, but however, my servers 800 giga RAID5 runs fine and I can continue the installation.

Ok, regarding the current revision 12.1.10 I did try to use your link to paste the screenshot. May be it did work, may be I did a mistake.

The mesage is: By Unknown Lizzard, 6 Minutes ago, written in Image file. This post will expire in 6 Days

SUSE Paste and
SUSE Paste

If you cannot see my screenshot, there will be a new page with about 60 screenshots installing a DOM 0 and the first one DOM U (one from 14 VMs)
on that page shortly : Sie befinden sich auf “software.rde.de” im Bereich : k) Suse 12.1/64 XEN (7) Details
but I need some more hours.

Gert

rdeipw2 · February 10, 2012, 5:07pm

Hi DD,

by accident, I did click that post and read your request. Again, debian boot cd with gparted shows no warnings and suse boot with gparted shows warnings, but however, my servers 800 giga RAID5 runs fine and I can continue the installation.

Ok, regarding the current revision 12.1.10 I did try to use your link to paste the screenshot. May be it did work, may be I did a mistake.

The mesage is: By Unknown Lizzard, 6 Minutes ago, written in Image file. This post will expire in 6 Days

SUSE Paste and
SUSE Paste

If you cannot see my screenshot, there will be a new page with about 60 screenshots installing a DOM 0 and the first one DOM U (one from 14 VMs)
on that page shortly : Sie befinden sich auf “software.rde.de” im Bereich : k) Suse 12.1/64 XEN (7) Details
but I need some more hours.

Gert

martin_helm · February 10, 2012, 5:30pm

The 12.1.10 is the version of the release notes not the version of the
operating system.

DenverD · February 11, 2012, 4:50pm

On 02/10/2012 05:30 PM, Martin Helm wrote:
> The 12.1.10 is the version of the release notes not the version of the
> operating system.

ah, sweet…the confusing mystery is dispelled!

the version of the operating system is listed right above the release
notes version line…the OS is “openSUSE 12.1 Versionshinweise”

–
DD
Read what Distro Watch writes: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW