“No controllers found” fix: set up Dell OMSA 6.4 32-bit on RHEL / CentOS 5.5 64-bit 18


This blog post builds on the same workaround explained in my older post about how to install the 32-bit version of Dell OMSA 6.3 on a 64-bit version of RHEL / CentOS 5.5 on a PowerEdge server so you can manage a PERC 4 RAID adapter.

Dell’s newer OMSA 6.4 has the same issue that OMSA 6.3 had: the 64-bit version gives you an error of “No controllers found,” but the 32-bit version will work. However, the workaround explained in my older post needs a slight tweak in order to work with the newer OMSA 6.4.

Step 1: Remove OMSA 6.3

If you don’t have the older OMSA 6.3 installed, you can skip this step.

Remove the older OMSA 6.3 and its older dependencies with:

yum remove dell-omsa* libcmpiCppImpl0 libsmbios libsmbios* libwsman* openwsman-* python-smbios smbios-utils-* srvadmin-*

This leaves a few files on the server that you’ll need to delete before you can install the updated OMSA 6.4. First, remove the OMSA 6.3 .ini files with:

rm -Rf /opt/dell/srvadmin

Then, you’ll need to manually remove the following two files from the Openwsman package, otherwise they’ll prevent the installation of the updated version of Openwsman in the next step. Do:

rm -rf /etc/openwsman

and

rm /etc/init.d/openwsman

Step 2: Set up Dell’s OMSA 6.4 Repository

To set up the repository info for OMSA 6.4, do:

wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/OMSA_6.4/bootstrap.cgi | bash

That will download some necessary files, import some PGP keys, and create a new repo file on your server. IMPORTANT: Don’t take the next step as printed in the Dell Wiki! If you use yum to install OMSA now, you’ll install the 64-bit version. You need to do a couple extra steps first.

Step 3: Remove the 64-bit Dell System ID Yum Plugin

This is the extra step that you didn’t need with OMSA 6.3. Because the bootstrap.cgi file in the above step examines your system architecture with a uname -i command before requesting the appropriate plugin, if you’re on a 64-bit system, it installed the 64-bit version of the plugin. Remove it with:

yum erase yum-dellsysid-2.2.26-6.2.el5

Once it’s removed, install the 32-bit version of the plugin directly from Dell with:

rpm -Uvh http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/OMSA_6.4/platform_independent/rh50/firmware-tools/yum-dellsysid-2.2.26-6.2.el5.i386.rpm

Step 4: Edit your Dell OMSA Repo File

Using your favorite text editor, edit /etc/yum.repos.d/dell-omsa-repository.repo. The default file should look like this:

[dell-omsa-indep]
name=Dell OMSA repository - Hardware independent
type=rpm-md
mirrorlist=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/mirrors.cgi?osname=el$releasever&basearch=$basearch&native=1&dellsysidpluginver=$dellsysidpluginver
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-dell
    http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-libsmbios
enabled=1
failover=priority
bootstrapurl=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi

[dell-omsa-specific]
name=Dell OMSA repository - Hardware specific
type=rpm-md
mirrorlist=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/mirrors.cgi?osname=el$releasever&basearch=$basearch&native=1&sys_ven_id=$sys_ven_id&sys_dev_id=$sys_dev_id&dellsysidpluginver=$dellsysidpluginver
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-dell
    http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/RPM-GPG-KEY-libsmbios
enabled=1
failover=priority
bootstrapurl=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi

Edit the mirrorlist entry in both sections of the file, replacing the $basearch variable with the hard-coded value of i386. That will trick the Dell repo into thinking you’re actually running a 32-bit OS, so it will provide you the 32-bit version of OMSA. Your new mirrorlist directive in [dell-omsa-indep] should now read:

mirrorlist=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/mirrors.cgi?osname=el$releasever&basearch=i386&native=1&dellsysidpluginver=$dellsysidpluginver

and the mirrorlist directive in [dell-omsa-specific] should now read:

mirrorlist=http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/mirrors.cgi?osname=el$releasever&basearch=i386&native=1&sys_ven_id=$sys_ven_id&sys_dev_id=$sys_dev_id&dellsysidpluginver=$dellsysidpluginver

Now you’re ready for yum.

Step 5: Use Yum to Install OMSA

Type the following:

yum install srvadmin-all

All the appropriate dependencies should be sorted out, and all the 32-bit OMSA packages will be installed on your system. During the install process, you’ll see this message:

**********************************************************
After the install process completes, you may need
to log out and then log in again to reset the PATH
variable to access the Dell OpenManage CLI utilities
**********************************************************

Log out then log back in as suggested, then do:

srvadmin-services.sh start

You should see something like:

Starting mptctl:
Waiting for mptctl driver registration to complete:
                                                           [  OK  ]

Starting Remote Access Controller (RAC4)...                [  OK  ]
Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting dell_rbu:                                         [  OK  ]
Starting ipmi driver: Already started                      [  OK  ]
Starting Systems Management Data Engine:
Starting dsm_sa_datamgrd:                                  [  OK  ]
Starting dsm_sa_eventmgrd:                                 [  OK  ]
Starting DSM SA Shared Services:                           [  OK  ]

Starting DSM SA Connection Service:                        [  OK  ]

You can verify that the storage controller is accessible by typing:

omreport storage controller

You should get output like:

 Controller  PERC 4e/Si (Embedded)

Controllers
ID                                            : 0
Status                                        : Ok
Name                                          : PERC 4e/Si
Slot ID                                       : Embedded
State                                         : Ready
Firmware Version                              : 5B2D
Minimum Required Firmware Version             : Not Applicable
Driver Version                                : Not Applicable
Minimum Required Driver Version               : Not Applicable
Storport Driver Version                       : Not Applicable
Minimum Required Storport Driver Version      : Not Applicable
Number of Connectors                          : 1
Rebuild Rate                                  : 30%
BGI Rate                                      : Not Applicable
Check Consistency Rate                        : Not Applicable
Reconstruct Rate                              : Not Applicable
Alarm State                                   : Not Applicable
Cluster Mode                                  : Not Applicable
SCSI Initiator ID                             : 7
Cache Memory Size                             : 256 MB
Patrol Read Mode                              : Auto
Patrol Read State                             : Active
Patrol Read Rate                              : Not Applicable
Patrol Read Iterations                        : 479
Abort Check Consistency on Error              : Not Applicable
Allow Revertible Hot Spare and Replace Member : Not Applicable
Load Balance                                  : Not Applicable
Auto Replace Member on Predictive Failure     : Not Applicable
Redundant Path view                           : Not Applicable
Persistent Hot Spare                          : Not Applicable
Security Capable                              : Not Applicable
Security Key Present                          : Not Applicable
Spin Down Unconfigured Drives                 : Not Applicable
Spin Down Hot Spares                          : Not Applicable

You can also log in to the OMSA web interface at https://yourhostname:1311 (be sure to use https).

That’s it! You’re now running the 32-bit version of OMSA 6.4 on a 64-bit operating system!