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Who we are
New Vision Fundraising Services is a non-profit organization that develops innovative ways to generate awareness, recognition, and funds to support Canadian charities by offering Internet and technology-based solutions to small and mid-sized businesses. Our model allows businesses to donate to charity using only money they already spend on technology services, and not another dime. We believe in magnifying the natural charity of humanity and uniting it seamlessly to successful business objectives.

Why Dell?
As our first project we are starting a web hosting business to provide Virtual Private Servers for small and medium businesses. We have compared three major server vendors and chosen Dell due to their best price/quality ratio.

The server model that was chosen for our data center is PowerEdge 1950 with dual 4-core Xeons E5345 @ 2.33GHz and 8GB RAM. Base operating system CentOS 4.5 x86_64 will run SWsoft’s Virtuozzo as a virtualization layer.

Remote admin and health monitoring
Initial installation proved great remote administration capabilities of the PowerEdge 1950 build-in remote access DRAC5 card. The web interface shows hardware health parameters including temperatures, voltages, fan, power supplies and other important stats and sends email or SNMP alerts when these parameters move into a dangerous state or fail. A server administrator may use DRAC interface to power down or up the box, use IP based KVM, mount a CD located in his desktop and boot the server remotely from it (I personally have installed CentOS that way).

RAID alerts
Everything looked great except one small detail. The DRAC interface doesn’t have RAID management capabilities or diagnostics. That means if one of server disks fail, we could never find that until the whole RAID system is crashed… We started looking for a way to get disk alerts and found that Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) provides that functionality.

OMSA on CentOS
The latest and greatest OMSA 5.2 image was downloaded from Dell web site, burned on CD, and then we discovered that it will not run on our OS because CentOS is not in the list of Dell supported operating systems… We became really disappointed.

Linux-PowerEdge mailing list
Few phone calls and online chats (great feature, I like it better than phone calls!!!) with Dell support people finished with no luck… The only good advice was to subscribe to Linux-PowerEdge mailing list at linux-poweredge@dell.com. Actually that was the best advice I could receive! This list is actively monitored by Matt Domsch, Linux Technology Strategist from Dell Office of the CTO and Michael Brown, Dell Linux repositories maintainer. As per my understanding, they represent the highest level of support one can receive from Dell in the PowerEdge/Linux area.

The following text describes how (with the great help of the people on the mailing list) OMSA 5.2 was installed on CentOS 4.5

As per “supported Hardware RPM repository” installing Dell’s yum plugin.

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

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 5 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 436 k
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): dell-hw-specific-r 100% |=========================| 5.7 kB 00:00
(2/5): firmware-tools-1.3 100% |=========================| 104 kB 00:00
(3/5): firmware-addon-del 100% |=========================| 28 kB 00:00
(4/5): libsmbios-bin-0.13 100% |=========================| 59 kB 00:00
(5/5): libsmbios-libs-0.1 100% |=========================| 239 kB 00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: libsmbios-libs ######################### [1/5]
Installing: libsmbios-bin ######################### [2/5]
Installing: firmware-tools ######################### [3/5]
Installing: firmware-addon-dell ######################### [4/5]
Installing: dell-hw-specific-repository ######################### [5/5]

Installed: dell-hw-specific-repository.noarch 0:1-12.el4
Dependency Installed: firmware-addon-dell.x86_64 0:1.3.0-1.el4 firmware-tools.noarch 0:1.3.1-1.el4 libsmbios-bin.x86_64 0:0.13.7-1.el4 libsmbios-libs.x86_64 0:0.13.7-1.el4
Complete!
Done!

Yum plugins installed successfully. However we will not hurry to install OpenManage Server Administrator by running

# yum install srvadmin-all

Instead, we resolve dependencies and install them one by one

# yum install srvadmin-base

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
srvadmin-base i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 3.0 k
Installing for dependencies:
audit-libs i386 1.0.15-3.EL4 base 38 k
compat-libstdc++-33 i386 3.2.3-47.3 base 226 k
cracklib i386 2.8.9-1.3 base 56 k
cracklib-dicts i386 2.8.9-1.3 base 3.6 M
dkms noarch 2.0.13-1 dell-hardware-auto 78 k
glib2 i386 2.4.7-1 base 476 k
libgcc i386 3.4.6-8 base 63 k
libselinux i386 1.19.1-7.3 base 55 k
libxml2 i386 2.6.16-10 base 620 k
ncurses i386 5.4-13 base 1.5 M
openipmi noarch 33.13.RHEL4-1dkms dell-hardware-auto 390 k
pam i386 0.77-66.21 base 1.9 M
srvadmin-cm i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 22 M
srvadmin-deng i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 305 k
srvadmin-hapi i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 728 k
srvadmin-ipmi i386 5.2.0-460.rhel4 dell-hardware-auto 3.6 k
srvadmin-isvc i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 1.1 M
srvadmin-omacore i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 3.4 M
srvadmin-omauth i386 5.2.0-460.rhel4 dell-hardware-auto 6.4 k
srvadmin-omhip i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 2.5 M
srvadmin-omilcore i386 5.2.0-460 dell-hardware-auto 489 k
zlib i386 1.2.1.2-1.2 base 44 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 23 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 40 M
Is this ok [y/N]:

Answering ‘N’ and installing dkms and then openipmi:

=============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
openipmi noarch 33.13.RHEL4-1dkms dell-hardware-auto 390 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 390 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): openipmi-33.13.RHE 100% |=========================| 390 kB 00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: openipmi ######################### [1/1]

Loading kernel module source and prebuilt module binaries (if any)
Installing prebuilt kernel module binaries (if any)

Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the
kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed.

Your DKMS tree now includes:
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.EL, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.EL, i686: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELhugemem, i686: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELsmp, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELsmp, i686: built

Installed: openipmi.noarch 0:33.13.RHEL4-1dkms
Complete!

The last line says “Complete”, however there is a message about missing kernel source. To find why it needed, we uninstall openipmi, install kernel-smp-devel and try again.

Installing: kernel-smp-devel ######################### [1/1]

Installed: kernel-smp-devel.x86_64 0:2.6.9-55.0.2.EL

Trying to install openipmi again

Installing: openipmi ######################### [1/1]

Loading kernel module source and prebuilt module binaries (if any)
Installing prebuilt kernel module binaries (if any)

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping…

Building module:
cleaning build area….
make KERNELRELEASE=2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp -C /lib/modules/2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp/build M=/var/lib/dkms/openipmi/33.13.RHEL4/build….(bad exit status: 2)

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp (x86_64)
Consult the make.log in the build directory
/var/lib/dkms/openipmi/33.13.RHEL4/build/ for more information.

DO YOU HAVE gcc INSTALLED???

Error! Could not locate ipmi_msghandler.ko for module openipmi in the DKMS tree.
You must run a dkms build for kernel 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp (x86_64) first.

Your DKMS tree now includes:
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.EL, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.EL, i686: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELhugemem, i686: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELsmp, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELsmp, i686: built

Installed: openipmi.noarch 0:33.13.RHEL4-1dkms
Complete!

Installing gcc

# yum install gcc

Running Transaction
Installing: glibc-kernheaders ######################### [1/5]
Installing: glibc-headers ######################### [2/5]
Installing: glibc-devel ######################### [3/5]
Installing: cpp ######################### [4/5]
Installing: gcc ######################### [5/5]

Installed: gcc.x86_64 0:3.4.6-8
Dependency Installed: cpp.x86_64 0:3.4.6-8 glibc-devel.x86_64 0:2.3.4-2.36 glibc-headers.x86_64 0:2.3.4-2.36 glibc-kernheaders.x86_64 0:2.4-9.1.100.EL
Complete!

And remove/install openipmi again

This time we are much closer, but still… The message says that this module already exists in kernel.

Installing: openipmi ######################### [1/1]

Loading kernel module source and prebuilt module binaries (if any)
Installing prebuilt kernel module binaries (if any)

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping…

Building module:
cleaning build area….
make KERNELRELEASE=2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp -C /lib/modules/2.6.9- 55.0.2.ELsmp/build M=/var/lib/dkms/openipmi/33.13.RHEL4/build….
cleaning build area….

DKMS: build Completed.
Running module version sanity check.

Error! Module version 33.13 for ipmi_msghandler.ko
is not newer than what is already found in kernel 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp (33.13).
You may override by specifying –force.

Your DKMS tree now includes:
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.EL, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.EL, i686: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELhugemem, i686: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELsmp, x86_64: built
openipmi, 33.13.RHEL4, 2.6.9-5.ELsmp, i686: built

Installed: openipmi.noarch 0:33.13.RHEL4-1dkms
Complete!

Does that mean we already have its latest version in the kernel? Probably yes…

Installing dependencies and base OMSA services

# yum install srvadmin-base

Starting OMSA services

# srvadmin-services.sh start

Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting dell_rbu: [ OK ]
Starting ipmi driver: [FAILED]
Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting dell_rbu: Already started [ OK ]
Starting ipmi driver: [FAILED]
Starting DSM SA Shared Services: [ OK ]

Ipmi driver failed. Chkconfig shows that ipmi is disabled. Let’s run it on 2nd level (correct me in comments, I may be wrong here)

# chkconfig --level 2 ipmi on

Trying again:

# srvadmin-services.sh start

Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting dell_rbu: [ OK ]
Starting ipmi driver: Already started [ OK ]
Starting Systems Management Data Engine:
Starting dsm_sa_datamgr32d: [ OK ]
Starting dsm_sa_eventmgr32d: [ OK ]

Excellent! Looks much better!!!

Installing other OMSA services # yum install srvadmin-webserver srvadmin-storageservices and testing them in the web interface

https://xx.xx.xx.xx:1311

Wow!… Everything looks fine. The most important that I see RAID details and able to set a disk failure alerts.

Unfortunately after reboot OMSA doesn’t start automatically. # srvadmin-services.sh start script starts it again

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

Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting dell_rbu: [ OK ]
Starting ipmi driver: Already started [ OK ]
Starting Systems Management Data Engine:
Starting dsm_sa_datamgr32d: [ OK ]
Starting dsm_sa_eventmgr32d: [ OK ]

Chkconfig shows that dsm_sa_ipmi driver is disabled.

# chkconfig --level 234 dsm_sa_ipmi on

Now OMSA starts automatically on every OS boot.