Re: Support for QLogic FC HBA

Here we have a PE7150 with RH7.1 (System tag 4716211) connected with a
PowerVault 650F (System tag 4B21211) thru FC Qlogic.

It's still in testing due to lack of Informix port of the Database. That's
why I only have filesystems om the array but so far so good, no errors nor
corruption detected.

As soon as the Informix port is available I will also test raw I/O access to
the PV650F.

----- Original Message -----
From: "mackey" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: Support for QLogic FC HBA


> Thanks for your reply Matt.
>
> I am the principal investigator on a research project which will use
> this new server.
>
> I understand that Dell isn't supporting the PowerVault 660F and the
> QLogic QLA2200A for the PE7150 running Linux, but I am thinking of the
> future growth of our datacenter, and current (as well as future) costs
> to maintain our systems.
>
> If I were to purchase the 660F and associated controllers, with the idea
> that possible instabilities of the controller would be temporary (and
> without any guarantees from you), would I still be able to manage the
660F?
>
> I have some experience dealing with such problems, as I developed
> systems using Alpha Linux during the period of time when Linux wasn't
> stable on that platform.
>
> So, I am trying to find out if it is even possible to manage a
> direct-connect (for now) 7150-660F system, even with a buggy driver.
> Don't I need software to manage the 660F?
>
> I have used hardware RAID systems before (specifically, an HSZ40
> controller on an DEC AlphaServer), but I have no experience with SAN's.
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> [email protected] wrote:
> >>Dose anyone know if the QLogic QLA2200F card is supported by
> >>ia64 linux?
> >>
> >
> > Yes, Red Hat Linux 7.2 for Itanium has a driver for this card, though I
> > can't recommend using the driver included there.  I don't consider it
stable
> > enough to trust my data to it.
> >
> >
> >>Qlogic has new driver source code on its web site (all written in C);
> >>will this code compile and work correctly.
> >>
> >
> > Since uncovering a number of problems with the qla2x00 driver, (Itanium
was
> > good at bringing problems to light), Red Hat, Dell, and EMC have been
> > working closely with QLogic to improve their device driver so that it
works
> > well on x86 and ia64 platforms.  The driver that's currently posted to
their
> > site is v6.00 beta 20, which includes a lot of that cleanup work.
However,
> > being "beta" status, and as such has not passed anyone's rigorous
testing
> > process yet, Dell can't recommend its use on production systems yet.
Once
> > the driver work is complete and has passed QLogic/Dell/EMC/Red Hat
testing,
> > then we will be happy to recommend that solution.  The EMC Support
Matrix
> >
http://www.emc.com/horizontal/interoperability/interop_support_matrices.jsp,
> > updated monthly, is what our salespeople use to know when a particular
> > solution has been tested and can be recommended.
> >
> >
> >>I am purchasing a Dell 7150 server and am considering an FC
> >>storage system.
> >>
> >
> > Excellent hardware choice.  :-)  At present Dell doesn't offer an FC
storage
> > system on a PE7150 running Linux for the reasons outlined above.  We'd
be
> > happy to sell you PowerVault 2xxs and PERC 3/QC RAID cards for direct
> > attached SCSI storage though.  Your salesperson can give you additional
> > details.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Matt
> >
> > --
> > Matt Domsch
> > Sr. Software Engineer
> > Dell Linux Solutions www.dell.com/linux
> > Linux on Dell mailing lists @ http://lists.us.dell.com
> > #1 US Linux Server provider for 2001!
> >
> >
> --
> Prof. Michael A. Mackey ([email protected])
> Biomedical Engineering / Radiology
> University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
> Voice: 319-335-6058 Fax: 319-335-5631