I would recommend against running any 2.0.x kernels on this
hardware. I have a dell poweredge 6300:
4x450mHz
2Gb ram
Megaraid PERC/2 controller with 90Gb disk
(2) internal 9gb disks
I have made some kernel modifications to get linux to
realize the full potential of this machine, and have been
very successful. Our DBA's are in love with it and are in
awe that the Ultra Enterprise 4500 is actually slower....
We run Oracle 8 on this thing. A kernel compilation takes
under 1 minute :)
One of the most important performance enhancements was to
enable parallel IO on the PERC/2 controller. Details below,
.config to follow.
include/asm-i386/page.h
OLD ---> #define __PAGE_OFFSET
(0xC0000000)
NEW ---> #define __PAGE_OFFSET
(0x80000000)
For up to 2Gb ram
arch/i386/vmlinux.lds (linker script)
OLD ---> . = 0xC0000000 + 0x100000;
NEW ---> . = 0x80000000 + 0x100000;
Same reason as above
drivers/scsi/megaraid.h (AMI megaRAID adapter in Dell 6300)
OLD ---> #define MULTI_IO 0
NEW ---> #define MULTI_IO 1 <- puts
adapter into parallel
megaraid.* is driver version .96. Kernel 2.2.2 contains
.92.
include/linux/sem.h (IPC semaphore constants)
OLD ---> #define SEMMNI 128
NEW ---> #define SEMMNI 256
This gives us a total of 8192 semaphores, computed as (max #
of semIDs) * (max # of sems/ID) The above equation gives us
the max number on the system. Linux's hard limit is 32,767.
Oh yes, if the megaraid driver is built into the kernel, ie.
NOT as a module, it will not operate in parallel IO mode.
I've proven this time and again with the SPEC disk benchmark
stuff. No idea why. Initrd won't work with so much ram, so
you are in a unique position. The solution is to create a
directory:
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/boot
In that directory, either put the megaraid.o file in there,
or link to it's location. I link to it. The `uname -r` is
your kernel version, 2.2.5 in our case. This will cause it
to be loaded at boot time, and allow you to have your raid
device in /etc/fstab, and have a mostly normal system that
is not much of a hack.
Feel free to ask for more help, linux *will* run on these
things. It will run very well in fact.
-brad
--
Brad Doctor Colorado Region
Network Engineer NDA
http://www.nda.com 303-449-3596
- - - - -
All Finagle Laws may be bypassed by learning the simple art
of doing
without thinking.
config.dot
