SLES 11 SP2 PE2850 "resume device /dev/sdb1 not found"

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Install-Boot
1

Hi ALL,
I am struggling to make the Poweredge 2850 boot normally from the disk after installation of the SLES 11 SP2.

HISTORY:
The installation went well and no errors were found. However, the boot after does not work. It seems the kernel is looking for disk that are not created during the process of installation. /swap in /dev/sda1(2.1GB), / in /dev/sda2(rest of 0.5TB).
Moving the DVD device from the top of the list does not help it to find the drive. I boot the server using the DVD again and it asking for boot from the hard disk (did not work), Installation (redo and nothing changed), Repair Installed System (loaded 6/6 installation files, opened YAST).

  1. Automatic Repair,
  2. Partition /dev/sdb1 has a valid swap area…(activate swap partition?, Y)
  3. Check File System Installing kernel modules for file system support (Problematic).
    missing modules jbd, mbcache, ext3 , just added
    device not found, root device /dev/sdb2 not found -
  4. Several packages from the repair have failed.
  5. Missing initrd modules - Failed
  6. Asking about boot loader - Error

ERROR:
Trying manual resume from /dev/sdb1
resume device /dev/sdb1 not found(ignoring)
Waiting for device /dev/sdb2 to appear: …Could not find /dev/sdb2
Want me to fallback to /dev/sdb2? (Y/n)

ENVIRONMENT:
PE2850 (old) 500GB (SCSI), 8GB ram, 2x Xeon 2.8 GHz CPU, 800 Mhz BUS L2 cahce 2MB, SLES11 SP2;

FILES:
/dev/disk/by-path
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 21 04:43 pci-0000:02:0e.0-scsi-0:2:0:0 → …/…/sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 21 04:43 pci-0000:02:0e.0-scsi-0:2:0:0-part1 → …/…/sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 21 04:43 pci-0000:02:0e.0-scsi-0:2:0:0-part2 → …/…/sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 21 04:43 pci-0000:02:0e.0-scsi-0:0:0:0 → …/…/sdb

/dev/disk/by-uuid
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 21 04:43 0cc2cfbe-f12e-448e-baae-aa30cab0802e → …/…/sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 21 04:43 c83efb53-d80a-422f-b8f7-0c3c59f0feed → …/…/sda2

Any help would be very appreciated.
Thank you all and sorry for the long post.

2

Hi
You probably need a small boot partition outside of the RAID eg;

sda1 /boot (128MB)
sda2 1GB swap (RAID0 for speed)
sda3 / RAID1

sdb2 128MB (spare boot, not mounted, use dd to copy sda1 over)
sdb2 1GB swap (RAID0 for speed)
sdb3 / RAID1

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 1 day 10:10, 3 users, load average: 0.01, 0.07, 0.12
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Arrandale

3

Hi edagostini,

how many disks does your system actually have?

PE2850 (old) 500GB (SCSI), 8GB ram, 2x Xeon 2.8 GHz CPU, 800 Mhz BUS L2 cahce 2MB, SLES11 SP2;

makes me think you have a single disk installed.

Try to add the boot parameter “root=/dev/sda2” manually in grub (during boot), if that works, we can go from there.

Regards,
Jens

PS: Using device names is a dangerous thing: These are not guaranteed to be persistent across reboot.

4

Hi Malcolm, Thank you for your prompt response. Due to my lack of experience on Linux/PE/RAID it will may take sometime before I can get back to you. I was wondering if I create one RAID for two disks and another for the other four would suffice for this task. Cheers, Ed.

5

Hi Jens, thanks you for your prompt response.
I have 6 disks 73GB Seagate 10K U320 (SCSI).
In between the previous response to Malcom, I have re-created the RAID via PERC/CERC BIOS (CTRL+M) during boot.
Left one disk out (READY mode), the other 5 disks included into a RAID (Listed as RAID 0 from BIOS, After booting appears to be RAID% listed. Confused!, Aiming to get the SLES into the single out-of-raid disk.
The Installation just did not see the single disk, and proceeded onto RAID (5 disks) identified as /dev/sdb . So a new attempt trying to follow Malcom’s suggestions (considering that I am not that knowledgeable on this).
I will take a look into your recommendations and get back as soon as possible. Thank you.

6

[QUOTE=malcolmlewis;13189]Hi
You probably need a small boot partition outside of the RAID eg;

sda1 /boot (128MB)
sda2 1GB swap (RAID0 for speed)
sda3 / RAID1

sdb2 128MB (spare boot, not mounted, use dd to copy sda1 over)
sdb2 1GB swap (RAID0 for speed)
sdb3 / RAID1

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 1 day 10:10, 3 users, load average: 0.01, 0.07, 0.12
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Arrandale[/QUOTE]

Hi,
I have removed all disks from the raid and tried to install it again, no disks were found by the installation dvd.
Put them back in raid, installed and the same error again.

I’ve installed another distro and it went perfectly well. Saw something about GRUB during the install, did a bit of research and found that I need to use GRUB to sort of copy the boot to the correct location that will be able to make the OS find and boot from the first disk.
After some attempts did not found how to get into the shell to run following GRUB commands :
grub>
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,1)
grub> configfile (hd0,1)/boot/grub/grub.conf

Did not find either the grub.conf or anything related on the shell opened after the following:
Waiting for device /dev/sdb2 to appear: …Could not find /dev/sdb2
Want me to fallback to /dev/sdb2? (Y/n) Y/n make no difference here and end up into the same prompt shell.

If someone could guide me through this process would be very appreciated.
Regards,
Ed

7

Hi,
I have removed all the disks from the RAID, the installation process did not find any disk to install.
I then re-created the RAID, installed, same issue again.
Heard that the GRUB should be used in order to move/copy the boot to the proper area (sdb1 or so). Did not found the GRUB into the server after being kicked to the shell on this phase:
Waiting for device /dev/sdb2 to appear: …Could not find /dev/sdb2
Want me to fallback to /dev/sdb2? (Y/n)

Y/n makes no difference here, both take me to the shell where I can not used the GRUB, although, some sites say it is under /boot directory.

Not sure if is something I need to install, or I can grab from the dvd, so, I installed another distro and it went well and after installation the server has booted and using the other distribution for some time to evaluate.
Hopefully I can get a how to deal with GRUB and how can I get the boot into the right place.

For now, Thank you very much for the thoughts shared.
Ed

8

edagostini wrote:
[color=blue]

Hi,
I have removed all the disks from the RAID, the installation process
did not find any disk to install.
I then re-created the RAID, installed, same issue again.[/color]

If you only had the RAID array and no additional drives, SLES should
only see the one “drive”. grub is installed automatically when you
install SLES so if grub is not installed correctly, that is not your
problem. It is only a symptom of the real problem.
[color=blue]

Heard that the GRUB should be used in order to move/copy the boot to
the proper area (sdb1 or so). Did not found the GRUB into the server
after being kicked to the shell on this phase:
Waiting for device /dev/sdb2 to appear:
…Could not find /dev/sdb2
Want me to fallback to /dev/sdb2? (Y/n)

Y/n makes no difference here, both take me to the shell where I can
not used the GRUB, although, some sites say it is under /boot
directory.[/color]

I wouldn’t worry about any of that right now.
[color=blue]

Not sure if is something I need to install, or I can grab from the
dvd, so, I installed another distro and it went well and after
installation the server has booted and using the other distribution
for some time to evaluate.
Hopefully I can get a how to deal with GRUB and how can I get the boot
into the right place.
[/color]

A Google search shows many users having issues installing (older
versions of) SLES on this server. In most cases their issues were
resolved by installing the proper driver for the LSI RAID.

Have you checked the Dell Support site?
http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/ca/en/cabsdt1/Product/poweredge-2850

I see there are some firmware upgrades marked “Urgent”!

Dell also has an article that might be helpful:
Logical Layers vs. Physical Layers of RAID arrays
http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/ca/en/cabsdt1/KCS/kcsarticles/articleview?docid=584903

My suggestion is to make sure you have the most recent BIOS and
firmware installed. The appropriate drivers are supposed to be included
in SLES11-SP2 but if you still have issues you /may/ find other Linux
megaraid_sas drivers on the LSI website.

Next, configure your RAID array and create one LUN (Logical drive?) of
about 50 GB and try your install once again.

[color=blue]

For now, Thank you very much for the thoughts shared.
Ed[/color]

–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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