Storage Device Detection on NW6

[kdeans]

I am trying to install Netware 6 on a new IBM eServer xSeries 235. I have a 108 Gig Virtual Drive using RAID5. 200 Megs of that are a dos partition. When I reach the point where it allows you to specify any additional device drivers (it has detected an idecd so far), I give it the appropriate ipsraid.ham drivers from diskette and it comes back with a screen that says "select a driver to install" and lists nothing. I have tried many versions of this driver. I have tried upgrading and then retrograding the bios levels for the raid adapter. I have tried loading the drivers manually from the console screen, putting them in the C:\NWUPDATE folder ahead of time, and even renaming them to ipsraid.cdr in case they are looking for old style. If I put a diskette in the drive with no driver on it, the system knows and lets me know immediately that there is no driver on that diskette. When I manually specify the NIC drivers in the same way, the system reads from the diskette and then scans and finds three NICs to load the software for. I'm thinking that it must be a similar process for the RAID driver and it just cannot match any hardware to the driver it reads. By the way, at this point it is reading and writing to the array already as it is writing from the install CD to the DOS partition which is on the virtual drive! I guess it needs to have a driver to create a netware Volume.
Anyone with any ideas as to where to go from here?

 

[Lou0686]

HI,

What error do you get when you try to load it manually? The error may give you a clue to what the problem is.

Lou

 

[terry712]

it is a similar process - you should be able to get a driver from ibm's site

ibm's are always a nightmare

why cant they get a smartstart idea

 

[marvhuffaker]

There should be another file included with the .HAM file that it needs to detect and configure it. It should be included with the driver from IBM, that's how other vendors do it. I believe it is a .LDI file extension, and they are generally the same name as the driver..

Also, there are actually two steps to the storage device install. first is where it loads the HAM drivers, and the second is where it loads the CDM files.. Make sure you're on the right one, otherwise it won't find what it's looking for.



Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[kdeans]

No errors when it is loaded manually. It just doesn't do any good. The drivers I have been trying are all from IBMs site or CDs. The information file is a .DDI and it exists for all versions of ipsraid.ham (or any .ham driver). The second part of Marvin's reply, I think, is where the solution may lie. After I left work yesterday, an IBM tech showed up and eventually got past this step by backtracking and then going forward again just before answering yes I want to cancel the install. He got a new screen that asked for an adapter driver as opposed to a device driver and the ham driver was accepted. But he also replaced the RAID controller which back revved the BIOS to a version that IBM recommends be upgraded. catch 22. I am trying to duplicate things this morning and will post the results.

 

[terry712]

sorry i cant help

my advise - abit lame but you'll get it anyway

if the server doesnt have compaq (now hp) on it then DONT BUY IT

 

[marvhuffaker]

One question I have... do you in fact have the right driver? I know on certain DELL raid controllers, the driver will load whether the card exists or not. So it's hard to tell if it actually works or not. It sounds like you may be experiencing something similar. What driver (.HAM) file are you loading? And what is the exact make and model of RAID card that you have?

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[kdeans]

Here is the final solution. It is simple but not covered in any literature that I have seen. The installation process reaches a point where it says that no storage device was detected on the system and asks for the appropriate driver (HAM). When you give it the proper driver, it is rejected. That is, it says to select a driver to install but displays no driver. At this point, I need to escape back a few screens until it displays a different screen showing detected modules and adapters. This is the screen from where it will accept the ipsraid.ham driver. After it accepts the driver from here, it then automatically detects a SCSIHD as a storage device after returning to the original screen. No literature produced by Novell or IBM states that you need to back up from the original screen and in fact asks for the (HAM) driver at the original device detection screen. I hope this makes sense to anyone who may encounter this problem.
Thanks for the ideas.