System with HP Smart Array Controller does not boot after update from SLES 11 SP2 to SLES 11 SP3

This document (7014067) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

Situation

The systems root filesystem is located on a disc that is connected to a HP Smart Array Controller. The system worked normal with SLES 11 SP2 and the update to SLES11 SP3 did complete without any issues. However after the reboot of the system the kernel does wait for the root filesystem to appear but this will timeout and fail.

The HP Smart Array Controller has one of this PCI IDs:

PCI Vendor ID = 0x103C

and one of following device IDs

0x3241 => Smart Array P212
0x3243 => Smart Array P410
0x3245 => Smart Array P410i
0x3247 => Smart Array P411
0x3249 => Smart Array P812
0x324a => Smart Array P712m
0x324b => Smart Array P711m

Resolution

Boot the system with kernel command line option hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1
After the system has booted successfully add the option to the corresponding bootloader section

Example:

File: /boot/grub/menu.lst

prior:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###

title SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 - 3.0.93-0.8

    root (hd0,1)

    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.93-0.8-default root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda1 splash=silent crashkernel=256M-:128M showopts vga=0x314

    initrd /boot/initrd-3.0.93-0.8-default

after:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###

title SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 - 3.0.93-0.8

    root (hd0,1)

    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.93-0.8-default root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda1 splash=silent crashkernel=256M-:128M hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 showopts vga=0x314

    initrd /boot/initrd-3.0.93-0.8-default

Also blacklist the cciss driver by adding it to file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. This can be done with command

echo "blacklist cciss" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

afterward please rebuild the module dependency list and the initial ramdisk

depmod -a

mkinitrd

Cause

On SLES 11 SP2 both the cciss driver and the hpsa driver does handle this type of controllers. On SLES 11 SP3 this has changed and the cciss driver is the only one that handles this type of controllers per default. However as the hpsa driver has worked on the system in the past it is best to keep this driver. Therefore give hpsa driver the option to handle any device it detect and not just the ones listed.

Additional Information

If the System has SLES 11 SP2 installed it is possible to apply this settings prior the update to SLES 11 SP3. This will avoid the boot issue after the update to SLES 11 SP3.

Disclaimer

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