PE 2950, 64-bit linux, dell utilities...

[Tom Brown]

> first time post, so please excuse me if i'm beating a dead horse.  also,
> i apologize for the length :)
> 
> we've just recieved two new PE 2950's at $work, and before i put them
> into production i'd like to get some level of hardware monitoring
> on them.  the problem is most of the binaries made available on
> dell's site and elsewhere seem to be 32-bit only.  i've attempted to get
> them working on this 64-bit machine with no success (even with the
> requisite 32-bit libraries present).
> 
> most critically, i need something to monitor the status disk/controller
> for the PERC 5 raid device.  i haven't been able to get *any* of the
> dell-provided tools to work at all for this.  the only luck i've had so
> far is with the MegaCli program provided by LSI.  i believe it provides
> enough info that i could throw together a nagios plugin to monitor it,
> but i'm wondering if i'm just overlooking something horribly obvious...
> 
> in case it matters, we're attempting to have the server installed with
> ubuntu dapper or similar debian/debian-derived, running
> 2.6.15-26-amd64-server.  if we must, switching distros/kernels is an
> option for us at this point (though  i don't think running 32-bit only
> is).
> 
> as for what i attempted:
> 
> - MegaMon (dell)
> 
>   can't get it to work at all.  if you really want to scratch your head,
>   take a look at the postinst script in the package:
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> chkconfig --add raidmon
> case `uname -m` in
>         "ia64" )
>                 echo "Copying 64-bit components..."
>                 ln -s /usr/sbin/MegaCt32 /usr/sbin/MegaCtrl
>                 #rm -f  /usr/sbin/MegaCt32
>                 ;;
>         * ) case $HOSTTYPE in
>                 "ia64" ) echo "Copying 64-bit components..."
>                  ln -s /usr/sbin/MegaCt32 /usr/sbin/MegaCtrl
>                  #rm -f  /usr/sbin/MegaCt32
>                 ;;
>                 *) echo "Copying 32-bit components..."
>                    ln -s /usr/sbin/MegaCt32 /usr/sbin/MegaCtrl
>                    #rm -f  /usr/sbin/MegaCt64
>                 ;;
>             esac
>             ;;
> esac
> 
>   a gold star goes to whoever wrote that.  seriously, who does the QA
>   for this stuff?
> 
> - percsnmp (dell)
> 
>   can't get it to work.  it looks like a dell-rebranded version of the
>   LSI-provided sassnmp, which doesn't work either.  the only difference
>   from what i can tell is that the comments are removed from the   
>   scripts.
> 
> - dellmgr (dell)
> 
>   can't get it to work.  it immediately dies for lack of a megadev
>   device.  i *do* have a megadev_sas_ioctl_node, though i'm not sure
>   it's the same thing (and no, symlinking doesn't fix it :)
> 
> - sassnmp (lsi)
> 
>   can't get it to work.  even after installing the requisite libraries,
>   it forks off a child which tries to connect to an impossibly large
>   socket number (guessing 32-vs-64-bit problem) and dies.  also,  if you
>   want to talk about sketchy stuff:
>   - all files in the package are shipped in /etc
>   - a postinst script calls /etc/sassnmp/install, which copies files 
>     elsewhere in the system
>   - the install script references files in /etc/sassnmp that don't exist
>   - the program has hardcoded paths to snmptrap etc, and during the
>     install script will move files around on your filesystem to
>     accomodate this.
>   - yes, the dell version has all these features too.
> 
> - megaCli (lsi)
> 
>   - finally, something that works.  it isn't pretty but i can hide in in
>     a perl wrapper if necessary.
> 
> - dell omsa (dell)
> 
>    - haven't tried this yet, but i've heard negative reports elsewhere
>      about 64-bit support.  will this work for the PERC devices or only
>      for the rest of the chassis components?
> 
> 
> furthermore, i can't help but notice none of the software uses LSB
> features (init scripts, for example)....
> 
> but i'll stop this now before i get into full-on-rant-mode.  i'd
> appreciate any feedback.

what type of linux? OMSA works fine on RHEL (CentOS) x86_64 for me