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From ToKind

Update

It turns out the ISO I downloaded a few weeks ago was the wrong version of SLES. I downloaded it though the account channels and apparently at that time the links to the ISO had not been modified to point to the latest version. I now have the correct ISO on DVD and install swims right along. Two weeks of my life I will never get back. Lesson learned? When you run the media consistency check, take a look of the actual ID of the image being verified.'

I normally don't write much about my job here, as I write plenty about it elsewhere but I am going to make an exception this time. I like creative pursuits. I am self-taught in most things and IT skills are no exception. I find technology interesting and challenging. The most interesting part for me is man-machine interfaces and information architecture.

However, at the end of the day I am often frustrated enough with all of the archain crap that I have to work through, the last thing I want to do is look at a computer.

I have quite a challenging millstone hanging around my neck right now. My shop has always stuck with Dell Servers. I also walked into a Novell directory services environment just as Novell was transitioning from Netware to Linux. Since I don't really cherish the Micro$oft experience and I am a big aficionado of BSD and GNU style Linux, I decided to keep on this train.

Dell was an early Linux proponent and they advertise Red Hat and SLES (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server) as partners, and assure customers that they support these operating systems. Up until today this has worked very well for me. In the last decade I transitioned my infrastructure from NetWare (6.5 if you are curious) to OES 2 on SLES. I have since then again migrated to a new generation of Dell servers.

When It came time to migrate to new hardware this year, I confidently ordered the new hardware. I took panes to make sure that the servers were delivered with SAS hardware controllers to support RAID1 and RAID5 configurations. And then the !_@# hit the fan. I cannot get the SLES 11 SP2 installer to see the controller. SLES cannot be installed.

I have been working with Dell and Novell support for several weeks not to get the right drivers loaded so that I can move forward. Dell is deferring to Novell, and Novell is confident of what should be working. The server will not read any driver update disk files, whether on a CD or a memory drive. It detects the presence of the media but refuses to load them.

I have asked Novell support twice if they can do a new build incorporating the megaraid_sas drivers and have not gotten any affirmation or rejection. I'm asking again.