[rhelv6-list] rhel6.4 kernel breaks server hardware vendor mgmt tools

[Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Santiago) discussion mailing-list]

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Santiago) discussion mailing-list"
<rhelv6-list at redhat.com> writes:

>> The decision to statically link the IPMI kernel modules in rhel6.4
>> breaks various vendor hardware management tools. So far I've confirmed
>> that Dell Openmanage Server Administrator (OMSA) and HP Proliant support
>> pack depend on those modules being standalone like before. These tools
>> don't work with the 6.4 kernel.
>>
>> It's probably just the init scripts for the services that need to be
>> fixed in order to work with statically linked IPMI modules, but out of
>> the box these services are broken.
>
> Have you had the chance to take a look at the OMSA stuff?
> If it is really only the init script?

Yes, it's only the init script "dsm_sa_ipmi" that needs to be fixed. I
finally found some time to fiddle around with this, and to get it
working again you only need to replace the contents of this file:

  /etc/init.d/dsm_sa_ipmi

with the following:

  #!/bin/sh
  modprobe platform:ipmi_si
  exit 0

The modprobe line takes care of loading the "module" in a pseudo-ish way
(I haven't really been digging into this bit), and creates the device
file /dev/ipmi0 with proper major/minor number.

PS. The script should probably be created as a proper init script, but
this works as a quick fix. Whenever Dell decides to release a fixed
version of OMSA, an upgraded srvadmin-hapi package will probably just
replace the file, so you shouldn't have to worry about having to clean
up your changes.

Cheers,
-- 
Trond H. Amundsen <t.h.amundsen at usit.uio.no>
Center for Information Technology Services, University of Oslo