teh bigbro blog(tm)
Bigbro's foray into the scary world of blogging
31 01 2007

Wed, 31 Jan 2007

I recently was required to make a dual-boot Red-Hat Linux AS and HP-UX server on some HP 9000 hardware. IN case I ever need to do such a thing again, here are the steps I took.

1. First configure the iLo interface. Largely, it's a matter of giving it a valid IP address and gateway so that you can route to it. This must be done by someone with local access to the server (unless you have management infrastructure to handle remote configuration from blank tin - but we won't discuss that here.)
2. Log into the server using the web iLo interface and get a console up. From here on in you should be able to do everything bar change the CDs from your remote console. You may want to click the 'Zoom In/Out' button to separate the console from the browser window and push [Ctrl]+[E], [C], [F] to grab control of the console and allow input. On my system, Ctrl+E appears to be bound to some shortcut bringing up google for some reason.
3. I got someone on site to insert the Smart Start boot CD so I could configure RAID, etc., etc.
4. I also had HP-UX already installed on one of the disks in the system. HP-UX does not like sharing disk with any other OS, so for safety I requested that the HP-UX system disk be removed from the array (Just pop it out of the backplane while the system is powered up.) The BIOS boot options are stored in flash, so will still offer to boot HP-UX even though the disk is no longer installed. Ignore this for the moment and boot from CD/DVD.
5. Select the option to 'Install Linux' from the Smart Start menu - or just reboot with the first Red Hat AS install CD in the drive and select 'Boot from CD/DVD' from the EFI boot menu.
6. Red Hat will display the ELILO: boot prompt. Since we're working on a remote console you'll need to manually tell it to boot with linux console=ttyS0
7. You now have the standard Linux anaconda boot screen, albeit in black and white and on a console.
8. Install as normal - being quite careful to keep track of your cursor on the screen. I could not get the Function keys to work, and if you're using Firefox you may need to select the 'Zoom In/Out' button on the terminal window to allow you to send the Ctrl + E, c, f keystroke combo to the iLo terminal. I found that unless I 'Zoomed In' the Ctrl+E got trapped by firefox and left me with a google search window. Your shortcut keys may be configured differently, of course.
9. Once the installation is complete, reboot as normal, add RedHat to the EFI boot menu and Bob's your mother's brother.
10. After verifying that RedHat now boots and works correctly, power the server off and re-seat the HP-UX disk. The EFI boot menu will now allow you to select whether to boot into RedHat AS or HP-UX on power up.

I'm in unseasonably warm Bucharest at the moment. There's a beautiful mix of old and new buildings and some fantastic Eastern European architecture to be seen all around. The only big change I've noticed since Romania joined the EU has been that the huge amount of cigarette advertising seems to be hugely cut down. There are empty billboards throughout the city, which I assume carried the massive amount of cigarette advertising I noticed the last time I was here.
Courtesy of my camera phone, here's the view out of my 7th floor hotel room window, on to Calae Victoria below, one of the two main streets in Bucharest.

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