1. Loading drivers

Execute modprobe qla2300 to load drivers in memory and check the correctness of /etc/modules.conf.

2. Starting configuration

The file /etc/modules.conf allows you to define the configuration of the HBA cards. With that, they can be detected correctly on start of the SMP. If you edit this file, you can see (just an example):

alias eth0 e1000
alias eth1 e1000
alias scsi_hostadapter megaraid2
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias usb-controller1 ehci-hcd
alias block-major-43 off

The objective is to add at the end of this file information relative to the new cards. They are:

alias scsi_hostadpater qla2300_conf
alias scsi_hostadapter1 qla2300

Be careful: if another line already contains an alias like "scsi_hostadapter", you need to raise the index of your cards like that:

alias scsi_hostadapter megaraid2
…
alias scsi_hostadpater1 qla2300_conf +1
alias scsi_hostadapter2 qla2300 +1

3. Re-initialization of configuration

Next we need to use the mkinitrd command. Change directory to /boot before executing this command because location of generated files are in the current path. It is necessary to collect the name of the current image before you construct your command.  To do that we'll execute ls /boot and ls /lib/modules.

[root@test root]# ls /boot
config-2.4.21-50.EL System.map
config-2.4.21-50.ELsmp System.map-2.4.21-50.EL
Grub System.map-2.4.21-50.ELsmp
initrd-2.4.21-50.EL.img vmlinux-2.4.21-50.EL
initrd-2.4.21-50.ELsmp.img vmlinux-2.4.21-50.ELsmp
kernel.h vmlinuz-2.4.21-50.EL
lost+found vmlinuz-2.4.21-50.ELsmp

[root@test root]# ls /lib/modules/
2.4.21-50.EL 2.4.21-50.ELsmp

To build our command, we use option "f" and "v" switches to indicate the name of the image and the corresponding file. In our case, the two are:

initrd-2.4.21-50.EL.img & 2.4.21-50.EL
initrd-2.4.21-50.ELsmp.img & 2.4.21-50.ELsmp

The commands will be:

[root@test root]# cd /boot
[root@test boot]# mkinitrd -f -v initrd-2.4.21-50.EL.img 2.4.21-50.EL
[root@test boot]# mkinitrd -f -v initrd-2.4.21-50.ELsmp.img 2.4.21-50.ELsmp

For example, the result may look like this:

Looking for deps of module scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module sd_mod scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module unknown
Looking for deps of module megaraid_sas scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module qla2300_conf
Looking for deps of module qla2300 diskdumplib scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module diskdumplib
Looking for deps of module scsi_mod
Looking for deps of module ide-disk
Looking for deps of module lvm-mod
Looking for deps of module ext3 jbd
Looking for deps of module jbd
Looking for deps of module lvm-mod
Using modules: ./kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_mod.o ./kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.o ./kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.o

./kernel/drivers/addon/qla2200/qla2300_conf.o ./kernel/drivers/block/diskdumplib.o ./kernel/drivers/addon/qla2200/qla2300.o

./kernel/drivers/md/lvm-mod.o ./kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.o ./kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.o
Using loopback device /dev/loop0
/sbin/nash -> /tmp/initrd.rV2782/bin/nash
/sbin/insmod.static -> /tmp/initrd.rV2782/bin/insmod
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_mod.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/scsi_mod.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/sd_mod.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/megaraid_sas.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/addon/qla2200/qla2300_conf.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/qla2300_conf.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/block/diskdumplib.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/diskdumplib.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/addon/qla2200/qla2300.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/qla2300.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/drivers/md/lvm-mod.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/lvm-mod.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/jbd.o'
`/lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/./kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.o' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/lib/ext3.o'
`/dev/sda2' -> `/tmp/initrd.rV2782/dev/sda2'
/sbin/vgwrapper -> /tmp/initrd.rV2782/bin/vgwrapper
Loading module scsi_mod
Loading module sd_mod
Loading module megaraid_sas
Loading module qla2300_conf
Loading module diskdumplib
Loading module qla2300
Loading module lvm-mod
Loading module jbd
Loading module ext3

4. Reboot

A reboot is now mandatory because we need to see if after a restart all information will be loaded into memory. To do that, we use the command "reboot":

[root@test boot]# reboot

5. Verification of data

After start is over, we use the command "dmesg" to check if all is ok. In the result, we need to find the next lines (like in example):

[root@test boot]# dmesg
qla2x00_set_info starts at address = f888b060
qla2x00: Found VID=1077 DID=2312 SSVID=1077 SSDID=100
qla2x00_detect subsys_vend=0x1077 subsys_dev=0x100
scsi(1): Found a QLA2312 @ bus 15, device 0x3, irq 48, iobase 0xf8948000
scsi(1): 64 Bit PCI Addressing Enabled.
scsi(1): Allocated 4096 SRB(s).
scsi(1): Configure NVRAM parameters...
scsi(1): Verifying loaded RISC code...
scsi(1): Verifying chip...
scsi(1): Waiting for LIP to complete...
scsi(1): Waiting for LIP to complete...
scsi(1): Cable is unplugged...
scsi-qla0-adapter-node=200000e08b9c4478\;
scsi-qla0-adapter-port=210000e08b9c4478\;
qla2x00_detect num_hosts=0
qla2x00: Found VID=1077 DID=2312 SSVID=1077 SSDID=100
qla2x00_detect subsys_vend=0x1077 subsys_dev=0x100
scsi(2): Found a QLA2312 @ bus 16, device 0x4, irq 72, iobase 0xf894a000
scsi(2): 64 Bit PCI Addressing Enabled.
scsi(2): Allocated 4096 SRB(s).
scsi(2): Configure NVRAM parameters...
scsi(2): Verifying loaded RISC code...
scsi(2): Verifying chip...
scsi(2): Waiting for LIP to complete...
scsi(2): Waiting for LIP to complete...
scsi(2): Cable is unplugged...
scsi-qla1-adapter-node=200000e08b9cac65\;
scsi-qla1-adapter-port=210000e08b9cac65\;
qla2x00_detect num_hosts=1
scsi1 : QLogic QLA2312 PCI to Fibre Channel Host Adapter: bus 15 device 3 irq 48
Firmware version: 3.03.19, Driver version 7.07.04b6

scsi2 : QLogic QLA2312 PCI to Fibre Channel Host Adapter: bus 16 device 4 irq 72
Firmware version: 3.03.19, Driver version 7.07.04b6

In this case, cable are unplugged from the card therefore message scsi(1): Cable is unplugged.... If one or more cards have been plugged in then a different message would be displayed.

Index displayed are correct and correspond to values that we specify in file modules.conf.

The last two lines allow to determine versions, firmware, etc. of installed cards.