What is Hitachi's RAID Adapter, why does it use an additional binary driver and why doesn't Red Hat support it directly?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

Hitachi RAID feature on Hitachi BladeSymphony and HA8000 servers.

Issue

What is Hitachi's RAID Adapter, why does it use an additional binary driver and why doesn't Red Hat support it directly?

Resolution

Hitachi offers its own RAID on it's servers such as the BladeSymphony 2000, BladeSymphony 320 and HA8000 which includes a "value add" driver option that works with Hitachi storage. The driver and other Hitachi software are supported through a cooperative agreement between Red Hat and Hitachi.

While Red Hat supports the Red Hat Enterprise Linux software as defined by our Service Level Agreement (SLA), there is a dependency on Hitachi to support their proprietary Host Bus Adapter (HBA) and its binary driver. If there are problems in this area, the support response times specified in the Red Hat Service Level Agreement (SLA) may not apply. For those customers wishing to use only Red Hat Enterprise Linux supported hardware and software, Hitachi also provides and supports the LSI RAID Adapter on the BladeSymphony 2000, BladeSymphony 320 and HA8000. Red Hat does support this adapter and our SLA does apply in this case. For additional information please consult the following pages.

  • Hitachi contact point for the hardware:

          http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/etc/inquiry.html

  • Hitachi RAID Adapter driver download URL for BladeSymphony 2000

    • [RHEL5 driver]

          x86 http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/download/driver/update_Xen_HRA_driver_BS2000_IA32_1_5_3_44.html
           x86_64 http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/download/driver/update_Xen_HRA_driver_BS2000_X86_64_2_5_3_44.html

  • [RHEL6 driver]

          x86 http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/download/driver/update_Driver_4101001.html
          86_64 http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/download/driver/update_Driver_4102001.html

  • Hitachi RAID Adapter driver download URL for BladeSymphony 320 and HA8000

          x86 http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/download/driver/update_Xen_HRA_driver_BS320_IA32_1_5_4_44.html
           x86_64 http://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/bladesymphony/download/driver/update_Xen_HRA_driver_BS320_X86_64_2_5_4_44.html

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