HighPoint RR3700 Series User manual

Linux CentOS on RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720 Installation Guide
HighPoint RR3700/2800/800/R700
RAID Controller
Linux CentOS
Installation Guide
Copyright © 2023 HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Last updated on March 22, 2023

Linux CentOS on RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720 Installation Guide
i
Table of Contents
1 Overview .........................................................................................................................................1
2 Installing Linux CentOS on RR Series RAID controller .......................................................... 1
Step 1 Prepare Your Hardware for Installation .......................................................................... 1
Step 2 Check System EFI Settings .............................................................................................1
Step 3 Flash UEFI Rom to RAID Controller ............................................................................. 3
Step 4 Create Array .....................................................................................................................4
Step 5 Prepare the Driver Diskette .............................................................................................5
Step 6 Install CentOS ................................................................................................................. 5
3 Monitoring the Driver ................................................................................................................... 9
4 Installing RAID Management Software ......................................................................................9
5 Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................................... 10
6 Rebuilding Driver Module for System Update ......................................................................... 11
7 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 12

Linux CentOS on RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720 Installation Guide
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1 Overview
The purpose of this document is to provide clear instructions on how to install Linux
CentOS on the RR Series RAID controller.
Supported system: CentOS7.0/7.1/7.2/7.3/7.4/7.5/7.6/7.7/7.8/7.9/8.0/8.1
Supported controller: RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720
2 Installing Linux CentOS on RR Series RAID
controller
If you would like to install Linux CentOS onto drives attached to RR Series RAID
controller, please perform the following operations:
Step 1 Prepare Your Hardware for Installation
After you attach your hard disks to RAID controller, you can use EFI Utility to configure
your hard disks as RAID arrays, or just use them as single disks.
Before installation, you must remove all the Hard disks, which are not physically attached
to RAID controller, from your system.
Note
RAID Controller support EFI boot. If you have other SCSI adapters installed, you must
make sure the RR Series controller EFI will be loaded firstly. If not, try to move it to
another PCI slot. Otherwise you may be unable to boot up your system.
Step 2 Check System EFI Settings
In your system EFI SETUP menu, change Boot Sequence in such a way that the system
will first boot from EFI CDROM or EFI a Bootable USB drive, after you finish
installation, set RR Series RAID as the first boot device to boot up the system. Refer to
your motherboard EFI manual to see how to set boot sequence.
1. Set UEFI setting with SuperMicro X11DPi-NT motherboard as an example.
a. "Advanced->PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration->CPUSlot PCI-E OPROM"
to "EFI". Suppose RAID Controller is connected to motherboard CPU1 Slot 2
PCI-E X16, then you should set "CPU1 Slot 2 PCI-E X16 OPROM" to "EFI";

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b. Disable "Secure Boot", set "Attempt Secure Boot" to "Disabled".
2. Set UEFI setting with GA-X570 AORUS MASTER motherboard as an example.
a. Set " Boot->CSM Support " to "Enabled";
b. And" Boot-> Storage Boot Option Control " to "UEFI Only";

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3. Set UEFI setting with ASUS PRIME X299 -DELUXE motherboard as an example:
a. Set "Boot from Storage Devices" to "UEFI driver first";
b. And "Boot Device Control" to "UEFI Only" or "UEFI and Legacy OPROM";
c. Set "OS Type" to "Other OS".
Step 3 Flash UEFI Rom to RAID Controller
For Example RR3740C：
For other products, please refer to: Update BIOS_ UEFI ROM
Note ： Make sure your USB flash partition format is FAT32.
a. Unzip RR3740C UEFI package to root dir(/) of a USB flash drive, and insert the
USB flash drive to the motherboard;
b. Booting from the UEFI USB flash and enter the UEFI environment;

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c. Command with “rr3740.nsh”, flash UEFI rom to RR3740C Controller and reboot;
Step 4 Create Array
a. Attach two hard disks to RR3740C Controller;
b. Boot, enter the motherboard’s Boot List and select start from UEFI USB flash:
c. Command “ArrayCreate.efi” to enter the Utility:
d. Command “create RAID0”.
Create RAID0 array with all disks and with maximum capacity.
e. Command “exit”；
f. For more command usages, refer to Appendix A.

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RR3742/3720/710/720/2840/840 also supports the creation method of BIOS/UEFI HII.
Please refer to UM-Chapter 4
Step 5 Prepare the Driver Diskette
Extract RR37xx_8xx_28xx_centosxxx.xx.x_x86_64_vx.xx.xx_xx_xx_xx.tar.gz to top(/)
directory of an USB flash drive. It will look like:
Step 6 Install CentOS
For Example：CentOS8.1
a. Insert the USB flash drive to the target system.
b. Booting from Bootable USB drive (EFI mode).
c. When the following window appears during the installation process,
Press Ctrl+ALT+F2 to switch to the shell on console and press Enter to activate this
console.
And then execute following commands to copy the driver contents:
# mkdir /hptdd ← Create mount point for USB flash drive
# mount /dev/sda1 /hptdd/ ← Mount the USB flash drive to /hptdd
# cp -a /hptdd/hptdd /tmp/ ← Copy driver installation file to system temporary
directory

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# umount /dev/sda1 ← Unmount the USB flash drive
When the USB flash drive is unmounted, please unplug the USB flash drive from the
mainboard. And then execute following command to install driver to install the Linux
CentOS.
# sh /tmp/hptdd/rhel-install-step1.sh ← Load RR3740C driver.
you need to type the following commands to restart the installation program,
otherwise the disk connected the RR Series will not be recognized by the installation
program:
# restart-anaconda ←restart the installation program
d. Then You will be returned to the installation process.
e. When the following window appears during the installation process,

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1) Set Software Selection and choose Server with GUI→Development Tools
2) Select Installation Destination
then choose your own disk and begin installation.
f. When the screen shows that “Complete!”.

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press Ctrl+ALT+F2 to the shell and type the following commands:
# cp -r /tmp/hptdd /mnt/sysimage/tmp/hptdd
# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# sh /tmp/hptdd/rhel-install-step2.sh
# rm -rf /tmp/hptdd
# exit
g. Press ALT+F6 and press Reboot.
h. If you want to boot from another kernel, please install the RR3700 Series opensource
driver after entering the system.
i. Restart to enter the system, please connect to the internet:
j. Linux opensource driver link, open the following link to enter the "Software Download"
page to download:
RR3700 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr3700-overview
RR2800 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr2800-overview
RR800 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr800-overview
Rocket 700 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rocket700-series
Extract driver package:
tar zxvf RR37xx_8xx_28xx_Linux_X86_64_Src_vx.xx.xx_xx_xx_xx.tar.gz
Run the .bin file to install the driver package.

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sh rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin or
./ rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin
k. Follow the prompts to complete the driver installation.
l. After the installation is complete, you can perform system update operations.
3 Monitoring the Driver
Once the driver is running, you can monitor it through the Linux proc file system support.
There is a special file under /proc/scsi/rr3740a /. Through this file you can view driver
status and send control commands to the driver.
Note
The file name is the SCSI host number allocated by OS. If you have no other SCSI cards
installed, it will be 0. In the following sections, we will use x to represent this number.
Using the following command to show driver status:
#cat /proc/scsi/rr3740a /x
This command will show the driver version number, physical device list and logical device
list.
4 Installing RAID Management Software
HighPoint RAID Management Software is used to configure and keep track of your hard
disks and RAID arrays attached to RR Series RAID controller. Installation of the
management software is optional but recommended.
Please refer to HighPoint RAID Management Software documents for more information.

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5 Troubleshooting
1. If you do not install the system or update the kernel according to the installation manual,
the system will crash and you will not be able to enter. Please follow the steps below.
a. Select the default “CentOS Linux (4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64) 8” and press enter the
system
b. Install Linux Opensource driver.
c. Linux Opensource driver link, open the following link to enter the "Software Download"
page to download:
RR3700 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr3700-overview
RR2800 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr2800-overview
RR800 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr800-overview
Rocket 700 Series: https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rocket700-series
d. Run the .bin file to install the driver package.
sh rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin or
./ rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin
e. Follow the prompts to complete the driver installation.
2. If you encounter error: some building tools are missing or toolchain to built the driver is
incomplete

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a. The system is not connected to a network (internet connection)
solution:
•Double check the system’s internet connection
•Once confirmed, reinstall the driver.
b. This problem can be caused by a lack of dependency packages
solution:
•Make sure that your system can install software from the network.
For example：yum install vim
6 Rebuilding Driver Module for System Update
When the system updates the kernel packages, the driver module rr3740a.ko should be
built and installed manually before reboot.
Please refer to the README file distributed with HighPoint RR Series RAID Controller
opensource package on how to build and install the driver module.

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7 Appendix A
Support command: help/info/quit/exit/create/delete
Create Command
Syntax
Create Array Type (RAID0/RAID1/10/5/50) Member Disk list (1/1, 1/2|*)
Capacity (100|*)
Note:
The RR840/RR2840/RR3720/RR3740/RR3742 controllers can support
RAID0/RAID1/10/5/50
The R710/R720 controllers can support RAID0/RAID1/RAID10
Examples
<<< create RAID0
<<< create RAID0 *
<<< create RAID0 * *
Create RAID0 array with all disks and with maximum capacity.
<<< create RAID1 1/1, 1/3 10
Create RAID1 array with disk 1/1 and 1/3 and with 10GB capacity.
<<< create RAID10 *
Create RAID10 array with all disks and with maximum capacity.
<<< create RAID5 *
Create RAID5 array with all disks and with maximum capacity.
<<< create RAID50,3 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6
Create RAID50 array with disk 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6 and with
sub member count 3 and with maximum capacity.
Delete Command
Syntax
delete {array ID}

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Examples
<<< delete 1
Delete the first array from Logical device list.
<<< delete 2
Delete the second array from Logical device list.
Info Command
Syntax
info
Display physical device list and logical list
Exit Command
Syntax
Q/q/quit/exit
Quit the application
Help Command
Syntax
H/h/help
This is help message.