HighPoint RR3700 Series User manual

Linux RHEL on RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720 Installation Guide
HighPoint RR3700/2800/800/R700
RAID Controller
Linux RHEL
Installation Guide
Copyright © 2023 HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Last updated on July 10, 2023

Linux RHEL on RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720 Installation Guide
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Table of Contents
1 Overview.......................................................................................................................................1
2 Installing Linux RHELon 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 RHEL..................................................................................................................5
3 Monitoring the Driver ...............................................................................................................10
4 Installing RAID Management Software...................................................................................10
5 Troubleshooting..........................................................................................................................10
6 Rebuilding Driver Module for System Update........................................................................11
7 Appendix A .................................................................................................................................12

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1 Overview
The purpose of this document is to provide clear instructions on how to install Linux
RHEL on the RR Series RAID controller.
Supported system: RHEL7.2/7.3/7.9/8.3/8.5/8.6/8.7/9.0/9.1
Supported controller: RR3740/3720/2840/840/3742/710/720
2 Installing Linux RHEL on RR Series RAID
controller
If you would like to install Linux RHEL 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/PnPConfiguration->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 CreateArray
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_RHELx.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 RHEL
For Example：RHEL9.1
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+F2to 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

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#cp -a /hptdd/hptdd /tmp/ ← Copy driver installation file to system temporary
directory
# 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
RHEL.
# sh /tmp/hptdd/rhel-install-step1.sh ← Load RR3740C driver.
d. Then press “ALT+F6”to switch back to installation screen and Choose language.
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 and click “refresh”, but if you didn't find this option,
you can press Ctrl+ALT+F2 to the shell and type # restart-anaconda
then choose your own disk and begin installation.

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3) Set Root Password
f. When the screen shows that “Complete!”.
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

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g. Press ALT+F6 and press Reboot System.
h. If you want to boot from another kernel, please install the RR Series driver after entering
the system.
i. 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
j. Please execute the following command before installing the driver, please connect to the
internet:
1）Log in to your REHL account password
# subscription-manager register --username xxx --password=xxx --auto-attach
2）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.
./rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin or
sh rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin
k. Follow the prompts to complete the driver installation.

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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.
5 Troubleshooting
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. Choose “Red Hat Enterprise Linux(5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1.x86_64)9.1.” and 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

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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.
./rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin or
sh rr37xx_8xx_28xx_linux_x86_64_src_vxx.x.x_xx_xx_xx.bin
e. Follow the prompts to complete the driver installation.
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.