How to Set Up Dell Perc 4/SC Monitoring on Ubuntu 6 LTS

I needed to be able to monitor a RAID controller on an Ubuntu Linux server running with a Dell PERC 4/SC RAID controller with SCSI drives. Dell does not support this configuration, but they do provide some RPM packages that can be modified to run on Ubuntu. Here's how I did it...

Download the best fitting Dell package for your setup. I found mine at http://support.dell.com

You can find newer versions by searching for "perc linux" under drivers and downloads.

Download the file and save it on the Ubuntu server. My file was called perc-apps-A08.tar.gz

Put the file in its own directory, then unpack it:

# tar -xvfz perc-apps-A08.tar.gz

You get files like these:
Dellmgr-5.32-0.i386.rpm
linflash-3.03-0.i386.rpm
Megamon-4.0-2.i386.rpm
percsnmp-4.10a-1.i386.rpm
percsnmp-4.10a-1.tar.gz
perc-apps-A08.txt

Convert the RPMs to deb files by using alien (install it by typing: apt-get install alien).

# alien -d Dellmgr-5.32-0.i386.rpm
# alien -d --scripts Megamon-4.0-2.i386.rpm
etc...

Note that the file names have now been adapted by alien to the debian way of doing things, so the _ and - and . are different. Use the names as created by alien.

Install the packages using dpkg:

# dpkg -i dellmgr_5.32-0_i386.deb
# dpkg -i megamon_4.0-2_i386.deb

I didn't install the linflash or percsnmp packages.

Note that the megamon installation doesn't completely work. The start up script is in the wrong place and Redhat uses chkconfig and debian/Ubuntu doesn't. Fix up the installation of megamon by changing the startup script location and some settings in it.

Move the startup script:

# mv /etc/rc.d/init.d/raidmon /etc/init.d

# nano /etc/init.d/raidmon

Now fix it up so that we use the ubuntu startup methodology.

NOTE: This example doesn't quite work... I don't have it killing the daemon consistently.

I've used "### Ubuntu way:" and "###" to indicate my changes:

#!/bin/sh
#
# chkconfig: 2345 20 80
# description: RAIDMon is a daemon that monitors the RAID subsystem
#               And generates e-mail to root
# processname: MegaServ.

# source function library
###. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
### Ubuntu way:
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

case "$1" in
  start)
        megadevice="megadev0"
        rm -f /dev/$megadevice 2>/dev/null
        megamajor=`cat /proc/devices|gawk '/megadev/{print$1}' `
        mknod /dev/$megadevice c $megamajor 0 2>/dev/null
        # New check : Timir: 10-31-01: Does node exist
        if [ ! -c /dev/$megadevice ]
        then
          echo "
                Character Device Node /dev/$megadevice does not exist.
                Raid Monitor could not be started
                "
          exit 1
        fi

        #echo -n 'Starting NetRAID Monitor:'
        echo -n 'Starting RAID Monitor:'
        ### Ubuntu way:
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /var/run/raidmon.pid \
             --exec /usr/sbin/MegaCtrl -- -start
        ### Ubuntu way:
        ###touch /var/lock/raidmon
    echo
        ;;
  stop)
        #echo -n 'Stopping NetRAID Monitor:'
        echo -n 'Stopping RAID Monitor:'
        ### Ubuntu way:
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --pidfile /var/run/raidmon.pid
        megadevice="megadev0"
        rm -f /dev/$megadevice 2>/dev/null
        ### Ubuntu way:
        ###rm -f /var/lock/raidmon 2>/dev/null
    echo
        ;;
  restart|reload)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
        ;;
  *)
        #echo "NetRAID Monitor is not Started/Stopped"
        echo "RAID Monitor is not Started/Stopped"
        echo "Usage: raidmon {start|stop|restart}"
        exit 1
esac

exit 0

Add a list of users to get emailed any issues with raidmon:

# nano /etc/megamon.conf

And insert your email address at the end of the file:

youremail@address.here

Start the raidmon service:

# /etc/init.d/raidmon start

Check the log:

# tail /var/log/megaserv.log

Add the raidmon service to the appropriate run levels ( start in rc levels 2-5) using update-rc.d instead of chkconfig:

# update-rc.d raidmon defaults

Do "update-rc.d --help", if you want to see the other options for using update-rc.d.

To check the status of your raid controller (be careful!), you can run the dellmgr program:

# dellmgr