Remco Barendse <redhat@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks for the tips. I don't know if I'd want an extra
> partition on all my servers.
Reserving 1-8GB at the front of my server's array volume has
saved my bacon so many times -- DOS for firmware upload,
vendor diagnostic tool, helper Linux install for recovery,
etc...
> An alternative idea, create a DOS boot disc with the
> firmware update, burn that as a bootable cdrom and
> perform the upgrade.
Assuming you have at least CD-ROM drive. ;->
And sometimes there can be issues with that.
E.g., ServerWorks ServerSet III southbridges were not always
well known for their "good" ATA support.
> I tried that last week but for some reason the cd didn't
> boot but that's probably more because I goofed up creating
> the cd :)
Instead of dorking with all that, I can plop down the dd
image. I purposely leave an unused /dev/hda1 of cylinders
1-79 (assuming 255/63 heads/sectors) in case I do need to
plop down that dd image. In many cases, I go ahead and set
it up anyway -- just in case (leaving /dev/hda2 for any
possible Linux install as a "helper" system).
Once it's there, copying over a vendor firmware .com/.exe and
other files is a matter of mounting /dev/hda1 as msdos (not
vfat ;-), and plopping it. No CD building issues.
> And I don't care about the cost of a cd recordable compared
> to not upgrading the controller
What I care about is the only 5 seconds it takes me to mount
the msdos filesystem, copy the vendor firmware .com/.exe and
other files, and then unmount versus the minutes to put
together a boot CD or USB image.
--
Bryan J. Smith | Sent from Yahoo Mail
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