Hello Drew,
I'm also using some software (Symantec Storage Foundation) using kernel
modules which were built from much older versions of the el5 kernel.
Some ISV's are more flexible than others on this matter and Symantec says
this:
'VERITAS products will operate on subsequent kernel and patch releases,
provided the operating systems maintain kernel application binary
interface (ABI) compatibility'
(See http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/256426.htm, that's for 4.1
but the same holds true for SF 5.0 and other products)
Look at the folllowing example:
- This el5 host is running el5 'kernel' (not kernel-xenu, for which there
are no Symantec kernel modules):
[r...@vx ~]# uname -a
Linux vx 2.6.18-128.1.1.el5 #1 SMP Mon Jan 26 13:58:24 EST 2009 x86_64 x86_64
x86_64 GNU/Linux
- This host runs the Symantec kernel modules just fine:
[r...@vx ~]# lsmod |grep vx
vxspec 41712 10
vxio 5643576 1
vxdmp 285200 8 vxspec,vxio
vxportal 41488 0
vxfs 2019408 2 vxportal,fdd
- Those vx* kernel modules were built for a much older version of the el5
kernel:
[r...@vx ~]# modinfo vxio|grep vermag
vermagic: 2.6.18-8.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1
[r...@vx ~]# modinfo vxfs|grep vermag
vermagic: 2.6.18-8.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1
[r...@vx ~]# modinfo vxdmp|grep vermag
vermagic: 2.6.18-8.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1
What this all means to you is as follows:
As long as your drivers respect the KABI (I.E: don't rely on private
symbols in the kernel modules, I guess), it is very likely that they will
work on much more recent versions of the kernel.
Of course, if those drivers don't work at all, then you should open a
support call with your ISV (and RedHat as well, maybe).
I hope this helps,
Vincent
On Mon, 2 Mar 2009, drew einhorn wrote:
We have a hardware raid controller that requires specific kernel versions.
Before we get into the nitty gritty details. Does know of some hardware
specific lists that might be more appropriate for these questions.
The hardware platform is an IBM x Series 3850
with a ServeRAID mr10k raid controller.
This controller is an IBM branded version of
the LSI Logic MegaRAID 8480.
There is a MegaCLI interface that allows us to manage the raid hardware from
the operating system with having to take the system down and use the
management tools from the BIOS prompt.
Unfortunately the drivers necessary to support the this interface are only
available for 2.6.18-8 and 2.6.18-53. I somewhat arbitrarily chose to
install 2.6.18-53, on the theory that it is more up to date.
configuring yum to not update kernel-2.6.18-53 is holding back 21
security updates,
and 5 bugfix updates.
There are other newer kernels of the 2.6.18-8.x.y and 2.6.18-53.x.y
I am wondering if these kernels have security and bugfixs updates,
but are still compatible with the 2.6.18-8 and 2.6.18-53 drivers.
Digging around on the IBM support website. I'm finding some newer
updates from IBM for the 2.6.18-8 drivers, but I am confused by slightly
different package names and numbers
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