Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS for Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers User Guide

Server 18.04 LTS for Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers
User Guide

Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS for Dell EMC
PowerEdge Servers
Release Notes

Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS for Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers

Notes, cautions, and warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.

Release summary

Topics:

• Version
• Release date
• Priority and recommendations

Version
Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS
Release date
September 2020

Priority and recommendations
RECOMMENDED: Dell EMC highly recommends applying this update as soon as possible. The update contains changes to improve the reliability and availability of your Dell EMC system.

Compatibility

Topics:

• Supported systems
• Previous versions

Supported systems
yx4x and yx5x Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.
Previous versions
Ubuntu 16.04.5
Ubuntu 18.04

New and enhanced in this release

For information about the new and enhanced features of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, see www.ubuntu.com/server.

Important notes

The default server ISO image is the general availability (GA) kernel-Linux 5.4. To download Ubuntu Server installer media and ISO images, go to www.ubuntu.com/download/server. Links to download Ubuntu Server 20.04.1 LTS and the canonical Ubuntu 20.04 release notes are found on this page.
NOTE: By default, the Subiquity installer download is available. Ubuntu 20.04 does not support the Debian-installer.

Known issues

Topics:

• Booting into operating system fails on systems with TPM 1.2 chips
• Ubuntu server suspends automatically when idle
•  ACPI kernel fails to assign BAR register to PCI device
• ACPI error messages related to IPMI are displayed in dmesg log
• Unable to create or modify namespace for NVDIMM
• Unable to shut down Ubuntu when the graceful shutdown option from iDRAC is selected or when power button is pressed on the server
• Ubuntu fails to reboot when onboard DVD drives are connected to servers with AMD processor
• Unable to install Ubuntu 18.04 in software RAID (S140) disks
• Ubuntu 18.04.1 installation and boot crashes when HBA330 card is available in servers with AMD processor

Booting into operating system fails on systems with TPM 1.2 chips

Description
On systems with TPM 1.2 chips, booting into operating system fails when TPM Security field is set to On without Pre-boot Measurements in BIOS.
Cause
When the option On without Pre-boot Measurements is set in BIOS, the shim utility cannot write to TPM PCR registers. Shim considers this as a fatal error and fails to boot.
Workaround
In BIOS, set TPM Security field to On with Pre-boot Measurements.
Systems affected All Dell EMC PowerEdge systems supporting TPM 1.2
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04 and later.
Tracking number 209250, 209177

Ubuntu server suspends automatically when idle

Description
After a period of inactivity, Ubuntu server goes into suspend mode if Automatic Suspend option under Power settings is set ON. This may result in undesired side effects  such as blank screen or a system crash.
Workaround Change the power settings.

1. Go to Settings > Power.
2. In the Suspend and power button section, select Off from the Automatic Suspend option.

Systems affected All Dell EMC PowerEdge servers
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04

ACPI kernel fails to assign BAR register to PCI device

Description The following BAR register failure message is displayed in dmesg log during system startup:

[ 0 . 4 9 6 1 7 8 ] p c i 0 0 0 0 : 0 1 : 0 0 . 0 : B A R 6 : n o s p a c e f o r [ m e m s i z e 0 x 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
p r e f ] [ 0 . 4 9 6 1 7 9 ] p c i 0 0 0 0 : 0 1 : 0 0 . 0 : B A R 6 : f a i l e d t o a s s i g n [ m e m s i z e
0 x 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 p r e f ]

The Linux PCIe layer tries to allocate all PCIe BARs in every boot. Home agent devices on Intel Xeon processors and AMD Rome processors are not expected to have BAR registers. The home agent devices, however, returns a positive value when queried by the kernel. This issue can be ignored because there is no functionality loss.
Workaround Not available.
Systems affected All yx4x and yx5x Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04
Tracking number 139252

ACPI error messages related to IPMI are displayed in dmesg log
Description  The following ACPI-IPMI error message is displayed in the dmesg log during system startup:

[ 2 4 . 5 0 7 9 3 9 ] A C P I E r r o r : N o h a n d l e r f o r R e g i o n [ S Y S I ] ( 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 8 6 3 3 5 7 9 ) [ I P M I ] ( 2 0 1 8 0 5 3 1 / e v r e g i o n – 1 3 2 )
[ 2 4 . 5 1 6 1 4 8 ] A C P I E r r o r : R e g i o n I P M I ( I D = 7 ) h a s n o h a n d l e r ( 2 0 1 8 0 5 3 1 /
e x f l d i o – 2 6 5 )

The DSDT feature of IPMI Operation Region is enabled in the BIOS as per ACPI 4.0 specifications.
Platforms that require IPMI Operation Region that is enabled in the BIOS for power meter usage display the ACPI error messages since the kernel does not have handlers to  support the methods in the IPMI Operation Region. This issue can be ignored because there is no functionality loss.

Workaround Not available.
Systems affected All yx4x and yx5x PowerEdge servers.
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04
Tracking number 126156, 126157

Unable to create or modify namespace for NVDIMM

Description When you create or modify a namespace for NVDIMM, it fails.

Workaround Use the –no-autorelabel option while creating or modifying the namespace. For example:

• Creating namespace— #ndctl create-namespace -r region0 -m raw -f –no-autolabel
• Modifying namespace— #ndctl create-namespace –mode raw -e namespace0.0 -f –noautolabel

Systems affected All yx4x Dell EMC PowerEdge servers that have NVDIMM installed.
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04
Tracking number 119207

Unable to shut down Ubuntu when the graceful shutdown option from iDRAC is selected or when power button is pressed on the server

Description
When you select the Graceful Shutdown option from any system management interface such as iDRAC or press the power button, the system goes to a suspended state and  all the tasks stop. Even the firmware updates from iDRAC interface that requires restart, takes longer time to update, and the system will be Hard reset upon iDRAC watchdog time expiration.

Workaround Change the power settings.

1. Go to Settings > Power.
2. In the Suspend and power button section, select Power Off from the When the Power Button is pressed drop-down list.

NOTE: By default the Suspend option is selected.
NOTE: The workaround may not work when the system is locked. Gnome prevents accidental shutdown when the system is locked. As a security precaution, Gnome does  not allow any power related actions such as shutdown from any system management interfaces like iDRAC or when the power button is pressed unless the user is active and  logged-in to OS.
Systems affected All Dell EMC PowerEdge servers
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04
Tracking number 110101
Ubuntu fails to reboot when onboard DVD drives are connected to servers with AMD processor
Description If you reboot Ubuntu after connecting the onboard DVD drives to servers with AMD processors, the boot process fails.
Workaround Reboot using iDRAC or manually reset the power.
Systems affected PowerEdge 7425, PowerEdge 7415, and PowerEdge 6415 servers
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04
Tracking number 102871
Unable to install Ubuntu 18.04 in software RAID (S140) disks
Description Ubuntu 18.04 does not install grub on software RAID disks which results in installation failure.
Workaround Do not use S140 disks as boot-disks. Instead, use S140 disks as data-disks.
Systems affected All yx4x Dell EMC PowerEdge servers
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04
Tracking number 105254

Ubuntu 18.04.1 installation and boot crashes when HBA330 card is available in servers with AMD processor

Description The HBA330 card driver (mpt3sas) encounters a deadlock while loading or unloading the driver. Due to this deadlock, the system does not respond.
Workaround
Use Ubuntu 18.04 ISO and kernel image versions earlier than 4.15.0-29 for installation.
To download Ubuntu 18.04 ISO image:

1. Go to https://www.ubuntu.com/download/alternative-downloads.
2. Search for Past releases and other flavours, and then click Past releases.
   The fix is available from kernel image 4.15.0-33 onwards.

Systems affected PowerEdge 6415 and PowerEdge 7415 servers
Applies to Ubuntu 18.04.1
Tracking number 109843

Limitations

• Installing a graphical user interface on servers is not recommended by Ubuntu. For more information, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ServerGUI.
• Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller S150 is not supported on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
  For more information about the limitations of this release, see Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) Release Notes.

Updating Ubuntu

For instructions on how to update Ubuntu 20.04 from Ubuntu 18.04, see www.help.ubuntu.com/community/FocalUpgrades.

Resources and support

For more information about the features of this release, see www.wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes#Ubuntu_Server.
Topics:

• Identifying the series of your Dell EMC PowerEdge servers
• Latest Release Notes
• Related documents and links
• Accessing documents using product selector

Identifying the series of your Dell EMC PowerEdge servers

The PowerEdge series of servers from Dell EMC are divided into different categories based on their configuration. They are referred as YX2X, YX3X, YX4X, YX4XX, or  YX5XX series of servers. The structure of the naming convention is described below: The letter Y denotes the character in the server model number. The character denotes  the form factor of the server. The form factors are listed below:

• C- Cloud
• F- Flexible
• M or MX- Modular
• R- Rack
• T- Tower

The letter X denotes the numbers in the server model number. The number denotes multiple characteristics about the server.
They are listed as follows:.

• The first digit (X) denotes the value stream or class of the server.
  ○ 1-5—iDRAC basic
  ○ 6-9—iDRAC Express

• The second digit denotes the series of the server. It is retained in the server naming convention and does not replace the letter X.
  ○ 0—series 10
  ○ 1—series 11
  ○ 2—series 12
  ○ 3—series 13
  ○ 4—series 14
  ○ 5—series 15

• The last digit (X) always denotes the make of the processor as described below:
  ○ 0-Intel
  ○ 5-AMD

NOTE: For servers that use an AMD processor, the model number is made up of four digits instead of three. The third digit (X) denotes the number of processor sockets that the series of server supports.

• 1 one socket server
•  2 two socket server

Table 1. PowerEdge servers naming convention and examples

Latest Release Notes
To access the latest Release Notes for this version:

1. Go to www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/products/software_int/software_operating_systems.
2. Click the link for this version of Ubuntu.
3. Click Documentation.

Related documents and links
Following are the documents and links that are related to Ubuntu 18.04:
Table 2. Related documents and links

www.discourse.ubuntu.com/c/support-help- requests| Online support for Ubuntu 20.04
www.linux.dell.com/repo/community/ubuntu/| Dell EMC Ubuntu repository
www.help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation- guide/amd64/ index.html| Installation Guide

Accessing documents using product selector
You can also access documents by selecting your product.

1. Go to www.dell.com/manuals.
2. In the Choose from all products section, click View products.
3. Click Software and Security, and then click Operating Systems.
4. To view the document, click the wanted product version.

Contacting Dell EMC

Dell EMC provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in  your area. To contact Dell EMC for sales, technical support, or customer service issues, go to www.dell.com/contactdell.
If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or the product catalog.

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