Patches

It is highly recommended that you check for any patches needed for this release.  

Please visit the following sites:

For the latest patches: https://sort.symantec.com/patch/matrix 

For the latest updated documentation: https://sort.symantec.com/documents 

For the latest patch availability notifications: https://sort.symantec.com/home

Supported operating systems for SFHA Solutions 5.1 SP1 releases 

5.1 SP1

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) with Update 3 (2.6.18-128.el5 kernel) on  AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES 10) with SP2 (2.6.16.60-0.21 kernel) or SP3 on AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11) (2.6.27.19-5-default kernel) or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11) with SP1 on AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64) 
• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 (OEL 5) with Update 3  (Red Hat compatible kernel mode only) 

5.1 SP1 PR2

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) (2.6.32-71.el6 kernel) or later on AMD
• Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)

5.1 SP1 RP1 and RP2

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) with Update 3 (2.6.18-128.el5 kernel)  on AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) on AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) with Update 1 on AMD Opteron or Intel  Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES 10) with SP2 (2.6.16.60-0.21 kernel),  SP3 (2.6.16.60-0.54.5) or SP4 (2.6.16.60-0.85.1), onAMDOpteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• SUSELinux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11) (2.6.27.19-5 kernel) onAMDOpteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11) with SP1 (2.6.32.12-0.7 kernel) on AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)
  Note: SFCFSRAC is not supported on SLES 11 SP1.
• Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL 5) with Update 3 (2.6.18-128.el5 kernel)  (Red Hat compatible kernel mode only) on AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon EM64T (x86_64)

Note

Only 64-bit operating systems are  supported.  If your system is running an older version of either Red Hat Enterprise Linux,  SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, or Oracle Enterprise Linux, you must upgrade it before attempting to install the Veritas Storage Foundation software. Consult  the Red Hat, SUSE, or Oracle documentation for more information on upgrading or reinstalling your system.
Symantec supports only Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL Compatible Mode only), and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server distributed kernel binaries.
Symantec products operate on subsequent kernel and patch releases provided  the operating systems maintain kernel ABI (application binary interface) compatibility.

Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Update 3 (RHEL 6.3) on SFHA Solutions

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 is currently not compatible with Storage Foundation High Availability Solutions 5.1SP1,5.1SP1PR2, 5.1SP1RP1 & 5.1SP1RP2 releases due to symbol changes used within the new kernel. Storage Foundation High Availability Solutions 5.1SP1RP3 includes support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 update 3 (RHEL 6.3).

Note: A compatibility issue has been discovered on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 update 3 running a later kernel (2.6.32-279.11.1.el6.x86_64) with Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions 5.1SP1RP3. The symptom is that the VxFS component cannot be loaded or used. Symantec have released  a patch to resolve the issue.

Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Update 4 (RHEL 6.4) on SFHA Solutions

A compatibility issue has been discovered on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 update 4 (RHEL 6.4) with Storage Foundation High Availability Solutions  5.1SP1RP3. The symptom is that the VxFS compoenent cannot be loaded or used. Symantec is actively working on providing a solution for the problem and will release a patch at a later date.

Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 9 (RHEL 5.9) on SFHA Solutions

Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions 5.1SP1RP3 is supported on RHEL 5.9

Documentation Errata: Veritas File System Administrator's Guide

The Veritas File System 5.1 SP1 Administrator's Guide did not include the following information. This information is now updated in the online version of the document, which is available at https://sort.symantec.com/documents.

 Native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes

You can enable or disable native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes by setting the vx_allow_cloned_naio tunable. Specifying a value of 1 enables native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes, while specifying a value of 0 disables native asynchronous I/O with cloned processes. The default value is 0. 

Processes that are cloned by using the CLONE_VM flag share an address space with their parent. When such threads issue native asynchronous I/O by using the io_submit() call, the system can panic if those threads return and exit before the I/O completes. You can avoid this issue by setting the vx_allow_cloned_naio tunable to 0, which causes such threads to issue the I/O synchronously.

Well-behaved applications that do not have threads exiting with pending asynchronous I/O do not have this restriction. When using such applications, such as Sybase, you can set the vx_allow_cloned_naio tunable to 1, which avoids the performance impact of such threads having asynchronous I/O become synchronous.

Note# LxRT 5.1 Platform Release 1 (PR1) just released: Added SFRAC support for RHEL5 u3/OEL5.3 and later, SLES10 SP2 and SLES10 SP3.

LxRT 5.1 PR1 external location:  https://fileconnect.symantec.com/LangSelection.jsp      

Behavior of Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.1) on SF Oracle RAC on Unix and Linux platforms

Details:   http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH135605 

Veritas File Systems with Disk Layout Version 4 or Version 5 Cannot be Mounted or Upgraded with Veritas File System Release 5.1

Customers MUST UPGRADE to Disk Layout version 6 or 7 on all VxFS file systems BEFORE UPGRADING to the 5.1 release.

For more information, see http://entsupport.symantec.com/docs/339064 

Perl dependency errors may be seen when installing Veritas File System (VxFS) 5.1 for Linux on RHEL5

For more information, see http://support.veritas.com/docs/340904 

Support has been added for Veritas Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC

For more information, see http://support.veritas.com/docs/280186  and https://sort.symantec.com/patch/detail/3119 

Problems encountered using commands such as sfua_db_config, dbed_update and dbed_vmchecksnap after installing/upgrading to Storage Foundation for Oracle 5.1SP1 for Linux on RHEL5

For more information, see http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH152339

 Install 5.1 Patch 1 after Installing 5.1
https://sort.symantec.com/patch/detail/2957  for RHEL5 x86_64

https://sort.symantec.com/patch/detail/2958  for SLES10 x86_64

https://sort.symantec.com/patch/detail/2959  for SLES11 x86_64

Resources
Customer information videos for this release are available at  http://www.symantec.com/connect/sfha51

VRTSexplorer Support Tool http://support.veritas.com/docs/243150 

 Symantec recommends the use of Veritas Operations Manager to manage data center environments running Storage Foundation and High Availability Software. Download Veritas Operations Manager at http://go.symantec.com/vom 

Previous versions of the management tools, including Storage Foundation Manager, VCS Management Console, Veritas Enterprise Administrator (VEA) and VCS Java Console are available at http://www.symantec.com/business/products/otherresources.jsp?pcid=pcat_storage&pvid=operations_manager_1 

Storage Management Community Forums, Blogs and more http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/new-storage-management-community-start-here     

SORT (Symantec Operations Readiness Tools) Portal:  https://sort.symantec.com 

SORT Portal Contains:

- Risk Assessments

- Installation Assessment Services (Installation and Upgrade preparation)

- SORT Searchability (Error Code Lookup, Patches, Documentation, Systems, Reports)

- Detailed Reports (Product and License Usage)

- Notification Signup (SORT Notification Widget)