/dev/raw* devices are not visible after upgrading the system to SLES 15 SP4

Environment

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 for SAP

Situation

• User is unable to access /dev/raw* devices after system is upgraded to SLES 15 SP4
• The expected output(before upgrade):

server1:~ # systemctl status raw.service
● raw.service - raw devices
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/raw.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Fri 2023-04-21 10:57:06 IST; 2min 18s ago
    Process: 1672 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c /sbin/modprobe raw; /sbin/udevadm settle;   for i in `grep -v ^# /etc/raw`; do rawdev=`echo $i | cut -f>
   Main PID: 1672 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Apr 21 10:57:06 server1 systemd[1]: Starting raw devices...
Apr 21 10:57:06 server1 systemd[1]: Finished raw devices.


server1:~ # ls -l /dev/raw*
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root disk 162, 0 Apr 21 10:57 rawctl

• After upgrading to SLES15 SP4, raw devices are not accessible:

server1:~ # systemctl status raw.service
Unit raw.service could not be found.

server1:~ # ls -l /dev/raw*
ls: cannot access '/dev/raw*': No such file or directory

 

Resolution

• From SLES15 SP4 onwards, applications should make use of open device files, such as /dev/sda1, with the O_DIRECT flag.

Cause

• From SLES15 SP4 onwards, the raw utility has been deprecated
• Following is the snippet from SLES15 SP4 release notes:

5.2 Basic utilities

5.2.1 util-linux has been updated 
The util-linux package has been updated to version 2.37.2.

The deprecated raw utility has been removed. Applications have to be ported to open(2) device files, such as /dev/sda1, with the O_DIRECT flag.

Additional Information

For more information about the change introduced in SLES15 SP4, please refer to the following: 
https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_64/SUSE-SLES/15-SP4/index.html#basic-utility

Disclaimer

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• Document ID:000021050
• Creation Date:21-Apr-2023
• Modified Date:21-Apr-2023
• • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications

 

https://www.suse.com/ko-kr/support/kb/doc/?id=000021050