Author Topic: Software RAID (Split from: S-ATA HDD + ATAPI CDROM issues)  (Read 3556 times)

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Software RAID (Split from: S-ATA HDD + ATAPI CDROM issues)
« on: October 06, 2005, 01:49:37 am »
I have similar issues:

I have a Dell Poweredge SC420 server :
I have 2 SATA 250 GB hard drives in RAID 0 in order to see it like a 500 GB drive If I leave the BIOS in: "AUTORAID" or "Raid on", the machine will not boot on the CD, yes I tried every possible configuration of the EIDE ports, so I had to forget about RAID 0 and use only 1 drive

Any ideas??

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Software RAID (Split from: S-ATA HDD + ATAPI CDROM issues)
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2005, 06:12:19 pm »
Quote from: "rggg"
I have similar issues:

I have a Dell Poweredge SC420 server :
I have 2 SATA 250 GB hard drives in RAID 0 in order to see it like a 500 GB drive If I leave the BIOS in: "AUTORAID" or "Raid on", the machine will not boot on the CD, yes I tried every possible configuration of the EIDE ports, so I had to forget about RAID 0 and use only 1 drive

Any ideas??

On Google I found that the RAID controller isn't supported by Linux. Also, the RAID controller isn't hardware, so you don't lose anything if you configure it as software RAID under Linux. When installing, at the "partitioner" stage (last one before installing) instead of "Erase entire disk" choose "Manually edit partition table". At the top the the next screen you have "Configure software RAID". Try that and let us know of the outcome. I don't have enough drives here to test any kind of RAID. Thanks.

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Software RAID (Split from: S-ATA HDD + ATAPI CDROM issues)
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2005, 10:26:38 am »
My first try was in Pluto "Configure software RAID" but it gave me this error:

"No raid partition availables,no unused partition of the type "linux raid autodetect" are available, please create such partition oe delete an already used multidisk device to free its partitions
If you have such partitions they might content actual file system and they are therefor not available for use by this configuration utility"

Any ideas ?.Thanks.

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Software RAID (Split from: S-ATA HDD + ATAPI CDROM issues)
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2005, 05:04:21 pm »
Quote from: "rggg"
My first try was in Pluto "Configure software RAID" but it gave me this error:

"No raid partition availables,no unused partition of the type "linux raid autodetect" are available, please create such partition oe delete an already used multidisk device to free its partitions
If you have such partitions they might content actual file system and they are therefor not available for use by this configuration utility"

Any ideas ?.Thanks.


I just created a (rather stupid, but good enough for proof-of-concept) RAID1 (mirror) array on a disc (yes, only one disc :P). The disc is 41.2 GB. I deleted all the partitions and created two 20 GB partitions instead. I marked the partitions as being "to be used in software RAID" (don't know the exact name, but it's the only partition type with RAID in its name) instead of ext3 or anything. Clicked "Setup RAID". It found the partitions and allowed me to create the RAID with them. It seems that you can't create partitions in the RAID device (no /dev entries), so you'll have to create a RAID volume for each partition you intend to make. I'd suggest that you change the partition types of the predefined partitions to "to be used in software RAID", create a RAID volume for each pair and then create filesystems in the new RAID volumes which do the same thing as the original partitions.

I created the swap partition in the free 1.2 GB just before going into "Configure software RAID" since you can't change the partition table once you created a RAID volume.

It crossed my mind that you could do something slick with the swap partition in case you wanted RAID1: make the ext3 partitions on RAID1, but the swap partition on RAID0 so you have more space. I haven't analysed the performance impact of that though or what happens to it if one disc fails.