topic Re: RAID1 on SATA in Operating System - Linux

RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 06:24:07 GMT

Hi!
I have a HP Proliant ML110 G3 with RAID1, I setup in your bios to be a RAID1, but on install Fedora core 5 I don´t know that I do.

Somebody can help me to configure and install this server with Fedora core 5?

Thank!

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Tom Robinson_1 — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:02:22 GMT

Do you mean that the raid is not recognised by the installer? You may need to load a driver manually at install time. How far does the installer get? What errors do you get?

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:13:52 GMT

Hi Tom!

The installation detected the discÂ´s and it offered the possibility to me to create RAID, but my bigger doubt would be: If in the BIOS I already configured for to be a RAID I via hardware, what more I must make in the system? After all the installation presents me 2 records to be prepared. What you me sugest?
TankÂ´s

Re: RAID1 on SATA

sandeep_raman — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:24:32 GMT

Hello Daniel,

This is what you should read first,

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora-install-guide-en/fc5/

Follow the normal installation.

Additional information,

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1055420
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1053402

PS:If you feel the responses were of help,before closing the post.
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33

SRH

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:35:54 GMT

Shalom,

This should be done:

1. boot redhat cd 1
2. enter "linux rescue" at isolinux prompt
3. no networking, mount drives
4. at shell prompt, type "grub"
5. find /grub/stage1
6. root (hd0,0)
7. setup (hd0)
8. root (hd1,0)
9. root (hd1)
10. klingon deathgrip

Item 10 is a reboot.

This will insure mirroring is working correctly.

SEP

Re: RAID1 on SATA

sandeep_raman — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:48:30 GMT

Shalom SEP,

Fresh after the RHCE certification eh? ;-)

SRH

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:54:08 GMT

In this server have a hardware RAid 0 or 1, if I make the setup in the controler bios for create de RAID1 (mirror), why appears two disks to me?

What I do wrong?

PS. I am stay using the fedora core 5.

Tanks

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Tom Robinson_1 — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 09:44:39 GMT

RAID1 normally presents itself as one disk. In the installer what disks are being presented to you? Please can you provide more information?

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 09:47:33 GMT

In installer are present to me two disks, but in BIOS of controler of SATA I setup array with 2 disks to be a raid1. What I can do?

Thanks

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Tom Robinson_1 — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 10:40:07 GMT

Perhaps if you send some more details? What are the disk names you see in the installer? Possible you have more disks on your server? Can you please supply the device names of the disks you see.

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 11:32:32 GMT

In the server have only 2 disks, the name is maxtor.....80g (2 equal disks).

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Tom Robinson_1 — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:09:14 GMT

Daniel,

In the installer, do you see anything like:

/dev/sda

or like

/dev/hda

or anything that begins with:

/dev

Anything at all similar to the above?

Can you please send all information you gather about devices on your system.

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:23:23 GMT

Sorry, my english is too bad...

Well, i see sda

Thanks to help-me!

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:21:37 GMT

Please Tom, what I do now?

Thanks

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Manuel Wolfshant — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:14:34 GMT

Daniel, the situation is at follows:
- Normally, RH/FC will see each of the phisical disks as a separate entity.
- As Tom Robinson has said, after you activate RAID1 from BIOS, the OS should see a single logical disk. In order for this to happen, you need ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE DRIVERS. If you are lucky, you might be able to adapt those from HP that you can download from http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/1116_6154.html#7. Unfortunately, at a quick glance there seem to exist binary only drivers, only suitable for very old kernels and which most probably will not be useful in FC.

However, IF the so called hardware RAID would have really been hardware, the additional software drivers would not have been needed. Therefore I strongly suggest to give up using the "BIOS" RAID and use a software linux-created RAID1 instead. It is EXTREMELY simple: just DO NOT activate the RAID in BIOS (leave the SATA ports as regular rather then RAID) then go ahead and create the RAID in anaconda (in disk druid actually) when given the opportunity. YOU WILL NOT GAIN ANYTHING using the pseudo-hardware RAID because in fact IT IS STILL DONE IN SOFTWARE, via the drivers available at the above mentioned URL.

As a sidenote: REAL HARDWARE RAID is EXPENSIVE. It ALWAYS includes a separate controller, either on the motherboard or on a separate card. ALL motherboards which pretend to do RAID but require specific software drivers are actually implementing fake-raid. Here are inlcuded both taiwanese made motherboards (all consumer sub-200$ boards) as well as higher priced (Intel, Dell, HP) ones.

And as a last observation: I have implemented linux software RAID several times without a glitch. As long as http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html is respected, you will not have any problems. It works just as well (or better, since you have additional options and flexibility) as any fake raid.

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Andrea Rossi — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 02:24:01 GMT

There is an option in the bios, sata section, sounds like "enable raid capabilities". It is disabled by default.

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Tom Robinson_1 — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:15:32 GMT

Daniel,

Take a pen and paper.

Start to install your system.

When you get to partitioning, write down EVERYTHING you see in there.

Type your notes onto the forum.

sda is not enough, I'm sorry. More information please.

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:00:56 GMT

Tom,
This machine is a HP Proliant ML110 G3
I list to you all steps OK?

In setup:
- Configure to use SATA as [RAID]

In Embedded SATA RAID controller:
- Create ARRAY
ARRAY type: RAID 1 (MIRROR)
ARRAY label: cont
Create RAID via: Quick init

In Fedora core 5 (DVD Install)
- Fedora ask me to initialize my 2 disks
- In next windows Fedora show me the disks for use in the instalation.

SDA 76317 ATA MAXTOR 6L080M0
SDB 76317 ATA MAXTOR 6L080M0

But, this disks are the disks of my RAID!!!

what it is happening?

Thank!

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Tom Robinson_1 — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:18:34 GMT

Daniel,

Keep up this kind of post. The information you are now sending is useful.

>In setup:
>- Configure to use SATA as [RAID]

>In Embedded SATA RAID controller:
>- Create ARRAY
>ARRAY type: RAID 1 (MIRROR)
>ARRAY label: cont
>Create RAID via: Quick init

It looks like your array configures correctly in BIOS.

>In Fedora core 5 (DVD Install)
>- Fedora ask me to initialize my 2 disks
>- In next windows Fedora show me the disks >for use in the instalation.

>SDA 76317 ATA MAXTOR 6L080M0
>SDB 76317 ATA MAXTOR 6L080M0

>But, this disks are the disks of my RAID!!!

It appears that you don't have a driver for the hardware raid on your system. You will need to download the driver from the HP website and initiate the install with:

boot: linux dd

at the correct moment the installer will ask you for the driver disk. (Usually a floppy drive is require although sometimes this can be achieved by using a CD). Make sure you get the right driver for you version and architecture. (i.e. are you using X86_64 or x86). HP don't support Fedora so maybe you should try Red Hat, CentOS (which is a clone of Red Hat) or SuSE.

The other alternative is, as suggested above, to use software raid on your SATA drives. To do this, ignore completely the BIOS raid (in fact turn it off), and use the installer to configure you two disks with 'no mountpoint' and a filesystem type of 'Software RAID'. Next include both of the disks into a raid array and set the RAID level to '1' (i.e. a mirrored set). Once that is done, you can begin to partition the RAID array. You should have one boot partition. The rest of the disk can be either regular partitions or managed via LVM.

t.

Re: RAID1 on SATA

Daniel Caçador — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:52:13 GMT

Thanks Tom!

After I try with CentOS I post here!

Thanks for all!