SATA RAID problem with Red Hat Linux ES 4 on Proliant DL320 G3

[Ginopilotino]

Hello,
installing RH-ES 4 Update 2 on a redhat certfied Hp proliant server dl-320 G3 with:
n.1 embedded SATA RAID 1 (mirroring) controller
n.2 160GB SATA DRIVES
I' have succesfully set up a mirror raid volume (150GB large).
During the set up of red hat enterprise server ES 4 (uptade 2) when i'm propted to partition the server i can see non only one hard disk (sda) but two (sda and sdb)! I want to use hardware raid support with this enbedded controller.
How is it possible? I tried to download the latest ata_piix driver also from HP support site but it was the same.
Please help me
Regards

Cristiano

[Prashant (I am Back)]

I explain what is understand

2 hdd
under Raid 1
when installing os it is showing 1 hdd yes/no
If yes then this is correct configuration
raid 1 mirroed (50%) space is used.

Hope i am right bec that what i have understand from post.

Prashant S.

[Ginopilotino]

More info:

2 sata hdd (160GB each)
RAID 1 array made by server bios utility
set up red hat enterprise ES 4 update 2


When red hat prompt me for hd partitioning i expected to see just 1 hd (the mirror set) but i see 2 hdd!

Thx

Cristiano

[Prashant (I am Back)]

What is the space avable on both the disk have you checked is it in total 320 Gb or 160GB ?

If you open the setup from post any information on raid is it stable or any error info?

Prashant S.

[Ginopilotino]

From Proliant BIOS i could see i logical disk 160GB wide.
Froma Red Hat i coul see 320 (2x160GFB).
No errors from post.

I tries also to install a WIndows 2003 Server on the same machine and everything is fine: during the setup i could see just 1 hd 160Gb wide!

It looks like RH linux does not recognise the RAID controller and has direct access to the HD. Something like a bios bypass.

Cristiano

[Thorsten.K]

Hello Christiano,

had you resolve your raid issue?
I had installed my dl320 G3 today. I has also 2 160GB HDDs and build a RAID 1 at the SATA Bios. At the RH 4 ES installation I also saw the two HDDs but non logical drive!

I had installed the RH with the SATA driver from the HP webside, but there is no changes with the HDDs.

I hope you had resolve it and can give me the information how does it work.

Kind regards, Thorsten

[Ginopilotino]

Hi,
this is the Red Hat support reply to my request...

"Last Update:
Hello,

it sounds like your system is equipped with a so called "fakeraid", which is often shipped as an embedded RAID controller.

For a full explaination on what this mean, you can read at the following page:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#fakeraid

If you could please provide "sysreport" on your system I will be more than happy to verify for you if this is the case.

For more information on how to provide a "sysreport" you can find instruction on the following page:

http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_80_456.shtm"

So i used a software Red hat Linux RAID 1 solution.
No other change!

Bye

Cristiano