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Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

 
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Prolianter
Occasional Advisor

Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

Hello,


I'm using software RAID with all disks setted up as RAID 0 over a P400.

I read in P400's documentations that it is recommended to distribute the disk raids between ports of the controller. So I combine mirrors between disks 1-4 (attached to one port) and 5-8 (attached to the other).

I have a "/boot" partition mirror and also a "/" partition mirror between disks 1st and 4th.

The problem is that I want the MBR replicated as well, and so, I must install grub to the 4th disk but when I remove 1st disk, 4th doesn't boot and a red illegal op code screen splashs.

I'm I doing something wrong or is it true what I read somewhere: guess that removing 1st disk, Smart Array tries to boot forcedly the second one, and then I suppose I must install grub on all disks chainloading to the 4th disk

I there any other easier/professional solution? Maybe changing the disk boot order inside the smart array through BIOS or something similar?


Thank you all!
7 REPLIES 7
Prolianter
Occasional Advisor

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

Excuse me, is an embedded P410i !!
Jimmy Vance
HPE Pro

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

Having software mirror configured on top of RAID 0 is moot. If you remove 1 disk from a RAID 0 array, the entire array is destroyed.


Setup the Smart Array as RAID 1+0 or RAID 5 and don't worry about software mirror.


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Jan Soska
Honored Contributor

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

absolutelly agreed with Jimmy. Software raid on quite good P410 is really an configuration miracle...

Jan
Prolianter
Occasional Advisor

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

Thank you for your answers!

Well, I didn't explained it well. I must did it through software RAID because of a particular requirement on the upper software level. I know it's not as much profitable.

One thing I tried to play with, in order to make a workaround was to make RAID partitions through the ACU but I had no success, since I didn't find a way to put an array between different partitions of each disk. I mean, for instance, I want disk1 with 2 partitions, one mirrored with disk2 and the other with disk3. ACU only lets me group the array between disk1,2,3 but then there is no way of assign logical drives among a subset of them, I just can make logical drives on the entire array.

By the way, they are not configured as an 8-disk RAID 0, but an 8 x 'a Raid0 LogicArray of one disk'.
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

However, this makes not really sense to do RAID0 and use software mirror instead of using the hardware RAID.


Maybe I didn't understand what you are doing, but IMHO the controller provides the right RAID level for you:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13201_div/13201_div.html

...
The HP Smart Array P410 is HP's PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) RAID controller. The low profile, half height card has 8 ports and utilizes DDR2-800 memory. The P410 is ideal for RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5, 5+0 and can be upgraded with a minimum 256MB cache module, battery kit (for BBWC), Flash Backed Write Cache (FBWC), and Smart Array Advanced Pack license key for RAID 6 (ADG), & 6+0.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Jimmy Vance
HPE Pro
Solution

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

Maybe try this. Use all 8 disks and create one large array (anything but RAID0). Create multiple logical drives in the array. The OS will treat each logical drive as a plain old hard disk. When installing the OS carve each logical disk into partitions that you can then mirror using the OS software.

Doing this should meet your upper software requirement for software RAID, and because you've setup the controller in a fault tolerant RAID configuration you don't need to worry about having to manually replicate the MBR as the hardware RAID will take care of it.
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Prolianter
Occasional Advisor

Re: Smart Array P400, Boot Order, Software RAID, Mirroring /boot partition, Grubs and chain-loading

Pure genius. Your understanding of my requirements and your analyses alone deserve 10 points!