[Novalug] Problems with debian software raid install.

[David A. Cafaro]

hi Miguel,

Actually it's important that all the important stuff that's need for  
boot must be on raid (so that recovery is quick, and a drive failure  
doesn't lead to a system that can't run).  This server must be geared  
for uptime, so all systems need to be on raid, including swap.  I've  
done this on RedHat machines so I know it can be done with Linux,  
just have to figure out if it's a Debian issue or hardware issue  
(bios setting or something).

Thanks though,
David


On Oct 8, 2007, at 1:38 PM, Miguel Gonzalez Castaños wrote:

> Hi,
>
>  It's a long time since I don't configure a software RAID, but I  
> remember that the swap and the / (root) partitions I excluded them  
> from the RAID. All the important stuff to boot the machine IMHO  
> should be outside your RAID. If you can, I'd suggest to plug a  
> third hard drive and create partitions for swap and / (var, usr,  
> etc, should go also here IMHO).
>
>  Miguel
>
> David A. Cafaro escribió:
>> Ok, I need some help.  I'm normally a RedHat/CentOS/Fedora person,  
>> but for this project I needed to go with Debian.  One requirements  
>> is that the two 160GB hardrives be setup to provide software  
>> raid.  No problem the Debian installer seems to handle that no  
>> problem and I'm able to setup everything how I would like:
>>
>> /dev/hda1 108GB raid1 bootable flag
>> /dev/hda2 20GB raid1
>> /dev/hda3 20GB raid1
>> /dev/hda4 2GB raid1
>>
>> /dev/hdc1 108GB raid1 bootable flag
>> /dev/hdc2 20GB raid1
>> /dev/hdc3 20GB raid1
>> /dev/hdc4 2GB raid1
>>
>> /dev/md0 108GB / raid1
>> /dev/md1 20GB /home raid1
>> /dev/md2 20GB /tmp raid1
>> /dev/md3 2GB swap raid1
>>
>> (that's roughly how it's setup)
>>
>> All seems to go well debian install goes right through and  
>> installs all the software, claims grub is installed and reboots.   
>> At which point I get a no bootable device found.  I think maybe  
>> grub didn't get install correctly so I try booting into debian  
>> rescue.  Debian can't mount the raid, doesn't see it, just the raw  
>> raid partitions.  Just for kicks I boot Fedora 6 rescue, it sees  
>> the partitions no problem and mounts them all for me to work  
>> with.  So from Fedora 6 rescue I chroot and reinstall grub,  
>> reboot, and still no boot devices.  Then I find the following  
>> article:
>>
>> http://valery.bgit.net/blog-en/2006/07/30/debian-installer-sata- 
>> and-software-raid/
>>
>> And figure I'll give that a shot.  I step through the whole  
>> article (converting SATA to PATA instructions) and no problem,  
>> reboot and no bootable devices.  At this point I've started trying  
>> to play with the bios settings to see if that helps, I'm just  
>> wondering if there is a known issue with Debian Grub and booting  
>> from software raid devices (which should not be a challenge like  
>> this).  Any clues?
>>
>> And this is Debian Etch v 4.0 r1 i3.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David
>>
>>
>> David A. Cafaro <dac at cafaro.net>
>> Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net
>>
>>
>>
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David A. Cafaro <dac at cafaro.net>
Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net