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Home > Archive > Red Hat Topics > November 2004 > Installing FC3 x86_64 onto SATA RAID (gigabyte k8vnxp)
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Installing FC3 x86_64 onto SATA RAID (gigabyte k8vnxp)
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| Andy Piper 2004-11-10, 5:45 pm |
| I'm about to blast my existing 32-bit system and take the plunge into
64-bit. I've decided that this calls for a fresh install since I'm
currently at FC1.
My Gigabyte K8VNXP supports SATA RAID and I have a new HDD on order, so
that I'll have 2 160Gb SATA drives which I want to make into a RAID 1
array.
Can I do most things via the BIOS (i.e. configuration of the RAID
array) and then just install FC3 as normal? Or do I have to get some weird
drivers and build initrd images and things for the array to be recognised?
I can't seem to find any information about how to go about this.
--
Andy Piper - Farnborough, Hampshire (UK)
http://jumpgate.homelinux.net/
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| Markus Kossmann 2004-11-11, 2:45 am |
| Andy Piper wrote:
> I'm about to blast my existing 32-bit system and take the plunge into
> 64-bit. I've decided that this calls for a fresh install since I'm
> currently at FC1.
>
> My Gigabyte K8VNXP supports SATA RAID and I have a new HDD on order,
> so that I'll have 2 160Gb SATA drives which I want to make into a RAID
> 1 array.
>
> Can I do most things via the BIOS (i.e. configuration of the RAID
> array) and then just install FC3 as normal?
No, because that SATA RAID is no hardware RAID.
> Or do I have to get some
> weird drivers and build initrd images and things for the array to be
> recognised? I can't seem to find any information about how to go about
> this.
Well, the recommended way to use such a RAID for 2.6 kernels will be
dmraid ( http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/). But I don't know
if dmraid is allready included in FC3 and documentation for dmraid is
also vary rare.
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| Rich Piotrowski 2004-11-11, 5:45 pm |
| On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 20:34:18 +0000, Andy Piper <andy.piper@freeuk.com>
wrote:
>I'm about to blast my existing 32-bit system and take the plunge into
>64-bit. I've decided that this calls for a fresh install since I'm
>currently at FC1.
>
>My Gigabyte K8VNXP supports SATA RAID and I have a new HDD on order, so
>that I'll have 2 160Gb SATA drives which I want to make into a RAID 1
>array.
>
>Can I do most things via the BIOS (i.e. configuration of the RAID
>array) and then just install FC3 as normal? Or do I have to get some weird
>drivers and build initrd images and things for the array to be recognised?
>I can't seem to find any information about how to go about this.
Simply use software RAID. To find out why, start here;
http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html
--
"Now are you talking about what it is you know
Or just repeating what it was you heard."
Grace Slick
To E-mail use: rpiotro(at)wi(dot)rr(dot)com
| |
| Andy Piper 2004-11-11, 5:45 pm |
| Markus Kossmann <markus.kossmann@inka.de> wrote:
> Andy Piper wrote:
> No, because that SATA RAID is no hardware RAID.
:-(
> Well, the recommended way to use such a RAID for 2.6 kernels will be
> dmraid ( http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/). But I don't know if
> dmraid is allready included in FC3 and documentation for dmraid is also
> vary rare.
Looking at the readme on that link, it looks like this is a solution for
certain controllers only, and it doesn't mention the VIA chipset my
motherboard uses.
OTOH, the VIA driver for Linux for the 8237 found at
http://www.viaarena.com/ doesn't look easily installable for a 64-bit
Fedora installation.
So does anyone have any tips?
--
Andy Piper - Farnborough, Hampshire (UK)
http://jumpgate.homelinux.net/
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| Alex Butcher 2004-11-12, 7:45 am |
| On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 20:34:18 +0000, Andy Piper wrote:
> I'm about to blast my existing 32-bit system and take the plunge into
> 64-bit. I've decided that this calls for a fresh install since I'm
> currently at FC1.
>
> My Gigabyte K8VNXP supports SATA RAID and I have a new HDD on order, so
> that I'll have 2 160Gb SATA drives which I want to make into a RAID 1
> array.
>
> Can I do most things via the BIOS (i.e. configuration of the RAID array)
> and then just install FC3 as normal? Or do I have to get some weird
> drivers and build initrd images and things for the array to be recognised?
> I can't seem to find any information about how to go about this.
IMHO, you're better off using Linux's software RAID implementation. The
kind of RAID controllers included on motherboards rarely offload any of
the processing from the CPU (all the smarts are in the driver), and
they're harder to recover in the event of a failure, particularly if the
controller dies. Using Linux's software RAID also allows you to do neat
tricks like establishing a stripe set between two partitions and a mirror
set between two others (keep critical data on the mirror set for security,
and non-critical data on the stripe set for better performance).
If you're planning on using Linux software RAID, then just configure the
drives and the BIOS so that they show up as normal drives.
HTH,
Alex.
--
Alex Butcher Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK Need reliable and secure network systems?
PGP/GnuPG ID:0x271fd950 <http://www.assursys.com/>
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| Andy Piper 2004-11-13, 2:45 am |
| Rich Piotrowski <abuse@wi.rr.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 20:34:18 +0000, Andy Piper <andy.piper@freeuk.com>
> wrote:
>
> Simply use software RAID. To find out why, start here;
>
> http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html
Thanks, that link helped. However it still points me at dmraid, which does
not mention VIA in the readme. I'm not clear on whether I am supposed to
configure an "array" in the BIOS, install Fedora, and then install
dmraid... or what?
Confused.
--
Andy Piper - Farnborough, Hampshire (UK)
http://jumpgate.homelinux.net/
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| Andy Piper 2004-11-13, 7:45 am |
| Alex Butcher <alex.butcher.news1004@assursys.co.uk> wrote:
> IMHO, you're better off using Linux's software RAID implementation. The
> kind of RAID controllers included on motherboards rarely offload any of
> the processing from the CPU (all the smarts are in the driver), and
> they're harder to recover in the event of a failure, particularly if the
> controller dies.
[snip]
I get it now. Don't even bother with dmraid but just use Linux software
RAID. OK. Good advice, thanks to all who have contributed. I'll give it a
try :-)
--
Andy Piper - Farnborough, Hampshire (UK)
http://jumpgate.homelinux.net/
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| David Wright 2004-11-19, 2:45 am |
| Andy Piper wrote:
> I'm about to blast my existing 32-bit system and take the plunge into
> 64-bit. I've decided that this calls for a fresh install since I'm
> currently at FC1.
>
> My Gigabyte K8VNXP supports SATA RAID and I have a new HDD on order, so
> that I'll have 2 160Gb SATA drives which I want to make into a RAID 1
> array.
>
> Can I do most things via the BIOS (i.e. configuration of the RAID
> array) and then just install FC3 as normal? Or do I have to get some weird
> drivers and build initrd images and things for the array to be recognised?
> I can't seem to find any information about how to go about this.
>
>
The BIOS RAID isn't usually a full RAID implementation, but a cut down
"Windows-software" RAID. These will usually not work with Linux. But you
don't need to mess around with drivers either.
I don't know FC3, but SuSE allows you to make RAID arrays from any pair of
disks you have (even on different interfaces). I would guess this is a
standard Linux feature. With SuSE it is very simple to set-up in the
initial setup program.
Dave
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