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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Delft
    Posts
    99

    Question Newbie Installing Linux with Raid1 CentOS

    Dear WHT'ers,

    After some years of having dedicated servers here and there I recently bought my first 1U server to colocate (yey! )

    It is a

    Dual Opteron 244
    Tyan GX28 S2882 Barebone with a Thunder K8S PRO Motherboard
    4GB RAM
    2x SATA 250GB Maxtor Maxline III
    There is a Silicon Image Sil3114 SATA RAID controller on the MB.

    Now I have done a few linux installs allready as workstations and also as servers without problems but this is the first time I am doing an install where I want to have RAID1. (because it's redundant like having a "live" backup. Thats what I read)

    Here is where I get confused.

    In my Bios I can enable the SATA Controller to be "RAID"
    This I have done.

    Then when I reboot I get a "press CTRL-S to enter RAID CONFIGURATION"

    I enter the configuration. See my two drives and use the "Create Raid" option where I choose the two hard disks and create a Raid1 Array.

    After that I exit and reboot. Then the CentOS installation starts.

    When I have to create the partitions I get lost!
    In a windows install you have to "Press F8 to install third party raid drivers" where you install the raid drivers and Windows knows it exists.

    How does that work under linux (especially CentOS 4.1)?
    I see two drives. I see an option about "Create Software Raid" which I read is a special Linux Raid which will not work 100% redundant because the "Boot Partition cannot be Mirrored" or something like that.

    Can someone help me out with some knowledge?
    Thanks in advance!!
    http://www.MKEweb.com
    The Netherlands

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    469
    If your RAID is properly set up in the BIOS linux will not see two drives... check the manual and make sure you've properly created a RAID-1 container, and that the RAID controller is activated.
    bye

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Delft
    Posts
    99
    Thanks amps.

    I just read that the SiliconImage basically is a Software Raid Controller and that that is the reason why Linux (CentOS) still see's two hard disks instead of the RAID Disk. On another forum they told me to install Linux Software Raid, but that it was not 100 % redundant. Something about the /boot partition not being mirrored.
    http://www.MKEweb.com
    The Netherlands

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    469
    Linux software raid isn't the same as ATA raid which your box has. You can do linux software raid with any two hard drives, without a RAID controller.

    I think you may need to put the linux driver disk in and make sure the installer loads the driver before install. There is an option to do that like Windows has, although I can't recall exactly the method.
    bye

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Delft
    Posts
    99
    I think CentOS 4.1 allready supports my Raid Controller (it is based on kernel 2.6)

    Because I just saw when starting the install a very fast screen saying
    "Loading sata_sil" (sata silicone?)

    Then the install starts. But still I see two drives sda and sdb.

    When I do "automatic partition" it creates LVM drives. (?)
    http://www.MKEweb.com
    The Netherlands

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