Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2489 mails)

[Tero Pesonen <mlist-suse@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 08 December 2008, you wrote:
> Tero Pesonen wrote:
> > Hi all!
>
> < really big snip >
>
> > Thanks for all comments!
> >
> > Regards,
> > Tero Pesonen
>
> Tero,
>
>       Sorry for the late post. Software RAID is great. I have 6 openSuSE
> boxes spinning RAID1 right now and all are 'software' raid. (2 pure
> software RAID -- 'md raid'; 4 fake RAID [BIOS RAID] -- 'dm raid')(5
> using SATA, 1 using ATA)
>
>       It is definitely the way to go. With 500G SATA II 300 M/sec drives
> going for $50 now days, there is no reason not to set up a RAID for
> the added level of redundancy it provides. Just remember RAID does
> *not* replace backups.
>
>       There is no trick to setting up with raid. It sounds like you are
> going to do a fresh install, so just put your drives in the computer,
> put the install DVD in the drive and start the install as normal.
> When Yast proposes a partitioning scheme, do the following:
>
> (1) choose expert settings;
>
> (2) delete all the partitions that yast proposed;
>
> (3) on each of the discs you want to mirror, create the partitions
> and pick the option "[ ] Do Not Format" and set the filesystem type
> to "Linux RAID". Do this on all mirrored partitions;
>
> (4) next choose the RAID button and Create. Yast will then show a
> list of all the partitions that you have created;
>
> (5) next choose Add, and pick a partition from each drive that you
> will mirror one at a time. When you choose add after selecting a
> partition you will then assign the filesystem type 'Ext3, etc.' and
> the mount point. You will also notice that the first pair of
> partitions selected will be designated /md0. Go through the same
> steps here twice before moving on, for example once for /boot on sdc5
> and once for /boot on sdd5. Now when you look at the screen full of
> partitions you will have /md0 up top and, continuing with the
> example, /boot to the right of sdc5 and to the right of sdd5;
>
> (6) click finish and goto step (4) for each additional raid set you
> want to create. You will see the subsequent sets designated as /md1,
> /md2, etc..; and
>
> (7) When you're done, just say OK or confirm like you normally would
> in the partitioner and move on to software selection.
>
>     The same process applies to adding new drives and raid sets to an
> existing install. When it is time for the first boot, everything
> should work fine. However if it fails to boot and you get a grub
> error like GRUB ERROR 17, just remember *DO NOT PANIC*. It is usually
> something simple like a grub menu.lst entry, or for some reason, you
> may need to do a grub-install /dev/(proper device). On the 6 installs
> I currently have, probably installed the raid setups 10 times. Out of
> the ten, I have had boot failures probably 3-4 times that took
> adjustments.
>
>       Also, if you are using the BIOS raid, search through the BIOS
> setting any make sure the /boot or / (if you have no /boot) arrays
> are *bootable*. The setting can be hard to find sometimes, but if you
> have problems, double-check this.
>
>       Do not worry about the 24/7 running of drives. Drives commonly have
> about 700,000 hours MTBF. That's 79.9 years. My experience has been
> that drives either fail in the first week, or they last a long time.
> I had one old IBM Deskstar 40G drive that ran for 7 years 24/7 (it
> still runs, but I don't use it). During those 7 years I know didn't
> boot the machine any more that 15 times. (setup, kernel updates and
> physically moving the box from one office to the next was the only
> time it ever got rebooted)
>
>       Good luck, if you get stuck -- write back.

The approach you presetented seems to conform exactly to what has been 
suggested elsewhere, too, when going with a pure software RAID for a 
fresh SUSE installation (or how to add new drives). I read that Grub 
may need some adjusting, as you also said. That's OK. 

I'm quite confident this will work for me, too. Thanks for your nice 
round-up!

Regards,
Tero Pesonen
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