I have two identical Western Digital 1TB SATA2 drives, which I am trying to set up as a RAID1 array. They are attached to a Sil 3124 PCI-X SATA Controller. On booting the machine, pressing F4 gets me to the controller card's setup screen, where I can create, destroy and repair RAIDs. I chose to create a RAID1 array, which duly appeared in the list of logical drives on this screen. I was then asked if I wanted to mirror them now or later, so I chose now. It took hours :(. Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller. I've searched through the /dev directory, and can't see anything that suggest the logical drive. Suggestions welcomed, though I know you're all busy upgrading to 11.0 ;) That's my next job. Bob -- Bob Registered Linux User #463880 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 10.3, Kernel 2.6.22.17-0.1-default, KDE 3.5.7 Intel Celeron 2.53GB, 2GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 7600GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 21 June 2008 09:53:31 Bob Williams wrote:
I have two identical Western Digital 1TB SATA2 drives, which I am trying to set up as a RAID1 array. They are attached to a Sil 3124 PCI-X SATA Controller. On booting the machine, pressing F4 gets me to the controller card's setup screen, where I can create, destroy and repair RAIDs. I chose to create a RAID1 array, which duly appeared in the list of logical drives on this screen. I was then asked if I wanted to mirror them now or later, so I chose now. It took hours :(.
Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller.
Well, no you haven't. A hardware controller would have presented the RAID as a single disk. The fact that you see two means that it's a so-called fake-RAID card, where the RAID functionality is in the driver You would probably do better to use the linux software RAID for two reasons: firstly it's not driver dependent, so it's much easier to replace the hardware if it breaks (these things use their own RAID format, so other cards can't work with them), and secondly, the linux software RAID is generally faster It looks to me like the fake-RAID functionality of that card is only supported by the precompiled drivers from sci-worx.com, but those haven't been updated since Anno Dazumal (see http://www.sci- worx.com/support/supportsearchresults.aspx?pid=27&cid=3&ctid=2&osid=1&, the latest RAID aware driver is from 2006, for SLES9 and RHEL4, the driver for suse pro 9.3 doesn't know about RAID) so I think you have to go with the software RAID functionality. Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Anders Johansson wrote:
On Saturday 21 June 2008 09:53:31 Bob Williams wrote:
I have two identical Western Digital 1TB SATA2 drives, which I am trying to set up as a RAID1 array. They are attached to a Sil 3124 PCI-X SATA Controller. On booting the machine, pressing F4 gets me to the controller card's setup screen, where I can create, destroy and repair RAIDs. I chose to create a RAID1 array, which duly appeared in the list of logical drives on this screen. I was then asked if I wanted to mirror them now or later, so I chose now. It took hours :(.
Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller.
Well, no you haven't. A hardware controller would have presented the RAID as a single disk. The fact that you see two means that it's a so-called fake-RAID card, where the RAID functionality is in the driver
You would probably do better to use the linux software RAID for two reasons: firstly it's not driver dependent, so it's much easier to replace the hardware if it breaks (these things use their own RAID format, so other cards can't work with them), and secondly, the linux software RAID is generally faster
It looks to me like the fake-RAID functionality of that card is only supported by the precompiled drivers from sci-worx.com, but those haven't been updated since Anno Dazumal (see http://www.sci- worx.com/support/supportsearchresults.aspx?pid=27&cid=3&ctid=2&osid=1&, the latest RAID aware driver is from 2006, for SLES9 and RHEL4, the driver for suse pro 9.3 doesn't know about RAID) so I think you have to go with the software RAID functionality.
Anders
There is a good article about software raid here http://en.opensuse.org/How_to_install_openSUSE_on_software_RAID Note that my system would not boot unless I made the /boot partition NOT on raid. All other partitions can be on raid1. Putting swap on raid1 was a debated issue on this list, but in the end I put my swap on raid1 and all works fine. Jim -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 21 June 2008 10:19:19 Jim Flanagan wrote:
There is a good article about software raid here http://en.opensuse.org/How_to_install_openSUSE_on_software_RAID
Note that my system would not boot unless I made the /boot partition NOT on raid. All other partitions can be on raid1. Putting swap on raid1 was a debated issue on this list, but in the end I put my swap on raid1 and all works fine.
Thanks, Jim, I'll take a look a that. I'm also trying to migrate data that is scattered over a collection of internal and external (USB) drives onto the new RAID, whereas that article assumes starting from scratch. There are only so many data connectors/power lines available inside one machine :) -- Bob Registered Linux User #463880 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 10.3, Kernel 2.6.22.17-0.1-default, KDE 3.5.7 Intel Celeron 2.53GB, 2GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 7600GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 21 June 2008 09:14:47 Anders Johansson wrote: ...quoting Bob:
Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller.
Well, no you haven't. A hardware controller would have presented the RAID as a single disk. The fact that you see two means that it's a so-called fake-RAID card, where the RAID functionality is in the driver
Hmm. I thought I'd avoided that particular trap :( The following lines from dmesg seem to suggest that the kernel is loading a driver module: scsi6 : sata_sil24 usb 1-2: ZC0301[P] Image Processor and Control Chip detected (vid/pid 0x041E:0x4036) usb-storage: device found at 2 usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning scsi7 : sata_sil24 scsi8 : sata_sil24 scsi9 : sata_sil24 but maybe not. Looks like I'll go with software RAID, then. Thanks for your reply. -- Bob Registered Linux User #463880 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 10.3, Kernel 2.6.22.17-0.1-default, KDE 3.5.7 Intel Celeron 2.53GB, 2GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 7600GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 21 June 2008 13:08:29 Bob Williams wrote:
On Saturday 21 June 2008 09:14:47 Anders Johansson wrote:
...quoting Bob:
Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller.
Well, no you haven't. A hardware controller would have presented the RAID as a single disk. The fact that you see two means that it's a so-called fake-RAID card, where the RAID functionality is in the driver
Hmm. I thought I'd avoided that particular trap :(
The following lines from dmesg seem to suggest that the kernel is loading a driver module:
Of course a driver gets loaded, otherwise you wouldn't see the disks at all :) It's just that the open source driver doesn't seem to support the fakeRAID functionality of the closed source driver With a real hardware RAID that wouldn't be a concern. With real hardware RAID, the controller only shows one disk, and the OS never has an option of anything else Cheers Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 21 June 2008 12:22:58 Anders Johansson wrote:
On Saturday 21 June 2008 13:08:29 Bob Williams wrote:
On Saturday 21 June 2008 09:14:47 Anders Johansson wrote:
...quoting Bob:
Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller.
Well, no you haven't. A hardware controller would have presented the RAID as a single disk. The fact that you see two means that it's a so-called fake-RAID card, where the RAID functionality is in the driver
Hmm. I thought I'd avoided that particular trap :(
The following lines from dmesg seem to suggest that the kernel is loading a driver module:
Of course a driver gets loaded, otherwise you wouldn't see the disks at all :)
It's just that the open source driver doesn't seem to support the fakeRAID functionality of the closed source driver
With a real hardware RAID that wouldn't be a concern. With real hardware RAID, the controller only shows one disk, and the OS never has an option of anything else
Understood. Many thanks. Bob -- Bob Registered Linux User #463880 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 10.3, Kernel 2.6.22.17-0.1-default, KDE 3.5.7 Intel Celeron 2.53GB, 2GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 7600GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Williams"
I have two identical Western Digital 1TB SATA2 drives, which I am trying to set up as a RAID1 array. They are attached to a Sil 3124 PCI-X SATA Controller. On booting the machine, pressing F4 gets me to the controller card's setup screen, where I can create, destroy and repair RAIDs. I chose to create a RAID1 array, which duly appeared in the list of logical drives on this screen. I was then asked if I wanted to mirror them now or later, so I chose now. It took hours :(.
Continuing the boot process, I expected the OS (openSUSE 10.3) to see only the logical drive, but YaST partitioner reported two new Western Digital drives, /dev/sdf and /dev/sdg. I can combine them into a software RAID, but that seems wasteful and redundant, given that I've spent GBP85 on a hardware controller.
No, you spent GBP85 on a fake-raid controller with only just enough firmware raid support to allow booting and partitioning of raid0 or raid1, which is not hardware raid. Hardware raid costs a lot more. Since you have in essence a software raid anyways, I say it's insane to use the pseudo-raid formatting built into the motherboard or controller, and then be tied to that controller. Use fully software raid and be able to use those drives on any controller, or use fully hardware raid like you intended and get the pros/cons you intended. But first learn the difference between no raid or software raid, fake-raid or bios raid, and real hardware raid, _then_ go buy a real hardware raid card or use what you have in fully linux software raid mode (disable all raid options in the bios, they will/may screw up the linux formatting) Just my opinion that fully software or fully hardware are the only ways to go. There are arguable reasons to use fakeraid. With fakeraid, like hardwrae raid, it is possible to format an array and treat it as one big drive, whereas with fully software raid you must fdisk each drive individually and you must set up a seperate small raid1 array for boot yourself, and then / and all the rest can be anything including raid5 10 50 6 etc.. if you want swap on raid0 for speed you have to do that seperately etc. Then again, the flip side of having to do all that, is that it's even possible to do all that. Hardware raid controllers don't usually let you chop up individual drives into pieces that belong to different arrays using different types of raid formatting that best suits their different needs. In your case which is the simplest possible, with only 2 drives and only wanting to use raid1, then there is really no difference in functionality or performance between fakeraid and full software raid, except the portability. You don't need hardware support to boot from one disk of a raid1 pair, each disk just looks like a plain old ordinary disk to the boot loader and can read it fine, no striping or ecc data going on. There is still the advantage of portability/flexibility though. If you use the fakeraid feature, you can only access those drives from that controller or another just like it. Whereas software raid disks can be plugged into any controller. -- Brian K. White brian@aljex.com http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++. filePro BBx Linux SCO FreeBSD #callahans Satriani Filk! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (4)
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Anders Johansson -
Bob Williams -
Brian K. White -
Jim Flanagan