[opensuse] SiI SATA raid set is not detected in openSUSE

Hello list members: I have a Silicon Image (SiI) 3512A PCI SATA raid controller, and two hard disks that contains a SiI mirrored raid set. The raid set was set up in the card's BIOS, and at boot it is detected correctly by the card's BIOS. In openSUSE 11.2 however the raid set in not detected. dmraid gives the following results: linux:~ # dmraid -s no raid disks linux:~ # dmraid -r no raid disks linux:~ # dmraid --version dmraid version: 1.0.0.rc16-3 (2010.01.12) dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc16-3 (2010.01.12) device-mapper version: 4.15.0 linux:~ # linux:~ # ls -l /dev/mapper total 0 crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 60 Apr 24 20:17 control linux:~ # I tried openSUSE 11.4 live CD (KDE version) which gave the same result, except for it has newer device mapper, 4.18.0. If I boot knoppix live CD, however, it detects the raid set correctly: root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid -s *** Active Set name : sil_bhaedgcfdjde size : 320168895 stride : 0 type : mirror status : ok subsets: 0 devs : 2 spares : 0 root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid -r /dev/sdb: sil, "sil_bhaedgcfdjde", mirror, ok, 320168895 sectors, data@ 0 /dev/sda: sil, "sil_bhaedgcfdjde", mirror, ok, 320168895 sectors, data@ 0 root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid --version dmraid version: 1.0.0.rc16 (2009.09.16) shared dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc16 (2009.09.16) device-mapper version: 4.18.0 root@Microknoppix:~# ls -l /dev/mapper total 0 crw------- 1 root root 10, 236 Apr 24 20:05 control lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde -> ../dm-0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde1 -> ../dm-1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde2 -> ../dm-2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde3 -> ../dm-3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde5 -> ../dm-4 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde6 -> ../dm-5 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde7 -> ../dm-6 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde8 -> ../dm-7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde9 -> ../dm-8 I can mount and use the mirrored partitions. I would like to use this raid set in openSUSE 11.2 too. How could I set it up to work as expected, and what can be the cause for not being it detected? Thanks, Istvan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 4/24/2011 11:42 AM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Hello list members:
I have a Silicon Image (SiI) 3512A PCI SATA raid controller, and two hard disks that contains a SiI mirrored raid set. The raid set was set up in the card's BIOS, and at boot it is detected correctly by the card's BIOS.
In openSUSE 11.2 however the raid set in not detected. dmraid gives the following results:
linux:~ # dmraid -s no raid disks linux:~ # dmraid -r no raid disks linux:~ # dmraid --version dmraid version: 1.0.0.rc16-3 (2010.01.12) dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc16-3 (2010.01.12) device-mapper version: 4.15.0 linux:~ #
linux:~ # ls -l /dev/mapper total 0 crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 60 Apr 24 20:17 control linux:~ #
I tried openSUSE 11.4 live CD (KDE version) which gave the same result, except for it has newer device mapper, 4.18.0.
If I boot knoppix live CD, however, it detects the raid set correctly:
root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid -s *** Active Set name : sil_bhaedgcfdjde size : 320168895 stride : 0 type : mirror status : ok subsets: 0 devs : 2 spares : 0 root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid -r /dev/sdb: sil, "sil_bhaedgcfdjde", mirror, ok, 320168895 sectors, data@ 0 /dev/sda: sil, "sil_bhaedgcfdjde", mirror, ok, 320168895 sectors, data@ 0 root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid --version dmraid version: 1.0.0.rc16 (2009.09.16) shared dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc16 (2009.09.16) device-mapper version: 4.18.0
root@Microknoppix:~# ls -l /dev/mapper total 0 crw------- 1 root root 10, 236 Apr 24 20:05 control lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde -> ../dm-0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde1 -> ../dm-1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde2 -> ../dm-2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde3 -> ../dm-3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde5 -> ../dm-4 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde6 -> ../dm-5 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde7 -> ../dm-6 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde8 -> ../dm-7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde9 -> ../dm-8
I can mount and use the mirrored partitions.
I would like to use this raid set in openSUSE 11.2 too. How could I set it up to work as expected, and what can be the cause for not being it detected?
Thanks,
Istvan
I don't know about this particular raid controller but I have seen others over the years that totally hide the actual drive configuration from the OS, and handle the raid themselves. DMRAID is designed for software raid, which, once you have a raid controller involved, you no longer technically have. But you might have to make sure libata is installed, See http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil In the past, when running up against the lack of drivers for raid or fakeraid devices I have found that its often just as easy to find a jumper or bios setting that turns off the raid controller software and use the card as a regular drive multi-channel controller and build a Software Raid on it. I realize this might not be helpful if you are trying to access the data already on the raid. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

El 24/04/11 16:40, John Andersen escribió:
But you might have to make sure libata is installed, See http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil
libata is always "installed" as it comes with the kernel...the OP is confusing hardware raid ( a fake raid to be precise) with software raid. My recommendation is, disable the "hardware raid" in the BIOS because it is NOT a real hardware RAID,in plain old english it is a piece of crap attached to your mainboard nicely promoted by the marketing department of the the motherboard vendor,to which you shouldn't trust your data. After that use software raid in userspace. Cheers. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 4/24/2011 1:28 PM, Cristian Rodríguez wrote:
El 24/04/11 16:40, John Andersen escribió:
But you might have to make sure libata is installed, See http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil
libata is always "installed" as it comes with the kernel...the OP is confusing hardware raid ( a fake raid to be precise) with software raid.
My recommendation is, disable the "hardware raid" in the BIOS because it is NOT a real hardware RAID,in plain old english it is a piece of crap attached to your mainboard nicely promoted by the marketing department of the the motherboard vendor,to which you shouldn't trust your data.
After that use software raid in userspace.
Cheers.
That was already pointed out. But disabling hardware raid might not be wise, as you will probably lose all the data on the device, as I also pointed out. Never the less, its not clear why Knopix could see it and not Opensuse, and it is still not clear from his posting if Opensuse saw the device at all. It might have shown it as a single disk drive, which is not all that uncommon with hardware raid, or even fakeraid. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

2011. április 24. 23:31 napon John Andersen <jsamyth@gmail.com> írta:
On 4/24/2011 1:28 PM, Cristian Rodríguez wrote:
El 24/04/11 16:40, John Andersen escribió:
But you might have to make sure libata is installed, See http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil
libata is always "installed" as it comes with the kernel...the OP is confusing hardware raid ( a fake raid to be precise) with software raid.
My recommendation is, disable the "hardware raid" in the BIOS because it is NOT a real hardware RAID,in plain old english it is a piece of crap attached to your mainboard nicely promoted by the marketing department of the the motherboard vendor,to which you shouldn't trust your data.
After that use software raid in userspace.
Cheers.
That was already pointed out. But disabling hardware raid might not be wise, as you will probably lose all the data on the device, as I also pointed out.
Never the less, its not clear why Knopix could see it and not Opensuse, and it is still not clear from his posting if Opensuse saw the device at all. It might have shown it as a single disk drive, which is not all that uncommon with hardware raid, or even fakeraid.
Well, all the drives with all their partitions are recognized by both knoppix and opensuse. Eg looking at /dev/disks/by-id directory. The problem is that the raid set is not detected in openSUSE. The two drives which has the raid set is visible, and I can mount them. (I mount them only as read-only filesystems as I do not want to make any change and ruin the raid array) I have one IDE drive (primary master in BIOS) with the OS (oS 11.2) and the two SATA drives connected to the SiI 3512 PCI card (in the BIOS this is a 'SiI mirrored set'). Knoppix assigns the drives as: IDE primary master: /dev/sdc SATA 0: /dev/sda SATA 1: /dev/sdb openSUSE assigns differently: IDE primary master: /dev/sda SATA 0: /dev/sdb SATA 1: /dev/sdc I don't know why the two systems assigns the drives differently and if it has to do anything with the recognition of the raid set. Thanks, Istvan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 2011/04/25 00:59 (GMT+0200) Istvan Gabor composed:
Well, all the drives with all their partitions are recognized by both knoppix and opensuse. Eg looking at /dev/disks/by-id directory.
The problem is that the raid set is not detected in openSUSE. The two drives which has the raid set is visible, and I can mount them. (I mount them only as read-only filesystems as I do not want to make any change and ruin the raid array)
I have one IDE drive (primary master in BIOS) with the OS (oS 11.2) and the two SATA drives connected to the SiI 3512 PCI card (in the BIOS this is a 'SiI mirrored set').
Knoppix assigns the drives as:
IDE primary master: /dev/sdc SATA 0: /dev/sda SATA 1: /dev/sdb
openSUSE assigns differently:
IDE primary master: /dev/sda SATA 0: /dev/sdb SATA 1: /dev/sdc
I don't know why the two systems assigns the drives differently and if it has to do anything with the recognition of the raid set.
Working with similar hardware and OS's today I thought I would try to figure out an answer to this. I couldn't, but nevertheless I suspect it's a driver order thing. I have to guess Knoppix's dmraid module is getting first crack at devices, so gets sda & sdb before the ide driver gets anything, which leaves it only sdc. The main differences between mine and yours: 1-you don't say which Knoppix you booted (6.4.4 here) 2-my 3512 is configured for SATA rather than RAID 3-I have only one HD attached to 3512 (on the eSATA port) In neither Knoppix nor 11.2 does the ata_piix module show up in lsmod output, while in 11.2 sata_sil is missing only from Knoppix, which tells me that for 11.2 at least ata_piix has first dibs on the HDs and why 11.2's IDE gets sda. Logs: http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/t2240-knoppix.txt http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/t2240-suse112.txt You might want to consider subscribe linux-raid majordomo@vger.kernel.org which is a very helpful mailing list, and might even know things to share about dmraid. ;-) -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 4/24/2011 3:59 PM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Well, all the drives with all their partitions are recognized by both knoppix and opensuse. Eg looking at /dev/disks/by-id directory.
The problem is that the raid set is not detected in openSUSE. The two drives which has the raid set is visible, and I can mount them. (I mount them only as read-only filesystems as I do not want to make any change and ruin the raid array)
Ok, but just to be clear, you've moved past the point of expecting dmraid of finding these devices, correct? dmraid is only for software raid. You have hardware raid. Just clarifying... -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

2011. április 25. 20:48 napon John Andersen <jsamyth@gmail.com> írta:
On 4/24/2011 3:59 PM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Well, all the drives with all their partitions are recognized by both knoppix and opensuse. Eg looking at /dev/disks/by-id directory.
The problem is that the raid set is not detected in openSUSE. The two drives which has the raid set is visible, and I can mount them. (I mount them only as read-only filesystems as I do not want to make any change and ruin the raid array)
Ok, but just to be clear, you've moved past the point of expecting dmraid of finding these devices, correct?
If you mean that I don't expect openSUSE to detect the raid array, the answer is no. I only posted the above info since it was asked whether the devices are accesible as non-raid, regular devices.
dmraid is only for software raid. You have hardware raid.
Yes, dmraid is software raid. The SiI 3512 is a softraid/fakeraid controller. It can set up raid arrays and can rebuild raid arrays on its own, but the operation systems has the task to detect the two disks as an array and handle it as an array. Istvan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 3:38 PM, Istvan Gabor <suseuser04@lajt.hu> wrote:
2011. április 25. 20:48 napon John Andersen <jsamyth@gmail.com> írta:
On 4/24/2011 3:59 PM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Well, all the drives with all their partitions are recognized by both knoppix and opensuse. Eg looking at /dev/disks/by-id directory.
The problem is that the raid set is not detected in openSUSE. The two drives which has the raid set is visible, and I can mount them. (I mount them only as read-only filesystems as I do not want to make any change and ruin the raid array)
Ok, but just to be clear, you've moved past the point of expecting dmraid of finding these devices, correct?
If you mean that I don't expect openSUSE to detect the raid array, the answer is no. I only posted the above info since it was asked whether the devices are accesible as non-raid, regular devices.
dmraid is only for software raid. You have hardware raid.
Yes, dmraid is software raid. The SiI 3512 is a softraid/fakeraid controller. It can set up raid arrays and can rebuild raid arrays on its own, but the operation systems has the task to detect the two disks as an array and handle it as an array.
Istvan
I am not a fakeraid expert, but I'm pretty sure Istvan's descriptions have been accurate. As a raid guy, I thought I'd at least provide this info: === I'd suggest both the terms software raid and hardware raid be dropped in this thread going forward. The experts / docs / etc. treat fakeraid as its own thing and not a subset of either hardware or software raid. In general fakeraid is discouraged for linux because: Pro's: interoperable with windows in a dual boot scenario Con's: lack of well tested linux drivers. Simply put, not many linux users use fakeraid. Neutral: fakeraid has the same CPU requirements as software raid Neutral: some fakeraid controllers expose a XOR engine that can be used to some of the raid5/raid6 calculation work. MDraid has some options to leverage those XOR engines from the kernel. I don't know if linux DMraid can do that as well or not. Workaround - reconfigure drives as discrete drives and let linux MD raid software take it from there. Issue with workaround - it requires a full backup / restore because all data is lost. As to the linux-raid mailinglist, that is exclusively for MDraid I'm almost positive, so its not much of a resource for fakeraid. I don't know where to take a fakeraid problem to. (I don't do fakeraid.) Greg -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 4/25/2011 12:38 PM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
dmraid is only for software raid. You have hardware raid. Yes, dmraid is software raid. The SiI 3512 is a softraid/fakeraid controller. It can set up raid arrays and can rebuild raid arrays on its own, but the operation systems has the task to detect the two disks as an array and handle it as an array.
I stand corrected. (Actually I studied the man page closer). -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 4/25/2011 2:48 PM, John Andersen wrote:
On 4/24/2011 3:59 PM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Well, all the drives with all their partitions are recognized by both knoppix and opensuse. Eg looking at /dev/disks/by-id directory.
The problem is that the raid set is not detected in openSUSE. The two drives which has the raid set is visible, and I can mount them. (I mount them only as read-only filesystems as I do not want to make any change and ruin the raid array)
Ok, but just to be clear, you've moved past the point of expecting dmraid of finding these devices, correct?
dmraid is only for software raid. You have hardware raid.
Just clarifying...
Just cloudifying you mean. He does NOT have hardware raid. Nor does he have software raid. Fakeraid is neither software raid nor hardware raid, it is some of both, and that matters. It's it's own entirely different 3rd sort of animal that has it's own things you must know and do to use it. When fakeraid is used, the controller bios writes metadata to the drives which is specially recognized and handled later by both the controller bios at boot time and by the operating system, and hidden from normal userspace access. If the kernel has a dmraid module loaded that recognizes that particular metadata, the kernel will provide a disk device node that represents the entire array logical drive, as well as the normal device nodes for the physical drives, but it will disallow writing to the physical drives since that would break the array. Not all fakeraid metadata are known to Linux. Some are known but only enough to know the kernel should disallow writing or else risk breaking the array, but not enough to safely write to the array and properly maintain the metadata. Some are not known to older kernels or to kernels with certain options disabled, but are known to newer kernels. (newer dmraid modules and newer versions of existing dmraid modules) If the kernel does not have any dmraid driver compiled in or loaded as a module, or, if the available dmraid drivers don't happen to recognize the given controllers metadata, then the kernel will allow write access to the individual physical drives and won't supply any device that represents the array logical drive. Load the knoppix cd, verify that the dmraid array device is present, then run lsmod. Load suse, run lsmod. There will be one or more dm* and/or si* modules not present on the suse run. Locate them and ensure they get loaded, preferably before the physical drives are automounted since that marks them busy and will probably prevent the dmraid module from taking over control of them. There are menus in the installer to manually load more kernel drivers before launching the main installer. -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

2011. április 24. 22:28 napon Cristian Rodríguez <crrodriguez@opensuse.org> írta:
El 24/04/11 16:40, John Andersen escribió:
But you might have to make sure libata is installed, See http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil
libata is always "installed" as it comes with the kernel...the OP is confusing hardware raid ( a fake raid to be precise) with software raid.
I don't think I am confusing them. I do know that mdraid is not dmraid, and that dmraid is for fake-raid cards/controllers.
My recommendation is, disable the "hardware raid" in the BIOS because it is NOT a real hardware RAID
Still it should work, as it works in knoppix and works with nvidia softraid controller.
,in plain old english it is a piece of crap attached to your mainboard nicely promoted by the marketing department of the the motherboard vendor,to which you shouldn't trust your data.
Maybe it is crap, but it has already saved all my data two times, when one of the two drives died completely. It was really is to rebuild the raid set on the new drive in the raid bios. It was with nvidia nvraid in openSUSE 11.2 I would like to do the same with SiI raid card.
After that use software raid in userspace. Well, I have already the data on the mirrored disk, I just want to use the disks. I do not want to set up mdraid.
Thanks, Istvan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Istvan Gabor wrote:
I don't think I am confusing them. I do know that mdraid is not dmraid, and that dmraid is for fake-raid cards/controllers.
Yes afaict, the sil3512 is fake-raid, and when knoppix got it to work with dmraid, that's probably right. I would expect to see some informational output in dmesg from the loading of sata_sil - have you checked that? -- Per Jessen, Zürich (12.9°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Accidentally clicked the send button before finishing. Here is the complete answer. 2011. április 24. 21:40 napon John Andersen <jsamyth@gmail.com> írta:
On 4/24/2011 11:42 AM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Hello list members:
I have a Silicon Image (SiI) 3512A PCI SATA raid controller, and two hard disks that contains a SiI mirrored raid set. The raid set was set up in the card's BIOS, and at boot it is detected correctly by the card's BIOS.
In openSUSE 11.2 however the raid set in not detected. dmraid gives the following results:
linux:~ # dmraid -s no raid disks linux:~ # dmraid -r no raid disks linux:~ # dmraid --version dmraid version: 1.0.0.rc16-3 (2010.01.12) dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc16-3 (2010.01.12) device-mapper version: 4.15.0 linux:~ #
linux:~ # ls -l /dev/mapper total 0 crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 60 Apr 24 20:17 control linux:~ #
I tried openSUSE 11.4 live CD (KDE version) which gave the same result, except for it has newer device mapper, 4.18.0.
If I boot knoppix live CD, however, it detects the raid set correctly:
root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid -s *** Active Set name : sil_bhaedgcfdjde size : 320168895 stride : 0 type : mirror status : ok subsets: 0 devs : 2 spares : 0 root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid -r /dev/sdb: sil, "sil_bhaedgcfdjde", mirror, ok, 320168895 sectors, data@ 0 /dev/sda: sil, "sil_bhaedgcfdjde", mirror, ok, 320168895 sectors, data@ 0 root@Microknoppix:~# dmraid --version dmraid version: 1.0.0.rc16 (2009.09.16) shared dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc16 (2009.09.16) device-mapper version: 4.18.0
root@Microknoppix:~# ls -l /dev/mapper total 0 crw------- 1 root root 10, 236 Apr 24 20:05 control lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde -> ../dm-0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde1 -> ../dm-1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde2 -> ../dm-2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde3 -> ../dm-3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde5 -> ../dm-4 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde6 -> ../dm-5 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde7 -> ../dm-6 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde8 -> ../dm-7 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 24 20:05 sil_bhaedgcfdjde9 -> ../dm-8
I can mount and use the mirrored partitions.
I would like to use this raid set in openSUSE 11.2 too. How could I set it up to work as expected, and what can be the cause for not being it detected?
Thanks,
Istvan
I don't know about this particular raid controller but I have seen others over the years that totally hide the actual drive configuration from the OS, and handle the raid themselves.
DMRAID is designed for software raid, which, once you have a raid controller involved, you no longer technically have.
But you might have to make sure libata is installed, See http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil
Thank you, I checked the above link but that information is from 2004 and I am not sure if it is not outdated. The libata driver is installed, and the sata_sil module is loaded.
In the past, when running up against the lack of drivers for raid or fakeraid devices I have found that its often just as easy to find a jumper or bios setting that turns off the raid controller software and use the card as a regular drive multi-channel controller and build a Software Raid on it. I realize this might not be helpful if you are trying to access the data already on the raid.
As the raid set is detected and can be activated in knoppix live system but not in openSUSE (even in the newest 11.4 live system) there must be some difference between the two linux systems that causes whether the raid set is recognized or not. I would like to find these differences then I might be able to change openSUSE accordingly. Thanks, Istvan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 04/24/2011 06:29 PM, Istvan Gabor pecked at the keyboard and wrote:
Thank you, I checked the above link but that information is from 2004 and I am not sure if it is not outdated. The libata driver is installed, and the sata_sil module is loaded.
In the past, when running up against the lack of drivers for raid or fakeraid devices I have found that its often just as easy to find a jumper or bios setting that turns off the raid controller software and use the card as a regular drive multi-channel controller and build a Software Raid on it. I realize this might not be helpful if you are trying to access the data already on the raid.
As the raid set is detected and can be activated in knoppix live system but not in openSUSE (even in the newest 11.4 live system) there must be some difference between the two linux systems that causes whether the raid set is recognized or not. I would like to find these differences then I might be able to change openSUSE accordingly.
Thanks, Istvan
Most likely a module in openSUSE that is compiled into the knoppix kernel. You can try manually adding missing the module during the openSUSE install. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 4/24/2011 11:42 AM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Hello list members:
I have a Silicon Image (SiI) 3512A PCI SATA raid controller, and two hard disks that contains a SiI mirrored raid set. The raid set was set up in the card's BIOS, and at boot it is detected correctly by the card's BIOS.
if you do ls -l /dev/disk/by-path does it perhaps show the raid ?? -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

2011. április 24. 22:14 napon John Andersen <jsamyth@gmail.com> írta:
On 4/24/2011 11:42 AM, Istvan Gabor wrote:
Hello list members:
I have a Silicon Image (SiI) 3512A PCI SATA raid controller, and two hard disks that contains a SiI mirrored raid set. The raid set was set up in the card's BIOS, and at boot it is detected correctly by the card's BIOS.
if you do ls -l /dev/disk/by-path does it perhaps show the raid ??
No, it just shows the hard disk drives, not the raid set. /dev/mapper is empty too. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (8)
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Brian K. White
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Cristian Rodríguez
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Felix Miata
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Greg Freemyer
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Istvan Gabor
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John Andersen
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Ken Schneider - openSUSE
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Per Jessen