Topic: Errors with RAID while upgrading.

[Jay Douglas]

Greetings,
   I am upgraded a SME server from version 4.x to version 5.1.2.  During this upgrade the installation proceedure is reporting an error that states "Exception Occurred" with the anaconda program.  From what I understand, this is the program that manages the software raid.  Some quick background information:  At one point this customer was using the software RAID provided with E-Smith.  One of the hard drive is the array crashed and they are now running the server off of one hard drive and using a tape back up instead of the RAID setup.  Is there a way to disable the RAID that is currently running or a work around for the upgrade?

Thanks.

[Filippo Carletti]

anaconda is the installer, has nothing to do with raid.
Tape backup should be run even with raid
Upgrade to 5.1.2 is supported only from 4.1.2.
I'd replace the faulty hd, rebuild raid and retry upgrade.

[Jay Douglas]

Filippo,
   Thanks for your prompt reply.  Unfortunately, the customer doesn’t want to continue to use the raid system.  While upgrading the anaconda program was reporting errors with the raid drive and the raid array.  Is there any way to disable this raid array so I can upgrade.  I verified their version of e-smith and it is version 4.1.2.

Thanks for your time.

[Filippo Carletti]

Tell them that if an hd crashes, they have downtime and they loose everything since last backup.
I don't know if there is a raid-disable-howto.
I'd test a procedure in a test server.

1. break raid
2. remap /dev/mdx to /dev/hda in /etc/fstab
3. change partiton type from fd to 83 or 82

[Jay Douglas]

I appreicate the advice, after a full back up I'm going to put your theory to use.  I will keep the message board and yourself posted on the results.

Thanks.