Topic: Add driver at installation boot? Hardware suggestions RAID5?

[stian]

I need help finding compatible hardware for building a raid 5 server.

I want 8 x 500GB sata/ide harddrives in a raid tower with cooling. It need to be compatible (out of the box with Sme70. Anyone have something like that?

[stian]

Could this be an idea?

1 x Areca ARC-1220 PCI-E 8 port RAID

8 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

2 x 3ware S-ATA Disk Cage, 4 HotSwap trays

1 x Cooler Master Stacker Tower

1 x Mainboard: MSI 945GM2-FI, I945G, Socket-775, DDR2, VGA,SATA2,m-ATX,GbLAN,Firewire,PCI-Ex16

1 x Crucial DDR2 PC3200 1024MB CL3 Unbuffered,1.8V,128Meg x 64, 240pin

1 x Intel Pentium D 805 2.66GHz Socket LGA775, 2MB, BOXED w/fan

1 x Fortron Source Epsilon 600W, Active PFC, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin

1 x Sony CD-burner IDE 52x/32x/52x black OEM

[CarltonBale]

I have an Areca RAID card.  How do I install SME Server 7 on the RAID array?  It doesn't look like a driver is included on the CD and I don't see how to download/install it during installation.  Thanks for any help on this.

[bosco555]

Hi guys,

check this link out: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/DPT-Hardware-RAID-HOWTO/

regards
gb

[bosco555]

and this:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

[bosco555]

and this:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

[stian]

Can anyone provide a "how to" for adding a driver for Areca raid card? Just can`t figure this out.. :-\

[CarltonBale]

I agree, the driver integration is very complex.  Much more than I wanted to attempt.  It looks like the kernel has to be rebuilt and then the CD recreated with that new kernel.  I don't really know how to do either and I'm not sure I want to take the time it would require to figure it out.  I think Ubuntu has built-in driver support, so it is probably better suited for someone like me.

SME 7 seems to have some very impressive Software RAID capabilities, but I already have an Areca card what I really need is integrated driver support.

[stian]

I have found the driver here: ftp://ftp.unnet.nl/pub/areca/RaidCards/AP_Drivers/Linux/DRIVER/CentOS-4.1/Centos-4.1-i386/1.20.00.08/

And the readme text says:

b. On Centos Linux installation screen, a prompted lable "boot:"
         will appear at the bottom of the screen. According to the prompt, type in
         "linux(or text) dd" to tell linux we have a driver disk.

      c. You will be asked "Do you have a driver disk?", select "Yes".

      d. When prompted "Insert your driver disk and press OK to continue", insert the
         driver diskette in the floppy drive and then select "OK".

Is this possible with SmeServer?

[stian]

Download and rawrite this to a floppy: ftp://ftp.unnet.nl/pub/areca/RaidCards/AP_Drivers/Linux/DRIVER/CentOS/CentOS-4.3/1.20.0X.13/install.zip

When booting from cd starts, hold down shift.

At the prompt, type: linux dd and press enter

Then the installation asks you for driver disk. Load it and it shall work! Does for me. Though I have a problem with volumes over 2Tb, but I think thats another issue.