Topic: Software Raid1 - Question

[nick]

I am in the process of setting up a software raid 1 configuration using v5.5.  Both drives are set to the primary/master IDE controller for both IDE0 and IDE1 with a CDROM on the secondary/slave IDE1.  The setup process seems to work fine except so far its taken 8 hours (and counting) to untake this task "formatting swap space on /dev/md2"

Have I done something wrong?, or is this normal?

help

cheers
Nick

[Nathan Fowler]

Never put two software RAID devices on the same IDE channel.

You should use this configuration:
IDE0 - Primary IDE Channel (Configured as Master)
CD-ROM Primary IDE Channel (Configured as Slave)

IDE1 - Secondary IDE Channel (Configured as Master).

It doesn't matter what channel you place the CD-Rom on, but the drives should be on separate channels.

Hope this helped,
Nathan

[nick]

Thanks, my setup is as you have stated except the CD rom is off the secondary IDE1 not IDE0.

any other ideas?

[Michael Smith]

Are the drives truly identical?  Can you install completely on one?

[nick]

Yes each hard disk is Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 Gig, purchased at the same time, they look and feel the same except serial numbers are different.

I have format both drives using windows to the full 60 gigs (well just under!), I have not installed sme v5.5 on a single drive as yet.  Should that be my next step?

I do really need and want raid 1 mirroring.

thanks
nick

[Nathan Fowler]

My only guess:

SME is doing a bad cluster scan when doing mkfs, which is doing a "surface" scan of the drive as it's formatted.  Windows can format large drives very fast if it aborts the bad cluster scan, which is the way it is by default.  Also, listen for any "*click*..*bwwr*..*click*..*click*" noises, these often indicate a bad drive.  I've got a certain ear for it based on experience.  Maxtor drives are known to be more noisy than other manfacturers, however, if you hear consistent repetitive sounds this often indicates drive failure.

I hope this helped,
Nathan

[Michael Jung]

Yes I can fully confirm that behavior, its possible to go on with the installation, but later at boot sequence the system halted at LILO boot up with "LI". Now I'm installing it on a single drive that worked.

Michael Jung

[nick]

Thanks

But if the hard drives were faulty, would it allow the single drive installation?, I have successfully installed SME v5.5 on both drives, but not as RAID1, which is what I really want.  

I would have thought, if the drives were faulty SME didn't install at all?

Nick

[Dave Woodhouse]

Hi Nick, just some thoughts as I have a similar setup and had problems.

1) Both drives on SAME IDE channel (i.e. Master AND slave on same physical cable) IS slower, so mirroring takes longer.

2) Until it's up and running, your SME 5.5 is not using DMA for the drives, this makes it A LOT SLOWER. see Darrell May's excellent how-to's on www.myezserver.com/downloads/mitel  and enable hdparm when you get it going.

3) SME will mirror the entire 60Gigs, this, also takes a long time.

4) Finally, I'd agree with the other guy's and suspect one or both of your drives is faulty - I'm installing 5.5 onto mirrored 40's at the mo and it took less than 5 minutes to format so your right to think something is wrong. Do a full surface scan under Win2000 or find a diagnostic prog. for your drives and prove they are OK.

[nick]

Thanks people, but how's this one, If I get another drive (only 6 gig) have the 60 gig drive on ide channel 0 master, have the 6 gig drive on ide1 master, and the cd rom drive as channel 1 slave, the setup process works.

So I will try a full scan on the 2nd 60 gig drive, today and will post the results.

Thanks again for all your help

Nick

[nick]

Tested the 60 gig drives and they appear to be fine.  So it just gets worse, but in saying that I did manage to get the RAID 1 (software) working, using the IDE0 Channel, by having one drive as master and the other set to slave.  Not the ideal setup reading all the other posts.

Now I know that you shouldn't have software raid set up like this, but if the drives are not faulty, which appears to be the case.  What else should I be looking for?


arrrrrrr
Thanks
Nick

[nick]

Just pruchased two more hard drives, 40 gig this time, and I have the same problem, the system seems to take forever to get pass the "formatting swap space on /dev/md2".  

People that have setup software raids before, can you recall how long it took/takes to complete this process??

cheers in advance
Nick

[Dave]

Hi Nick

Recently setup a Dell 600SC with mirrored 40Gig IBM IDE drives on the Primary controller i.e. Master and Slave and the format took approx 10 mins.
That system had 256Mb Ram, so I think it has a 512Mb swap file, would have to check it to be sure.

Have you tried manually cleaning the drives right down, partitions, MBR the lot?
Is there any options in the system BIOS for the IDE controller you could reset/play around with?
A long shot, but can you load Win2k onto this system, same hardware setup and try a mirror, see what the performance is like?
Have you checked the checksum of your install copy? is it correct? I had loads of problems due to a dodgy download. You could try SME 5.6 Beta7 see if it behaves the same?

regards

Dave

[nick]

First thanks for all the help on this problem.  I have discovered what the problem was.  It turned out to be my CD ROM, replaced the CD ROM and both my 60 gigs, and now my two new 40 gigs worked without any problems what so ever.

Not sure why the CD rom wouldn't work with these hard drives, as I have used it to build sme servers many times :-<, including software raids

Cheers
Nick