Topic: RAID problem

[rhys]

I installed SME Linux and accidentally clicked on soft RAID. Then I figured I'd probably made a ghastly mistake doing that and reinstalled. I already have a RAID card so I figured hard raid would do what I was after. Oops. Then started a lot of problems - I figured one of my drives might have been faulty. That probed not to be the case - they just don't like to be in combination and combined with my Ultra ATA 133 RAID Controller and the Medeley GUI driver doesn't include Linux.

It was working when I had it running via soft raid and both drives running through the raid card. What do I do to get back to a working, raided Linux?

Incidentally, both disks are identical and have identical installations of SME Linux (down to the pimples).

Rhys

[Ray Mitchell]

Rhys
Its unfortunate that you have had this experience with sme. Possibly hardware compatibility is your problem, but that's not a sme issue, it's a Red Hat issue. If Red Hat supports your hardware then sme will also. Check the Red Hat hardware compatibility site.

To reset your drives see the FAQ at http://www.e-smith.org/faq.php3 and particularly http://www.e-smith.org/faq.php3#7q15

In order for Software raid to work correctly, the geometries on both disks must be the same. .......Next, ensure both drives are using "NORMAL" (or LBA) mode in the BIOS. (Normal mode says "just give the truth about the disks".)
If any partition table is found on the disks, the information there will override the geometry specified in the BIOS. To remove any partition tables, perform the following commands as root:
   
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1  
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdc bs=512 count=1  

(This assumes disks are set as primary and secondary masters -- if they are not they should be.) Re-install SME Server.......

If you are still willing to give sme a chance you could try the above commands and then do your instal again, correctly this time. ie if you have a RAID hardware card then do not select software raid instal, just instal as a normal "single" disk instal.
Regards
Ray Mitchell

[Ken]

Chapter 6.2.2 Hardware mirroring.

If you are going to use hardware mirroring you should NOT choose to install with software raid..

Instead you should do a regular installation of the software.

Sounds to me like you need to start over as a new install.

Also print out the manual.
That said I was going to provide a link to the manual

http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual/

Particularly
Section 5.6 Supported SCSI adapters

I am sure you will like this program - assuming you have a working and supported computer

Ken

[rhys]

Lol. Fully-supported - by who? It's an own-built job.

I don't have SCSI. I have an PCI Raid card. At the moment I'm trying to work out who made it because the box and instructions neatly omit this information.

I have the manual and have even printed it out. I'd like to format my hard drives in order to do a reinstallation. How do I do this. I believe somebody said I had to press F1 to get out of the menu system. I'm sure I tried that and found it didn't work.

So, how do I get out of the menu and how do I format HDD2 and HDD1 (assuming that HDD1 is the boot drive) and assuming I've unplugged both from the RAID system and stuck them into the IDE slots.

[jm]

Ryhs

I'm a real learner with this too, new install - 1st attempt failed as the motherboard wasn't supported by Red Hat (the Linux version used by SME). I found the HCL (Harware Compatibility List) on the Red Hat site.

If you look on your PCI card you may find an FCC number. If so type it into google and see what turns up. Even if the number is not prefixed with "FCC ID" I would still type any number on the card into google and see what turned up. The card MAY be supported.

My second attempt was with an old PII system and, so far, all going fairly well with SME/E-Smith doing as it says on the tin.

My guess would be that your PCI raid card is not supported. Assuming that you have:

2 x identical HD's
1 x CD Rom

Try setting up both drives as master (using the drive jumpers) and connect one to IDE socket 1 on the motherboard and the other to IDE socket 2.

Now set the jumper onthe back of the CD to SLAVE and connect it to the spare plug on one of the IDE cables.

I'm not yet sure how to format your HD's with linux, but I think you need to remove partitions not just reformat. If you have an old Win 98 boot disk you could boot from your floppy and run fdisk. Choose option 3 and keep removing partitions until there are none left (ON EITHER HD).

Now, turn off the pc and back on with the SME CD rom in place, follow the set-up and choose raid.

This is what I did on the PII (with 2 3Gb Fuji drives) and all seems to be OK. I haven't tested the raid in a simulated fail yet - but I will. I have read of an rmp somewhere to show raid status.

Good luck

JM

[rhys]

Thanks for the suggestion JM. I did manage to get the dos boot disk to work but... Dos doesn't see my hard drives. At a guess, I'd say they're too big. Using FDISK, I found them and deleted the partitions but it appears that FDISK merely thought they were deleted. As soon as I rebooted, back they were. It's rather frustrating!

I typed all the numbers into search engines and didn't come up with anything on the raid cards, unfortunately. I did have a bright idea - I'll email the store that I bought them from to ask.

Rhys

[jm]

rhys

What brand and size are your drives ?
What brand and model is your motherboard ?
How is your BIOS set for the drives ?
What boot order setting is set in your Bios ?
What are the Jumper settings on the drives ?
How are the drives connected to the motherboard  (ie which to what socket) ?

Which version of Fdisk are you using (ie win 95 boot disk, win 98 boot disk etc)

Exactly, step by step, what are you doing once your machine has booted on the floppy ?

I'll see if I can help

JM

[rhys]

Drives: 2 x Maxtor Fireball 3 (40GB). These ain't the most reliable but they are cheap (one is a replacement for one that was DOA)

Motherboard: Shuttle AK32A

Bios sets itself for the drives (Award Bios).

boot order: floppy, CDRom, HDD0, HDD1

Jumpers on drives - both set to master. CD set to slave

FDisk - not sure. Probably Win95 (I've had it since 1997)

Drive connections. Right now they're running as primaries on a 4 drive (2p, 2s) raid controller that's plugged into a PCI socket - hence they're HDD0. They're a RAID mirrored set (Level 1)

As far as RAID is converned, I only ever use mirroring.

I must admit I haven't touched the server this evening.
One HDD has a corrupted version of Linux. The other has a version that'll boot when it's plugged into the IDE socket. When I boot, it states "kernel panic" and goes on about a missing "init" file.

I try to boot from the CD and the CD spins but it seems to default to the HDD (even when I say do not boot from HDD - personally, I think the bios could be stricter).

Rhys

[jm]

Rhys

Unless you find your raid card on the Redhat HAL then you SHOULD REMOVE IT and connect the 2 drives to IDE channels 1 & 2 directly on the motherboard.

You'll need a copy of fdisk newer than win 95, try win2k or linux.

You need to wipe them (remove ALL existing partitions) and start from fresh, booting from the SME cd

Then choose raid.

[Tom Carroll]

Try typing your FCC ID number in at this web address.  All electronics have an FCC ID number and must be registered.

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/alternate.html

Tom