questant
June 4th, 2009, 05:13 PM
I am setting up a system to work as a file server on a low volume access network. The system has the following specs:
Motherboard: Abit VP6
BIOS: Award Modular v.6.00PG
Built-in RAID controller: HPT370
Memory: 1GB
IDE connected drives on Primary IDE1: 2 CD drives: Lite-On LTR1210B CD Burner (Master); IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM reader (Slave)
Nothing connected on Secondary IDE
RAID Primary: 2 matching Western Digital WD5000JBRTL 500GB drives
Began the installations with 9.04.
Desktop, Alternate and Server CDs all failed for one reason or another (including inability to refind the very CD drive from which the installation was being run during the hardware search, aborting installation to a "Busy Box").
Read 9.04 postings and decided to go back to 8.04 LTS for the install using the Alternate CD (there are two other 8.04 LTS systems acting as servers in the network).
Installation proceeds nicely through the partition sequence.
Made choice to Partition Disks, beginning with the first disk (the second to this point has remained untouched), setting 'use as' to "physical volume for RAID".
It yielded the following screen:
--------------------------------------------
Partition Disks
This is an overview of your currently configured partitions and mount points. Select a partition to modify its settings (file system, mount point, etc.), a free space to create partitions, or a device to initialise its partition table.
Configure software RAID
Guided partitioning
Help on partitioning
IDE3 Master (hde) - 500.1 GB WDC WD5000AAKB-00H8A0
#1 Primary 497.0 GB B K raid
#5 logical 3.1 GB f swap swap
IDE3 slave (hdf) - 500.1 GB WDC WD5000AAKB-00H8A0
Undo changes to partitions
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
---------------------------------
(I did not configure the second (slave) disk and from reading documents below, I am under the impression I must also configure the second (slave) drive to match the first BEFORE committing to the Finish ... link. I have since returned to the above screen and am preparing to configure the slave drive as well, pending response from this post)
-- However, with the configuration as above (slave unconfigured) I selected Finish ... and received the following screen
----------------------
Partition Disks
Before RAID can be configured, the changes have to be written to the storage devices. These changes cannot be undone.
When RAID is configured, no additional changes to the partitions in the disks containing physical volumes are allowed. Please convince yourself that you are satisfied with the current partitioning scheme in these disks.
The partition tables of the folloing devices are changed:
IDE3 Master (hde)
The following partitions are going to be formatted:
partition #5 of IDE3 master (hde) as swap
Write the changes to the storage devices and configure RAID?
-----------------------------
Frankly, the statement "these changes cannot be undone" is both disturbing and unclear. I can understand that committing to a RAID configuration locks the disks in and they could not later be modified. That is somewhat different than saying something cannot be undone. Grinding a rock to powder is permanent. The rock will not be reconstituted. It cannot be undone. Is that also true for these drives? Is there some low-level format routine being done to the drive that irretrievably destroys the manufacturer's low-level format as delivered? Once committed to this RAID configuration are these drives irretrievable for any other purpose later, such as moving them to a standard IDE controller in a different machine, repartitioning and reformatting them according to different purposes? Does it mean one could not clean them off and create a new RAID system on them from scratch? "Cannot be undone" implies they cannot be reconstituted into any other configuration, period. I would expect something like "Once these changes are committed to the drives, no further modifications are possible unless one removes the existing partitions and starts over."
Please forgive my paranoia. Over the years I've rationalized irreversabilities into something less than they were a few times and paid the price accordingly. An ounce of prevention ...
Clarification on this issue would be greatly appreciated. I've never set one of these systems up before and would rather do it right the first time.
In addition, I'm not sure from my research if the HPT360 is indeed a FakeRAID or a true hardware RAID. I've had implications of both in different articles.
Thanks in advance for any clarifications to the above questions and confusions.
Reading list so far:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID
http://www.dalouche.com/wordpress/2006/01/15/running-ubuntu-gnulinux-on-a-fakeraid1-mirroring-array/
http://linux-ata.org/faq-sata-raid.html
http://www.murty.net/ataraid/ (oriented to RH)
http://www.murty.net/ataraid/nativeraid.html (oriented to RH)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FileServerWithRAID (U-7.04)
None of these discussions quite matches the installation sequence I see on screen with the 8.04 Alternative CD and none reference the above warning statement and/or describes its meaning.
Motherboard: Abit VP6
BIOS: Award Modular v.6.00PG
Built-in RAID controller: HPT370
Memory: 1GB
IDE connected drives on Primary IDE1: 2 CD drives: Lite-On LTR1210B CD Burner (Master); IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM reader (Slave)
Nothing connected on Secondary IDE
RAID Primary: 2 matching Western Digital WD5000JBRTL 500GB drives
Began the installations with 9.04.
Desktop, Alternate and Server CDs all failed for one reason or another (including inability to refind the very CD drive from which the installation was being run during the hardware search, aborting installation to a "Busy Box").
Read 9.04 postings and decided to go back to 8.04 LTS for the install using the Alternate CD (there are two other 8.04 LTS systems acting as servers in the network).
Installation proceeds nicely through the partition sequence.
Made choice to Partition Disks, beginning with the first disk (the second to this point has remained untouched), setting 'use as' to "physical volume for RAID".
It yielded the following screen:
--------------------------------------------
Partition Disks
This is an overview of your currently configured partitions and mount points. Select a partition to modify its settings (file system, mount point, etc.), a free space to create partitions, or a device to initialise its partition table.
Configure software RAID
Guided partitioning
Help on partitioning
IDE3 Master (hde) - 500.1 GB WDC WD5000AAKB-00H8A0
#1 Primary 497.0 GB B K raid
#5 logical 3.1 GB f swap swap
IDE3 slave (hdf) - 500.1 GB WDC WD5000AAKB-00H8A0
Undo changes to partitions
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
---------------------------------
(I did not configure the second (slave) disk and from reading documents below, I am under the impression I must also configure the second (slave) drive to match the first BEFORE committing to the Finish ... link. I have since returned to the above screen and am preparing to configure the slave drive as well, pending response from this post)
-- However, with the configuration as above (slave unconfigured) I selected Finish ... and received the following screen
----------------------
Partition Disks
Before RAID can be configured, the changes have to be written to the storage devices. These changes cannot be undone.
When RAID is configured, no additional changes to the partitions in the disks containing physical volumes are allowed. Please convince yourself that you are satisfied with the current partitioning scheme in these disks.
The partition tables of the folloing devices are changed:
IDE3 Master (hde)
The following partitions are going to be formatted:
partition #5 of IDE3 master (hde) as swap
Write the changes to the storage devices and configure RAID?
-----------------------------
Frankly, the statement "these changes cannot be undone" is both disturbing and unclear. I can understand that committing to a RAID configuration locks the disks in and they could not later be modified. That is somewhat different than saying something cannot be undone. Grinding a rock to powder is permanent. The rock will not be reconstituted. It cannot be undone. Is that also true for these drives? Is there some low-level format routine being done to the drive that irretrievably destroys the manufacturer's low-level format as delivered? Once committed to this RAID configuration are these drives irretrievable for any other purpose later, such as moving them to a standard IDE controller in a different machine, repartitioning and reformatting them according to different purposes? Does it mean one could not clean them off and create a new RAID system on them from scratch? "Cannot be undone" implies they cannot be reconstituted into any other configuration, period. I would expect something like "Once these changes are committed to the drives, no further modifications are possible unless one removes the existing partitions and starts over."
Please forgive my paranoia. Over the years I've rationalized irreversabilities into something less than they were a few times and paid the price accordingly. An ounce of prevention ...
Clarification on this issue would be greatly appreciated. I've never set one of these systems up before and would rather do it right the first time.
In addition, I'm not sure from my research if the HPT360 is indeed a FakeRAID or a true hardware RAID. I've had implications of both in different articles.
Thanks in advance for any clarifications to the above questions and confusions.
Reading list so far:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID
http://www.dalouche.com/wordpress/2006/01/15/running-ubuntu-gnulinux-on-a-fakeraid1-mirroring-array/
http://linux-ata.org/faq-sata-raid.html
http://www.murty.net/ataraid/ (oriented to RH)
http://www.murty.net/ataraid/nativeraid.html (oriented to RH)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FileServerWithRAID (U-7.04)
None of these discussions quite matches the installation sequence I see on screen with the 8.04 Alternative CD and none reference the above warning statement and/or describes its meaning.