10.04.3 Server + Intel RAID + HDS72303 3TB Drive

[slipdipper]

I'm trying to perform a server installation on a system with 2 3TB Hitachi HDS72303 hard drives configured in a RAID 1 setup.

Its using the Intel Raid Storage Technology fakeraid.


Here are the RAID/Installer configuration combinations i've seen and their results:

1. Non-RAID BIOS configuration: - full 3TB are recognized and used. No installation problems

2. RAID 1 BIOS configuration, No SATA RAID Installer support:
-- installer's partitioning tool shows each drive as a 3TB drive,but will not allow you to partition more than 801.6GB. In fact if you create a partition at the end of a drive, it puts it at 801.6GB and shows the remaining 2.2TB as free space

3. RAID 1 BIOS configuration, SATA RAID Installer support: the installer's partitioning tool shows the /dev/mapper location which lists it as 801.6GB and not the 3TB it should be.


Booting from a 10.10 desktop live cd shows pretty much the same.


Any ideas.. I've tried to partition first with gparted, but nothing worked

[darkod]

I understand most people go for LTS release for servers, and 10.04 is the latest, but did you check whether it has something to do with gpt partition tables?

Since the older msdos table works only with disks up to 2TB as far as I know, I guess your 3TB disks have gpt. Not sure if 10.04 is aware of this being a version from 2010. On the other hand the .3 means it's the latest update and gpt support might have been added (under assumption it wasn't there in the original release).

But even if it supports gpt, have you researched how will that work out? For example, gpt disks need a small partition where the bootloader files will go, in linux that partition has to have the bios_grub flag configured, similarly like the boot flag for the msdos boot partition. I'm not sure if this small partition can work from the array or needs to be outside it.

I don't have any experience with gpt sorry, but this would be my first place to look for your problem.

Also, the new boards have option for UEFI or BIOS boot, and what you select depends on how you set up your disks. The small partition with bios_grub flag is for BIOS boot, not EFI.

[slipdipper]

i've decided to give up. instead i wiped out the fakeraid metadata, set the bios sata settings as ide, and used a MD raid configuration.

[collisionystm]

I never had that problem. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS server automatically created the GPT partition I needed. I did Raid 10 across 2TB drives giving me a total of 4TB to use. I was able to use all 4TB.

[slipdipper]

for tracking purposes, i'm continuing my long, drawn out, traumatic journey here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1884515

[slipdipper]

also, in response to the above replies:

I dont know that the GPT partition matters at this point.

Ubuntu sees the individual drives (/dev/sda,/dev/sdb) as 3TB drives. dmraid sees them as 801GB:

dmraid:


root@ubuntu:~# parted /dev/mapper/isw_dejdhhbajg_Volume0 print
Model: Linux device-mapper (mirror) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/isw_dejdhhbajg_Volume0: 802GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags


individual drives


Model: ATA Hitachi HDS72303 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Model: ATA Hitachi HDS72303 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt