Re: Software RAID FAILED!

On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, Damien Hull wrote:

> QUESTIONS
> 1. Why did it fail ( drives seem to be fine )
> 2. Why didn't the system reboot from /dev/md0
> 3. Shouldn't one drive still work after something goes wrong?

FYI: grub takes a bit more work to do redundant bootable drives. In a
nutshell you need something like the following in /boot/grub/menu.lst:

   default 0
   timeout 10
   fallback 1
   serial --unit=0 --speed=115200 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1
   terminal --timeout=10 serial console

   # Default entry
   title null (hd0,1)
   root (hd0,1)
   kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/md1 ro console=/dev/tty0 \
     console=ttyS0,115200n8

   # Fallback entry
   title null (hd1,1)
   root (hd1,1)
   kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/md1 ro console=/dev/tty0 \
     console=ttyS0,115200n8

and then you need to run grub and execute the following commands:

   root (hd0,1)
   setup (hd0)
   root (hd1,1)
   setup (hd1)
   quit

As others have mentioned, you do need a BIOS that will poll all drives for
boot info in order for this to work. LILO actually does RAID in a simpler
fashion. Just add 'raid-extra-boot = mbr-only' to /etc/lilo.conf (assuming
boot = /dev/md1 or what have you) and rerun lilo.

Assuming you have everything working correctly you should be able to boot with
one failed drive with no trouble. I've seen it work just fine with LILO at
least.

         --Arthur Corliss
           Bolverk's Lair -- http://arthur.corlissfamily.org/
           Digital Mages -- http://www.digitalmages.com/
           "Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto
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Received on Mon Apr 24 13:54:35 2006