[Wylug-help] Can't install on Hardware SATA RAID10 on startech.com PCISATA4R1

[John Hodrien]

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012, Gary Stainburn wrote:

> On Wednesday 29 February 2012 12:30:56 John Hodrien wrote:
>> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012, Gary Stainburn wrote:
>>> Hi folks.
>>>
>>> Having been badly burned again with software RAID I've opted for a
>>> hardware RAID controller, buying the one above.
>>>
>>> However, I cannot install Fedora. I've tried 14 and 16.  Both installs
>>> see the hardware RAID
>>>
>>> http://www1.ringways.co.uk/RAID_detected.jpeg
>>>
>>> but when I select it and try install the system crashes.
>>>
>>> http://www1.ringways.co.uk/RAID_debug.jpeg
>>>
>>> I've installed the controller, 4x500GB drives and configured RAID10
>>> through the controller's BIOS before booting from the Fedora DVD.
>>>
>>> Any ideas what I can do next?
>>
>> Are you sure you've opted for a hardware RAID controller?  Looks like it's
>> a fakeraid board, so you'll be using dmraid which fits in with what the
>> error messages look like.  I wouldn't count that as being better of than
>> with mdraid.  In my experience it's much easier to get burnt by dmraid than
>> mdraid.
>>
>> Have you tried deleting the RAID 10 set in the controller BIOS and setting
>> up the array within the Fedora installer?
>>
>> jh
>
> I have deleted the RAID10 configured in the controller and I am currently
> installing F16 using once again the software RAID - the underlying drives now
> appear to anaconda..
>
> However, as far as I can see I have lost the benefits I was trying to achieve
> eith ther HW controller. The MD devices are now solely reliant upon the Linux
> kernel booting which was the problem I had on the previous two occasions.
>
> Also,  when trying to create the RAID within anaconda it insists on me
> creating a BIOS boot partition on one of the drives.  Surely this means that
> the system is dependant on that drive and if that is the one that fails I
> cannot reboot the server to rebuild the array.

I was more meaning delete it and then try to recreate it as fake raid from
within the installer (which if done right then is also picked up by the BIOS).

For me, I go either mdraid or hardware RAID.  Fakeraid (dmraid) just seems to
be a mash of the disadvantages and advantages of the two, but not in a way
I've ever liked.

If you've got a four disk raid 10 set that you're trying to setup, just create
a four disk raid 1 mdraid mirror for /boot, and install grub on each disk.
That way it can always boot unless all disks fail.  Then, if you're in a state
where the kernel won't boot, you're pretty much stuffed anyway.

jh