fd filesystem and RAID1
I've been able to do everything involved in setting up a simple RAID1 with 2 IDE disks on Slackware 9.1 except get it to actually keep working on reboot.
I installed on one disk, built 'degraded' RAID1 devices on the second disk, copied data, etc. I can hot add devices from the original disk to the RAID arrays. RAID devices in /etc/fstab come up (in degraded mode) on boot.
The problem is that hot-added devices never stick, the RAID arrays are always degraded again on reboot.
mdadm complains of missing superblocks. I have read the man page but can't see how to manage superblocks (create/delete) if this is even possible.
I'm wondering if have to make the original install partitions type 'fd' as well as those on the second disk?
Quoted 12 lines · Ninti Systems
I've been able to do everything involved in setting up a simple RAID1 with 2 IDE disks on Slackware 9.1 except get it to actually keep working on reboot.
I installed on one disk, built 'degraded' RAID1 devices on the second disk, copied data, etc. I can hot add devices from the original disk to the RAID arrays. RAID devices in
/etc/fstabcome up (in degraded mode) on boot.The problem is that hot-added devices never stick, the RAID arrays are always degraded again on reboot.
Quoted 6 lines
mdadm complains of missing superblocks. I have read the man page but can't see how to manage superblocks (create/delete) if this is even possible.
I'm wondering if have to make the original install partitions type 'fd' as well as those on the second disk?
The kernel auto-discovery will only probe a partition that has type 'fd', so if you want both parts of the mirror to work, both need to be type 'fd'.
Daniel
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-- Sir James JeansThanks for your patient replies Daniel. I'm not having a lot of luck with RAID1 on Slackware, and will probably have to go back to RedHat9's comfy GUI.
I have followed the instructions in your initial reply, but haven't been able to set up even a non-root RAID device using mdadm that doesn't try to resync on every reboot. This is with all fs types as 'fd'. The fault lies with me of course, not your instructions. which I must be misreading somehow.
I'm thinking of trying mkraid and using a startup script to get RAID going. Or maybe just mirroring data to the second disk with rsync.
Quoted 25 lines · Daniel Pittman
Quoted 12 lines · Ninti Systems
I've been able to do everything involved in setting up a simple RAID1 with 2 IDE disks on Slackware 9.1 except get it to actually keep working on reboot.
I installed on one disk, built 'degraded' RAID1 devices on the second disk, copied data, etc. I can hot add devices from the original disk to the RAID arrays. RAID devices in
/etc/fstabcome up (in degraded mode) on boot.The problem is that hot-added devices never stick, the RAID arrays are always degraded again on reboot.
Quoted 6 lines
mdadm complains of missing superblocks. I have read the man page but can't see how to manage superblocks (create/delete) if this is even possible.
I'm wondering if have to make the original install partitions type 'fd' as well as those on the second disk?
The kernel auto-discovery will only probe a partition that has type 'fd', so if you want both parts of the mirror to work, both need to be type 'fd'.
Daniel
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The kernel auto-discovery will only probe a partition that has type 'fd', so if you want both parts of the mirror to work, both need to be type 'fd'.
I tried doing this to partitions on both IDE devices pre-install (Slackware saw them all as md devices, install impossible), and I also tried changing the original install disk's partitions over to 'fd' type after copying their content to the md device (the second disk also all 'fd' type).
But whatever I do the arrays never have usable superblocks, are always degraded and always want to resync on boot.
Thanks for all your help, but I'm starting to get over this RAID on Slackware thing. I think I'll reconsider my distro (RedHat) or my backup strategy (rsync).
Thanks again
Quoted 5 lines · Ninti Systems
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The kernel auto-discovery will only probe a partition that has type 'fd', so if you want both parts of the mirror to work, both need to be type 'fd'.
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I tried doing this to partitions on both IDE devices pre-install (Slackware saw them all as md devices, install impossible), and I also tried changing the original install disk's partitions over to 'fd' type after copying their content to the md device (the second disk also all 'fd' type).
But whatever I do the arrays never have usable superblocks, are always degraded and always want to resync on boot.
Hrm. I am sorry that things have proved to be such a challenge. One thing to note, of course, is that a software RAID root file system is much harder to use than any other partition done as software RAID.
You may have better luck by creating a couple of small partitions and working with those as an "extra" drive, until you resolve the problems.
One final note: I found the 'mdadm' tool a *vast* improvement over the traditional RAID tools for Linux.
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Thanks for all your help, but I'm starting to get over this RAID on Slackware thing. I think I'll reconsider my distro (RedHat) or my backup strategy (rsync).
RedHat certainly seems to offer good graphical tools for managing this sort of thing, which can be very useful while you learn how things work.
There is nothing wrong with using a helping hand in software rather than by email. :)
Good luck.
Daniel
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