Background:

I have been tasked with implementing UEFI boot in our VOS operating system.  
We've been using GPT partitions for more than 15 years, but only within our own 
OS...  We haven't had to interact with any other software before this.  We have 
a fault tolerant OS; so, all disks are RAID1 (software supported).  We don't 
expose the GPT partitioning to our user interface:  We have just use it as a 
wrapper for boot support to keep BIOS from being confused.  The intent was to 
set it up to boot with either the legacy BIOS or UEFI.  At the time, we only 
had a legacy BIOS to test with; so, we never finished the UEFI boot.

I've reviewed our current implementation and found a few minor things wrong; 
so, I have been working on a utility to fix them.  But the might be some more 
issues.  I have three questions, but relating to RAID 1.


1.       We have historically paired entire disks when we do RAID1, not 
partitions (we have never supported multiple file system partitions on one 
disk, because it didn't make sense from a performance standpoint).  I believe 
the current initialization uses the same DiskGUID in the GPT header for both 
disks.  I'm assuming that is not going to work properly.  Is that correct?

2.       The spec also seems to say that the UniquePartitionGUID should also be 
different for RAID 1 pairs.  Is that correct?

3.       We have learned over the years that one doesn't allocate an entire 
disk for a RAID (because one may have to replace a drive and replacement may 
not come with exactly the same ending LBA).  We are currently leaving off some 
space at the end.  When we do that, we are not putting the backup GPT header at 
the last LBA the devices.  By my reading of the spec, that is a mistake.  I do 
believe the spec allows me to leave a large gap between the LastUsableLBA in 
the backup GPT header with the backup table placed anywhere within that gap.  
Is that correct?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.
Herbie Robinson
Software Architect
Stratus Technologies | www.stratus.com
5 Mill and Main Place, Suite 500 | Maynard, MA 01754
T: +1-978-461-7531 | E: [email protected]
[Stratus Technologies]<http://go.stratus.com/US>

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