On Monday 08 January 2001 09:07, you wrote:
> All,
>
> I have just bought Mandrake version 7.2, but I have run into a problem. I
> have a Pentium II with 2x 30 Gigabyte IDE disk drive ( RAID 1 ). The first
> problem is related to the LBA issue, e.g. the two disk drives has different
> geometry, which I now understand makes no difference under Linux. The other
> is to actually install Mandrake on the two devices ( Raid 1 ), or just
> install on hda and then to run mkraid to create the md devices.
>
> Do I need to get another distribution, such as Red Hat ( which supports
> Raid 1 during installations ).
>
> I would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me the bullet points
> for how to implement RAID 1 for Mandrake, for a first time installation
> from the CD-ROM.
>
> I have been successfully running Slackware ( for years ) on another Celeron
> based system, which is going to be replaced by the above system.
>
> Thx,
> Hans E.
If you have the Promise controller, you can do RAID 1 under any linux, with
recompilation of the drivers, however, be advised that IDE Raid is not
hardware. It is a BIOS/firmware kludge that emulates real hardware RAID.
If you do not have the promise controller, no linux will support your RAID at
install or at any other time because the drivers for windows only are a
tightly kept secret.
There is another option, forget the RAID installed and use the Linux Software
RAID implementation(there is a HOWTO at linuxdoc.org), which is at least the
equal of any of the IDE fake hardware RAIDs though it does take up a little
more drive space and offers more partitions. All of the IDE RAIDs _reduce_
your drive capacity because they keep information to support the RAID on
cylinders that are destroked (no longer within drive limits for normal
operation).
If you are dual-booting windows, you can use the "hardware" RAID on board for
the windows partition and use linux software RAID for all other partitions.
(Third possible option).
Civileme
