Hello to all of you!
I have to reinstall a Linux server for a school which is a reference system
for more to come. Main usage is SAMBA (DOMAIN logon and DOMAIN master),
squid, and Apache.
It was running since June 2001 under SuSE 7.2, ReiserFS 3.6 and kernel
2.4.6-ac (the first HP370 ataraid stuff). Much crafted stuff...
It consists of four identical disks on the HP370 and I used it with (software)
ATARAID 0+1 (yes it worked since). But the performance was poor (compared to
numbers spooking in the Windoze world around) and there are some hiccup
(kupdated) during low/medium IO and some network traffic.
I've configured the system with an install harddisk from which I did fdisk and
format without a hitch.
<6>Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31
<4>ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
<4>VP_IDE: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 39
<4>VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
<4>VP_IDE: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
<4>ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
<6>VP_IDE: VIA vt82c686b (rev 40) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci00:07.1
<4> ide0: BM-DMA at 0xa000-0xa007, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
<4> ide1: BM-DMA at 0xa008-0xa00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
<4>HPT370: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 98
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:13.0
<6>PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:09.0
<4>HPT370: chipset revision 3
<4>HPT370: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
<4> ide2: BM-DMA at 0xcc00-0xcc07, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
<4> ide3: BM-DMA at 0xcc08-0xcc0f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
<4>hdc: LG DVD-ROM DRD-8120B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
<4>hde: FUJITSU MPG3204AT E, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdf: FUJITSU MPG3204AT E, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdg: FUJITSU MPG3204AT E, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdh: FUJITSU MPG3204AT E, ATA DISK drive
<4>ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
<4>ide2 at 0xbc00-0xbc07,0xc002 on irq 11
<4>ide3 at 0xc400-0xc407,0xc802 on irq 11
<6>hde: 40031712 sectors (20496 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=39714/16/63
<6>hdf: 40031712 sectors (20496 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=39714/16/63
<6>hdg: 40031712 sectors (20496 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=39714/16/63
<6>hdh: 40031712 sectors (20496 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=39714/16/63
<4>hdc: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)
<6>Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
<6>Partition check:
<6> hde:
<6> hdf: [PTBL] [2491/255/63] hdf1 hdf2 hdf3 hdf4 < >
<6> hdg:
<6> hdh: unknown partition table
[-]
<6> ataraid/d0: ataraid/d0p1 ataraid/d0p2 ataraid/d0p3 ataraid/d0p4 <
ataraid/d0<6>Highpoint HPT370 Softwareraid driver for linux version 0.01
<6>Drive 0 is 19546 Mb
<6>Drive 1 is 19546 Mb
<6>Raid array consists of 2 drives.
nordbeck@stmartin:~> df
Dateisystem 1k-Bl�cke Benutzt Verf�gbar Ben% montiert auf
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 144540 104116 40424 73% /
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 979928 37804 942124 4% /tmp
/dev/ataraid/d0p3 1967892 83040 1884852 5% /var
/dev/ataraid/d0p5 9767184 32840 9734344 1% /var/squid
/dev/ataraid/d0p6 17381760 269840 17111920 2% /home
/dev/ataraid/d0p7 4891604 1305296 3586308 27% /usr
/dev/ataraid/d0p8 4891604 452176 4439428 10% /opt
shmfs 257120 0 257120 0% /dev/shm
fstab
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 / reiserfs defaults,noatime
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 /tmp reiserfs defaults,notail
/dev/ataraid/d0p3 /var reiserfs defaults
/dev/ataraid/d0p5 /var/squid reiserfs defaults
/dev/ataraid/d0p6 /home reiserfs defaults
/dev/ataraid/d0p7 /usr reiserfs defaults
/dev/ataraid/d0p8 /opt reiserfs defaults
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec
/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,noauto,user,exec
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto noauto,user,sync
proc /proc proc defaults
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs defaults,noauto
Second problem was lilo (version 21.7-5). I didn't get the system to boot from
the RAID. I tried it with an old fifth disk but no luck to. So I had to boot
from floppy. Not so nice for a standalone server.
I had to type in "root=/dev/ataraid/d0p1" with 2.4.6-ac2 and "root=7201" with
newer kernels at the lilo boot prompt. Why the change?
To get it going I tested lilo 22.1-beta and 22.1 final but nothing worked.
Lilo didn't show any error messages but it didn't boot.
I tried many different lilo.conf versions but no go. Some examples:
lilo.conf
boot = /dev/hdf
vga = 791
read-only
menu-scheme = Wg:kw:Wg:Wg
lba32
prompt
timeout = 80
message = /boot/message
disk = /dev/hdc
bios = 0x82
disk = /dev/hde
bios = 0x80
disk = /dev/hdg
bios = 0x81
image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = linux
root = 7201
initrd = /boot/initrd
append = "enableapic vga=0x0317"
image = /boot/vmlinuz.suse
label = failsafe
root = /dev/hda7
initrd = /boot/initrd.suse
append = "disableapic ide=nodma apm=off"
optional
image = /boot/memtest.bin
label = memtest86
stmartin:/home/nordbeck # lilo -v
LILO version 22.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2001 John Coffman
Released 31-Oct-2001 and compiled at 07:31:56 on Jan 7 2002.
MAX_IMAGES = 27
Reading boot sector from /dev/hdf
Warning: /dev/hdf is not on the first disk
Merging with /boot/boot.b
Mapping message file /boot/message
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd
Added linux *
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz.suse
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.suse
Added failsafe
Boot image: /boot/memtest.bin
Added memtest86
/boot/boot.2140 exists - no backup copy made.
Writing boot sector.
stmartin:/home/nordbeck # lilo -v
LILO version 22.1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2001 John Coffman
Released 31-Oct-2001 and compiled at 07:31:56 on Jan 7 2002.
MAX_IMAGES = 27
Reading boot sector from /dev/hde
Merging with /boot/boot.b
Mapping message file /boot/message
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd
Added linux *
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz.suse
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.suse
Added failsafe
Boot image: /boot/memtest.bin
Added memtest86
/boot/boot.2100 exists - no backup copy made.
Writing boot sector.
stmartin:/home/nordbeck # fdisk /dev/hdf
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 2491.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Kommando (m f�r Hilfe): p
Festplatte /dev/hdf: 255 K�pfe, 63 Sektoren, 2491 Zylinder
Einheiten: Zylinder mit 16065 * 512 Bytes
Ger�t boot. Anfang Ende Bl�cke Id Dateisystemtyp
/dev/hdf1 * 1 18 144553+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdf2 19 140 979965 83 Linux
/dev/hdf3 141 385 1967962+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdf4 386 4983 36933435 5 Erweiterte
stmartin:/home/nordbeck # fdisk /dev/ataraid/d0
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4983.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Kommando (m f�r Hilfe): p
Festplatte /dev/ataraid/d0: 255 K�pfe, 63 Sektoren, 4983 Zylinder
Einheiten: Zylinder mit 16065 * 512 Bytes
Ger�t boot. Anfang Ende Bl�cke Id Dateisystemtyp
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 * 1 18 144553+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 19 140 979965 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p3 141 385 1967962+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p4 386 4983 36933435 5 Erweiterte
/dev/ataraid/d0p5 386 1601 9767488+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p6 1602 3765 17382298+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p7 3766 4374 4891761 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p8 4375 4983 4891761 83 Linux
Now, I've upgraded to SuSE 7.3 and latest kernel (2.4.17/18 plus O(1),
preempt, low-latency etc.) but system performance didn't improve :-(
I've tested with Andre's new IDE driver and got "lost interrupt"...
Do you think I should try with lilo-22.2/22.2.1-beta1 or is this all waste of
time???
Is it more wise to let ATARAID alone and use Linux software RAID 5 with
ReiserFS and LVM? Is it possible to use the four disks as RAID volumes (Hex
8E or FD) bind them together to a RAID 5 system and then put LVM volumes like
the above partitions on it? What performance could I expect from such a
configuration? Can I directly boot from such a beast?
Any hints, tips are much appreciated!
-Dieter
--
Dieter N�tzel
Graduate Student, Computer Science
University of Hamburg
Department of Computer Science
@home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
