Software RAID weirdness question

[Robert Meyer]

I wrote a wonderful, in depth response to this message and when I sent it,
yahoo informed me that my login expired and that I'd have to relogin.  Of
course, the message that I typed in was gone so you'll have to do with this
version :-)  We don't mind answering questions at all.  That's why we're here.

First of all, if you could send along a copy of your '/etc/raidtab' file, it
would be most helpful.  This file is used by 'mkraid' and 'raidstart' so it's
contents are kinda important.

The sequence of events for building and mounting a RAID filesystem are:
1) modify the '/etc/raidtab' file to define the RAID devices that you're
building.

2) run 'mkraid' with as many options as makes you happy.

3) build a filesystem on the '/dev/md' device using something like 'mke2fs' or
'mkreiserfs'

4) mount the filesystem with the 'mount' command pointed to '/dev/md??' or add
the mount point to '/etc/fstab' using the '/dev/md??' device.

5) kick back and open a cold one, knowing that you've saved the world from
fried drives :-)

Note that I haven't actually TRIED this :-).  This is information that I've
gleaned from the man pages while I was researching doing this for a customer. 
We still haven't gotten around to trying it.  Note that you probably cannot do
this simply with the root file system.

By the way, do you folks have any good, straight grained Osage Orange there?  I
want to build a longbow and need to find some 4/4 by whatever width by at least
7-1/2 feet.  I built an electric guitar out of Padauk and Bocote that I bought
at Certainly Wood some time ago.

Cheers!
--- "Gregory J. Neumann" <gregneumann at netscape.net> wrote:
> First real post here.  Hope you don't mind a question: :-)
> 
> I am trying to implement software RAID 1 on my Slackware 7.1 box w/ dual 9.1
> gig ultra-SCSI drives, 2.2.19 kernel, RAID 1 support compiled in and the
> latest available raidtools 0.90 pkg.  AFAICT, there is no patch for RAID for
> the 2.2.19 kernel.
> At one point I managed to get a raid set up "accepted" as a RAID 0, but I 
> wanted to change it to RAID 1.  
> In keeping w/ the HOWTO, I originally set the raid partitions w/ the 
> permanent super-block.  Now the kernel registers the personality, but 
> every time I try to "raidstart", I get "invalid argument: /dev/md0".  
> "mkraid" aborts on "seems to be part of an active raid", even w/ the
> "really-force" option.  However, "/proc/mdstat" lists all raids as 
> inactive.  "/syslog" doesn't have any references, same w/ "/messages". 
> "dmesg" just shows a successful RAID 1 personality registration at startup.
> 
> I can delete the partitions w/ fdisk, bring them back as regular 83
> partitions, mke2fs them and write data.  Then delete and set them up as RAID
> again, and the same things happen.  I have even deleted the /dev/md* and
> reinstalled the raidtools.  Same thing.  Even changing the partition sizes
> doesn't work.
> 
> The HOWTO and all online docs I can find are very out of date.  None of the
> docs or articles I find even hint on what I should do.
> 
> Whew!  I guess that's about as persistent as a super-block can be!  This 
> really mystifies me!  Any ideas at all?
> 
> Best regards,
> Greg
> -- 
> Gregory J. Neumann, E-mail: info at certainlywood.com
> Certainly Wood Inc., 13000 Route 78, East Aurora, NY 14052-9515
> Tel: 716-655-2769, Fax: 716-655-3446
> __________________________________________________________________
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=====
Bob Meyer
Knightwing Communications, Inc.
36 Cayuga Blvd
Depew, NY 14043
Phone: 716-308-8931 or 716-681-0076
Meyer_RM at Yahoo.com

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