Raid issues on Sil 3114 (MB: Abit MAX3, i875 )

Raid issues on Sil 3114 (MB: Abit MAX3, i875 )

[Sebastian Slota]

Hi,

My Problem:

I'm trying to get my RAID0 created with BIOS to run with Linux ( 2.6.6 
kernel ). AS I'm having a partition for WinXP (for games only) and Liked to 
hahe it on RAID0 for more performance...

Problems:

#1 - Linux sees the HD's but dont recognises the partitions
	I learned that 2.4 kernel was having some 'medley' extension in ataraid that 
allowed to see the partitions... its missing in 2.6 and should be replaced 
with udev (?)

#2 - I deleted the array and created under winxp LVA's for drive 1 and 2, 
created there a software raid0 for windows (?) - dont know how to explain it, 
its M$ sh....
Linux sees that as a device but is unable to do anything with it! (NTFS 
Partiton)

Am I wrong or is it impossible for linux to use this M$ LVAs? I've found a 
howto for linux lva but I dont think windows will run with it!

#3 - And here I'm open for all suggestions:
I'd like to have:
	- WinXP ( Games partition ) best as Raid0 - no need for security...
	- Linux1 ( Root as Raid0, Home as Raid5, maybe or normal... dont know yet )
	- Linux2 ( test system )
	- Fat32 partiton for sharing stuff between Win and Linux ( as I'm having a 
	   server I'm not bound to it! )
My HD's are 4 x 160GB SATA on Silicon Image 3114 onboard, 3GHz P4 HT, 1GB CL2 
Ram.
I'm havind my important stuff on a RAID1 server, so the desktop pc is meant 
for performance only! no need for raid1!

My destined Linux is Yoper, cause I'm currently on mandrake and its so slow 
you can get a coffee while starting anything!

Thanks in advance,

Sebastian

Re: Raid issues on Sil 3114 (MB: Abit MAX3, i875 )

[Ricky Beam]

On Sat, 19 Jun 2004, Sebastian Slota wrote:
>#1 - Linux sees the HD's but dont recognises the partitions
...

More accurately, it see the partition table from the first chunk of the
array.

Yes, it's a "meddley" software RAID array.  2.6 does not have the ataraid
code in there anymore.  One is supposed to use "dm" for this now, but
again, there are no supporting code/modules to handle this (yet.)

If you know EXACTLY how the raid is setup and it NEVER changes, then yes,
Linux can be "tricked" into building a software RAID array in a BIOS
compatible manner.

WARNING: Linux is completely unaware of the meddley superblocks at the
         ends of each disk.  If you ever overwrite them, the BIOS and
         other OSes will not see an array.  Either skip the last cylinder
         when partitioning the drive or create all the partitions from
         windows. (which is what I did.)

I do this:
	md=d0,0,2,0,/dev/sda,/dev/sdb,/dev/sdc,/dev/sdd
		See also: Documentation/md.txt (within the kernel source)
That tells the kernel to build a non-persistent, partitioned RAID0 array
with a 16k stripe (2^2 * 4k) from sda-sdd (in that order) which looks like
this...

[root:pts/6{1}]spork:/[02:59 PM]:fdisk -l /dev/md/d0
Disk /dev/md/d0: 640.1 GB, 640167510016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77829 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/md/d0p1   *           1       72606   583207663+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/md/d0p2           72607       77306    37752750   83  Linux
/dev/md/d0p3           77307       77828     4192965   82  Linux swap
(NOTE: Cyl 77829 is unused.)

(The same is visible from /dev/sda although it's 1/4th the size.)

[root:pts/6{1}]spork:/[03:00 PM]:mdadm --detail /dev/md/d0
/dev/md/d0:
        Version : 00.90.01
  Creation Time : Fri Jun 18 16:41:33 2004
     Raid Level : raid0
     Array Size : 625163584 (596.20 GiB 640.17 GB)
   Raid Devices : 4
  Total Devices : 4
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is not persistent

    Update Time : Fri Jun 18 16:41:33 2004
          State : clean, no-errors
 Active Devices : 4
Working Devices : 4
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

     Chunk Size : 16K

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8        0        0      active sync   /dev/sda
       1       8       16        1      active sync   /dev/sdb
       2       8       32        2      active sync   /dev/sdc
       3       8       48        3      active sync   /dev/sdd

[root:pts/6{1}]spork:/[03:08 PM]:df -h /dev/md/d0p1
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md/d0p1          557G   72G  486G  13% /mnt/ntfs

--Ricky

Re: Raid issues on Sil 3114 (MB: Abit MAX3, i875 )

[Sebastian Slota]

Hi!

> >#1 - Linux sees the HD's but dont recognises the partitions
> More accurately, it see the partition table from the first chunk of the
> array.
True, did so for me :-)

> If you know EXACTLY how the raid is setup and it NEVER changes, then yes,
> Linux can be "tricked" into building a software RAID array in a BIOS
> compatible manner.

Great! I've borrowed another PC with some 350GB to save my data and 
reconfigure my drive

> I do this:
> 	md=d0,0,2,0,/dev/sda,/dev/sdb,/dev/sdc,/dev/sdd
> 		See also: Documentation/md.txt (within the kernel source)
> That tells the kernel to build a non-persistent, partitioned RAID0 array
> with a 16k stripe (2^2 * 4k) from sda-sdd (in that order) which looks like
> this...
>
> [root:pts/6{1}]spork:/[02:59 PM]:fdisk -l /dev/md/d0
> Disk /dev/md/d0: 640.1 GB, 640167510016 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77829 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
>       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/md/d0p1   *           1       72606   583207663+   7  HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/md/d0p2           72607       77306    37752750   83  Linux
> /dev/md/d0p3           77307       77828     4192965   82  Linux swap
> (NOTE: Cyl 77829 is unused.)

Thats exactily what I would like to do! Great!

But is linux able to boot from this array?
Do I need some special Software package installed for use md ?

I'm trying to install Yoper and the install CD is lacking most software.
I'm in contact with the developer there and allowed to modify the install 
packages.


> (The same is visible from /dev/sda although it's 1/4th the size.)
>
> [root:pts/6{1}]spork:/[03:00 PM]:mdadm --detail /dev/md/d0
> /dev/md/d0:
>         Version : 00.90.01
>   Creation Time : Fri Jun 18 16:41:33 2004
>      Raid Level : raid0
>      Array Size : 625163584 (596.20 GiB 640.17 GB)
>    Raid Devices : 4
>   Total Devices : 4
> Preferred Minor : 0
>     Persistence : Superblock is not persistent
>
>     Update Time : Fri Jun 18 16:41:33 2004
>           State : clean, no-errors
>  Active Devices : 4
> Working Devices : 4
>  Failed Devices : 0
>   Spare Devices : 0
>
>      Chunk Size : 16K
>
>     Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
>        0       8        0        0      active sync   /dev/sda
>        1       8       16        1      active sync   /dev/sdb
>        2       8       32        2      active sync   /dev/sdc
>        3       8       48        3      active sync   /dev/sdd
>
> [root:pts/6{1}]spork:/[03:08 PM]:df -h /dev/md/d0p1
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/md/d0p1          557G   72G  486G  13% /mnt/ntfs
>
> --Ricky
Would you write me a small howto?
My Hardware: 4x160GB, (1hh ata for installing, temporalily )
My partition would be:
- WinXP ( 10GB)
- Linux1 ( 20GB )
- Linux2 (10GB)
- Swap (2GB)
- FAT32 ( 100GB)
- /home (the rest)

Txs!

Sebastian