Installation on Software-RAID1 over FastTrack Promise Tech.
Hi,
I was testing the installation in new machines (8 identical).
They are Intel Server SE7501WV2 (1 Xeon processor with 2 IDE drives
60GB attached only to the internal FastTrack Promise Tech RAID).
I have been trying to install with debian-installer in many different
forms. Almost installed using the semi-hardware drivers for RAID
in the FastTrack (RAID-1 in BIOS and then installing kernel modules
ataraid and pdcraid by hand, even substituting the kernel in the iso)
but i got many problems to finish the installation. Also this
configuration is not optimal because the kernel drivers are actually
software-RAID with some support on hardware (but not using the card
BIOS)...
Then, i found the Software-RAID Howto and i thought it seems more
versatile and even in some cases it could be more efficient.
As the systems only have two drives i tried RAID-1.
The first trick was to boot from the disks which are attached to
a internal card (FastTrack) not visible from the normal BIOS
(ide5 and ide6). The card has its own BIOS to boot from arrays
of discs attached it. The only way to boot from them without
using the hardware support for RAID was to build two arrays
with one disc in each one (Span mode), so both were in fact
independent discs.
Then i found the message from Paul Fleischer <proguy@proguy.dk>:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/debian-boot-200404/msg01003.html
where he offers his tests about RAID support in debian-installer.
I downloaded and burned his image (2004-02-28) from:
http://www.daimi.au.dk/~pg/debian/netinst-raid1.iso
The installation (standard mode) went as usual in the beginning.
The CD booted and the kernel recognized both disks as ide.
After the initial questions (language, keyboard, network),
i partitioned (manually) both disk in the same way and marked
the partitions for raid as type 'fd' (Raid Autodetect).
In the configuration of MD devices it failed because there where
some garbage from previous tests in the partitions (as suggested
in the error message screen).
So, i opened a console and wrote some zeros to the first sectors
of the partions (with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disc... this probably
can be included in the debian-installer as an option). And then
repeated the MD config OK.
First time i configured 2 partitions /dev/md/0 and /dev/md/1
(for / and /home) but later, in the first boot, only the md0 was
recognized and /home was not mounted with errors, So, i repeated
the process mounting only / (left the other md1 for later manual
config).
After configuring MD and assigning the partitions and mount points
the installation of base-system went correctly.
Then, the installation tried GRUB, but the boot device (hd0) was
not recognized, and i don't know exactly how to force the reference
to the correct device in GRUB notation.
I tried the LILO option from menu, but after entering the boot
device (it must be /dev/ide/disc/disc0 and not /dev/md/0), it exits
apparently good but not installed ok, because the installer
tried again GRUB.
After some investigation I discovered that lilo was not installed
and the package (main, not installer) was not included in the CD image
from Paul. So i changed to a console and 'chroot /target' to
configure /etc/apt/sources.list with one mirror to do
'apt-get update' and 'apt-get install lilo'.
Then i was able to repeat lilo configuration from the menu and
finish the installation.
The new system booted ok for the rest of installation except for
one failed try with 2 raid devices failling /dev/md/1 (as mentioned
above).
I hope this information can be usefull for developers and for
anyone trying with similar hardware. I thing that the tests from
Paul could be included in the main version at least as options
for medium priority.
If anyone has a new version or a suggestion, i could do some simple
tests (limited on time).
Thank, you to all for your amazing work with the debian-installer.
Best regards
Jose R.
--
,.....................................,..........................,....,
: Jose Ramon Alvarez Sanchez : Email: jras@dia.uned.es :Ooo.:
: Dpto. de Inteligencia Artificial : Tel: (+34) 91-398-7199 :( ):
: Univ. Nac. de Educacion a Distancia : Fax: (+34) 91-398-6697 : ) |:
: Juan del Rosal, 16 - 3ª : --$[0,+oo)@!&>#%{}*\/^_= : (_):
: E-28040 Madrid SPAIN : http://www.ia.uned.es/~jras :
'.....................................:..........................:....'
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