Debian install on RAID hardware
Hello everyone,
I'm not exactly sure if this question should be posted to this list, or to
another more specific list. If so, do let me know.
The organization I belong to just received a new Dell PowerEdge 1400 with
the PercRAID 2/DC dual channel RAID card. Current plans are to use this
machine to replace an old server.
This question has probably been addressed before but I'll go ahead and
ask. We would like to know what needs to get done for Debian to see and
install on this machine... I've had a previous experience with a similar
config on a seperate Dell server with RedHat (in fact very similar). The
solution there was to use RH7 or a 2.4 kernel. Where would I get a Debian
install disk that ran 2.4?
We've already scoured the web for information pertaining to the install
phase. In fact, we were able to download driver disks to successfully see
the RAID card during boot. Before that, the machine just hung while
probing the card.
Once we were able to get to the installer screen, the other problem we ran
into came during partitioning. The installer didn't even see a disk. I'm
not quite sure what we are missing. My guess is that we would have to
partition the logical RAID volume to be recognized by the installer. I
haven't had the time to search through /dev or dmesg to see if a device
comes up. I'm guessing that I could try doing it that way, finding the
device and then trying to initiallize the drive from a console shell after
the installer has come up... Yes?
My other approach is to find a spare disk, insert it into the machine and
attempt to install on a non-RAID volume. This brings me to the question,
can Debian be installed on a RAID volume?
If anyone has had any previous experience getting this card to work under
Debian, some advice would be appreciated.
Sorry for the long-winded e-mail; Thanks,
--Raf
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Rafael A. Hinojosa rhinojo@sccs.swarthmore.edu
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