Re: smartctl cannot access my storage, need syntax help

[David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>]

On 1/16/24 11:51, Franco Martelli wrote:
> On 15/01/24 at 08:43, David Christensen wrote:
> > When I built and ran a Debian 2 @ HDD RAID1 using mdadm(8), I did not 
> > partiton the HDD's -- I gave mdadm(8) the whole drives.
>
> I don't know if it is a good idea, in fact it exists a special partition 
> type for RAID array listed in fdisk, I used that for my RAID:
>
> ---
> ~# fdisk -l /dev/sd[a-d]
> Disk /dev/sda: 931,51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
> Disk model: ST1000DM003-1CH1
> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disklabel type: dos
> Disk identifier: 0x00088ecc > ...
> I thought it was mandatory for a RAID to partition drives with this 
> partition type, am I wrong?


STFW and RTFM I have seen recommendations for and against using whole 
disks for RAID and for and against using partitions for RAID.  And, as 
this in the Internet, there are countless rumors and speculation.  As I 
switched from mdadm(8) to zfs(8) years ago, perhaps another reader can 
explain what mdadm(8) does when given whole disks and when given disk 
partitions.


David