Installing Debian 5.0.3 (Lenny) on a Dell Poweredge 4-disk HW-RAID server
 

Hi,

I'm most familiar with Debian, but have never had the chance to try out any software or hardware RAIDing with it. I now have an old spare Dell Poweredge server with four disks available and would like to try installing but haven't really got vast knowledge on RAID per se. The graphical Lenny installer prompts me to partition a disk and then gives me a choice of one of the four disks and I am currently in the process of erasing one of the disks. Do I run a RAID setup later on or should I have opted for something earlier on?

I would optimally want a scheme where, data is distributed evenly across two disks and then the remaining two disks would serve as mirrors - this, I think, would be RAID5 then?

So, how do I go about getting a RAID5 system? Please help!:banghead:

Hardware RAID? You should have gone into the hardware RAID controller first. There will be a prompt during POST about it that will tell you what to press to enter the RAID config. Once you have configured an array(s), the installer will only see one "disk" (more if you configured more arrays).

As for the type: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels

What you are describing is certainly not RAID 5. It sounds like you want RAID 0+1 instead (a stripe that is mirrored).