Installing CentOS 5.1 onto a software raid 1+0 configW
 

Hi All,

I'm about to attempt installing a server using mdadm to create a RAID 1+0 array of four disks. I am planning to have the server boot off a compact flash card connected to the IDE bus, but keep root and swap on the raid 1+0 partition. Does anyone know of a good guide for how to do this? I don't think it is possible to set up such a RAID set at install time. Should I use a livecd to set up the array first?

Thanks,

Jason

Here are some good links:

http://www.howtoforge.com/software-r...-boot-fedora-8

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html

Hope it helps!

Thanks Harry - I'll look closer at those links. While not exactly my situation, I think I'll learn enough to give it a go.

I could not find a way in the setup of CentOS 5.1 to create a multi-level raid set, so I am trying to do an initial setup of RAID 0 and then I should be able to mirror each of the RAID 0 members to end up with RAID 1+0. I'm not sure if I will need to do this with a livecd. Should be interesting.

The box I bought doesn't allow booting from IDE (other than CD) so I am using a USB stick for the /boot partition. This is ugly and further justifies a desire to put a hardware RAID card in it.

Cheers,

Jason

Is this a better approach?

Install CentOS onto an external USB hard drive (/dev/sde)
Boot from it, create a RAID 1+0 on the four internal drives
Clone the installation from /dev/sde to /dev/md0
Modify /etc/fstab, /boot, etc?

I'm not sure I know what will need modifying to get it to work, but it seems like it might be easier.

cheers!