doesn't contain a valid partition table after creating raid1 via kickstart

ncsuapex · 01-14-2009, 02:34 PM

so I used these options to create a RAID1 on a new server(CentOS 5.2 x64) via kickstart

Quote:

bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=sda,sdb
# The following is the partition information you requested
# Note that any partitions you deleted are not expressed
# here so unless you clear all partitions first, this is
# not guaranteed to work
clearpart --all --initlabel
part raid.100000 --size=128 --ondisk=sda --asprimary
part raid.100001 --size=128 --ondisk=sdb
part raid.100003 --size=2048 --ondisk=sdb
part raid.100002 --size=2048
part raid.100005 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sdb
part raid.100004 --size=1 --grow --ondisk=sda
raid / --fstype ext3 --device md2 --level=RAID1 raid.100004 raid.100005
raid /boot --fstype ext3 --device md1 --level=RAID1 raid.100000 raid.100001
raid swap --fstype swap --device md0 --level=RAID1 raid.100002 raid.100003

When I sign into the newly installed server the first time I did a fdisk -l and saw this message

Quote:

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 73.4 GB, 73407488000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8924 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 16 128488+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 17 277 2096482+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3 278 8924 69457027+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 73.4 GB, 73407488000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8924 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 16 128488+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2 17 277 2096482+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb3 278 8924 69457027+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/md2: 71.1 GB, 71123927040 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 17364240 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/md2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md0: 2146 MB, 2146697216 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 524096 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/md0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md1: 131 MB, 131465216 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 32096 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/md1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

I then did a fdisk /dev/md? for each of the md devices and did a w(write)

Quote:

fdisk /dev/md0
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 524096.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

now when I do a fdisk -l I get

Quote:

[root@lifenet67:/etc/yum.repos.d] # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 73.4 GB, 73407488000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8924 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 16 128488+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 17 277 2096482+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3 278 8924 69457027+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 73.4 GB, 73407488000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8924 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 16 128488+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2 17 277 2096482+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb3 278 8924 69457027+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/md2: 71.1 GB, 71123927040 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 17364240 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Disk /dev/md0: 2146 MB, 2146697216 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 524096 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Disk /dev/md1: 131 MB, 131465216 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 32096 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Is this ok now? What can I change in my kickstart RAID1 creation options so I dont have this problem anymore? I have some more servers to install and I dont want this to be a problem on them.

thanks!

mostlyharmless · 01-19-2009, 02:23 PM

Quote:

I then did a fdisk /dev/md? for each of the md devices and did a w(write)

Raid devices don't have partitions, only disks do. Should have left it alone, it wasn't a problem. I doubt that your arrays will work after you fdisk'd them; I haven't tried it myself, but I wouldn't think that'd be a good idea!

ncsuapex · 01-21-2009, 01:38 PM

They seem to be working ok so far. No problems and I even rebooted 2 of the servers just to see what would happen. Both RAIDS look healthy in proc/mdstat.

My next question is. What changes can I make to my kickstart script so that they do have valid partitions? Or should I just leave it alone?

mostlyharmless · 01-22-2009, 10:26 AM

I would say that the old saw about "if it isn't broken don't fix it" would apply. Leave it alone.