Software RAID crashes

Kashra · 04-12-2004, 07:23 PM

Hi there,

I'm trying to set up a software RAID for my lab, and am running into no end of problems trying to do it. I'd classify myself as a Linux novice, but not exactly a newbie. Here's the relevant setup info:

ABit KT7-RAID motherboard
1x 80GB Western Digital Hard Drive (hda)
4x 250GB Western Digital Hard Drive (hde/hdg/hdi/hdk)
2x Promise Ultra133 TX2 IDE controller cards

The 80GB drive is the system drive and is connected as primary master to the first IDE controller on the motherboard. The other four drives are connected, one each, to the controllers on the Promise cards. Each drive has its own controller and cable.

I am using Mandrake 9.2 and trying to set up a RAID-10 array with the four drives. I've installed raidtools using urpmi. My /etc/raidtab looks like this:

Code:

raiddev	/dev/md0
	raid-level	1
	nr-raid-disks	2
	nr-spare-disks	0
	persistent-superblock	1
	chunk-size	32
		device	/dev/hde1
		raid-disk	0
		device	/dev/hdi1
		raid-disk	1

raiddev	/dev/md1
	raid-level	1
	nr-raid-disks	2
	nr-spare-disks	0
	persistent-superblock	1
	chunk-size	32
		device	/dev/hdg1
		raid-disk	0
		device	/dev/hdk1
		raid-disk	1

raiddev	/dev/md2
	raid-level	0
	nr-raid-disks	2
	persistent-superblock	0
	chunk-size	32
		device	/dev/md0
		raid-disk	0
		device	/dev/md1
		raid-disk	1

I type mkraid /dev/md0. Everything seems fine. I type mkraid /dev/md1, everything seems fine. Ten seconds later, the system locks up. I'm assuming this is a problem with reconstruction, but I'm completely confused about how to go about troubleshooting it. I figure that the software RAID driver should be able to reconstruct two arrays at once.

I read somewhere that devfsd can interfere with software RAID, so I tried removing it with urpme, but that didn't solve the problem. Any other suggestions?

AutOPSY · 04-13-2004, 12:46 AM

I didnt know you could format IDE drives as raid devices.
I thought raid was strictly scsi.

Kashra · 04-13-2004, 01:38 AM

Quote:

I didnt know you could format IDE drives as raid devices.
I thought raid was strictly scsi.

Nope, at least I'm pretty sure you're allowed to use whatever block devices you want. Here's a quote from the Software RAID HOWTO:

"It is indeed possible to run RAID over IDE disks. And excellent performance can be achieved too. In fact, today's price on IDE drives and controllers does make IDE something to be considered, when setting up new RAID systems."