Hello,
I debated posting this thread in the Newbie section since I am pretty new to Linux, almost brand new.The problem is that I can't figure out how to set up a boot partition on the first hard drive separate from two RAID 5 configurations on a Supermicro server with 1-750GB hard drive for the boot partition, and 15-1TB hard drives for data. The 15 hard drives are split into two RAID 5 configurations (7 -TB drives and 8 1-TB drives).

I will be installing CentOS 5.2, and the 15 Terabytes of data will store data, and the 750GB hard drive(on port 0) will only have the 100MB boot file. I am using 3ware BIOS Manager to configure the first array of 7 hard drives, and the second array of 8 hard drives (1 drive with boot information will not be included in the array).

to recap, picture this:

I want to load CentOS on this server.

/dev/sda1 (on the bottom left drive) needs to house the boot partition set for 100MB.

The remaining 7 drives (the left half, not counting the boot drive) need to be set up as a RAID 5 array.

The eight drives on the right (right half) also need to be setup as a RAID 5 array.

After I configure this in BIOS, I run the CentOS setup disk in graphical mode. I get to the portion after the Language and keyboard setup where it says "Installation requires partitioning of your hard drive. By default, a partitoning layout is chosen which is reasonable for most users. You can either choose to use this or create your own. Select the drive(s) to use for this installation". The drives listed are:

"sda 5721980 MB AMCC 9650-SE-8LP DISK"
"sdb 1020 MB AMCC 9650-SE-8LP DISK"
"sdc 714218 MB AMCC 9650-SE-8LP DISK"
"sdd" 6675643 MB AMCC 9650-SE-8LP DISK"

When I choose "Remove Linux partitions on the selected drives and create default layout." or any other option, I get different errors. I notice when configuring via text mode I get better options to install. Any ideas what I am doing wrong that I can't install the boot drive separate from the two RAID configurations?

Any help is appreciated!

- why are you trying to use a default layout when you clearly have very specific requirements for your drives?

- why do you apparently want to waste 749.900GB of disk space?

- where is the rest of the OS actually going?

With all that RAID 5 you surely want a better /boot partition anyway. if you run a RAID 1 partition on the first two drives you can still boot normally to it, as when read directly it's just a normal ext2 filesystem for all intents and purposes.

I guess you do have some restrictions if you are going to do hardware raid instead of software, but because of that, I'd make the first 2 drives raid 1 keeping all the OS on there, and the other 6 raid5 for whatever data.

-I don't know how to get another an option for another layout.I'm navigating through the install process now to figure it out.

-I don't want to waste disk space, I have to because employer mandates this drive be used.

-I believe the rest of the OS will go on the first RAID 5 partition of 7 Disks.

Trust me I wish I was more familiar and knew this well, but this is my first RAID array and I have some restrictions on how this has to be done. That is why this seems impractical. Thanks for the advice about RAID 1 on 2 Disks for the OS.

I want to access data on these arrays using other operating systems. should I use vfat or ext2?

your base os should not be on a 7 disk raid 5, that's just bad design. If you're doing it in hardware, use raid 1 on the first 2 disks and keep all the OS there. Do not mix operating system and data. keep them very very separate.

you want to use these on other operating systems? Does that mean a dual boot?? I assume not, but if it does then don't. that'd be horrible. Assuming you mean over the network, then stick with ext3 / xfs for the large data volumes, but note that it doesn't fundamentally matter what filesystem you have on the disk as it is the network protocol between the machines that matters. The client doesn't write to the servers disks, it writes data to the network service and that writes to the disk, if you can appreciate the difference. Assuming you mean windows boxes, then you'll be using samba to share these drives to windows. And don't share the OS disks.