Hi! I am trying to install Mandriva 2006 on IBM xSeries 206 that has AIC-7901 Raid controler. I have 2 disks (73 GB). Also, I configured properly (using raid configuration utility) Miroring of that two disks. Everything is fine (on boot, controler utility shows only one disk - the virtual one), but in installation process (partitioning step) I see sda and sdb (two disks). So, my question is: Is there any way to install mandriva on that virtual disk-RAID? And, how is possible that I see two disks while they are in RAID? Thx!

Welcome to LQ
I believe you will need the kernel module AIC79xx

Can you install on one of the disk in a non-raid setup
That will test if the controller is recognised.

A poor's man suggestion is that you install on 1 drive,
then change the initrd if necessary to include the AIC79xx,
then use dd to mirror one drive onto the other,
then setup the raid

You want raid 1?

I cannot find the link at the minute to an excellent tutorial
about doing raid in this 2 steps approach
(I am sure I posted a link to this in a previous post in LQ,
it might be a debian tutorial but should apply to you)

See as well
http://rpms.mandrivaclub.com/rpms/De...nt_Kernel.html
I have played a bit with dkms but I do not understand enough to explain well.
It may mean modifying the mandriva iso to include the dkms section for AIC79
(not too sure)

Hope smbdy comes with a better suggestion

In installation process it loads AIC79xx driver, but I can't figure out why it recognizes two disks and not only one virtual. Because, if controler configuration utility at computer start (after BIOS checks) shows only one Virtual disk... Is there some option I must add at installation begining in order to make AIC79xx to recognize that virtual disk? I can also use software RAID but why if I have already support by hardware (and, I thing that hardware is better than software RAID.. Or not?)

This might answer part of your question
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/ce...er/014140.html

Part of the same thread seems to point to the fact that you have a so-called fake raid.
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/ce...er/014130.html
(see earlier part of the thread)

Software raid is ok as I understand and from the limited reading I had.
The thread I quote above say the same thing.
(I use to run a raid0, software driven, with sil3112a= fake raid.)
I suggest you use mdadm (for the raid admin; it is included with mandy)

Here is the tutorial for raid 1 I was talking about
http://www.epimetrics.com/topics/one...e_topic_id=120

I suppose you have read the tldp raid howto.

You should be able to skip
"Compile a RAID-savvy kernel and install mdadm and hdparm."
Mandriva should be ready for that.
(plus if it is a sata drive, hdparm does not work AFAIK)

Whether you can install the OS as raid 1 directly (w/w using the bios option),
that is just using the menu driven install, I do not know.
You can certainly mark partitions as "raid type" or whatever it is called.

Sorry I cannot help more than that.

Yes, I spended all day searching for a reasonable explanation for that. Looks like the only way to make raid is with standard Linux RAID (mdadm). Thanks!

The other way is 3ware raid card (for example)
"On-board processor to provide true hardware-based RAID"
see http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...cat/273/page/1

I know very little about 3ware, only that linux users seem happy
with them.

Saying that sotware raid with mdadm works pretty well in my limited experience
(still you will need separate backups)

Let us know how it goes. I am curious
During the install of Mandy, you should some advanced option for
the partitionning / formating of disk choose that option

In the end, i used mdadm for RAID mirroring. I also tryed to "hotplug" disk out, and return it back (phisicaly)! The only thing I am not happy with is not automatic reestablishment of disks that were in raid. You must execute mdadm and add partition to raid. I don't know if it is possible, but I will try to find a script to automate this process... Thank U for your help.

You are welcome. Happy to help.
>>automatic reestablishment
Myabe this is it: (adapt)
cat /etc/mdadm.conf
#mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sd[ab]1
#mdadm -A --scan (to make it starts from this default /etc/mdadm.conf)
DEVICE /dev/sda* /dev/sdb* /dev/sdc
ARRAY /dev/md0 devices=/dev/sda,/dev/sdb,/dev/sdc level=raid0 num-devices=2
#the UUID can be used as well I think


Think about updating your LQ profile re the distro you are using