[CentOS-devel] Re: [CentOS] boot on raid Was: why was LILO removed from centOS 4.2?

Fri Jul 7 01:32:47 UTC 2006
Gordon Rowell <gordonr-centos at gormand.com.au>

Karanbir Singh wrote:

> > Les Mikesell wrote:
>   
>> >> Has anyone looked at what SMEserver v7 (the Centos4 based one)
>> >> does? 
>>     

I have  :-) 

>> >> It not only installs on raid by default, it creates
>> >> a 'broken' RAID1 if you only have one drive so you can add
>> >> a mirror painlessly later.
>>     

Yep - I've done Solaris installs like that for years and it really is
nice to be able to add the mirror disk without backup/restore.


>> >> I don't have a running system
>> >> right now to see if they put /boot on raid1 or if they
>> >> use lilo or grub.
>>     
We use grub and have submitted some patches to RedHat for grub RAID install:

    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=160563

We've recently redone those patches inside anaconda et. al. and will
push them up to RedHat soon.

As to disk layout:

/boot is RAID1 in all configurations
/ is RAID1 for one or two disks, RAID5 for 3-5 disks and RAID6 for 6+ disks

> > Firstly, the primary aim of the CentOS distro is to stay in sync with
> > upstream. So nothing on that is going to change.
>   

We submitted a patch for our "degraded RAID" install. Unfortunately, it
was rejected by RedHat:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=189316


I might fight that battle again another day, maybe with a "Yes, I know
what I am doing" flag.


> > Secondly, Feel free to evaluate what SMEserver are doing w.r.t
> > installer and submit patches for the ServerCD.
>   

Feel free to take whatever you need. It's all under mezzanine in
SourceForge anonymous CVS  (smeserver project) and patches are pushed
upstream when we can.

Thanks,

Gordon