[CentOS] changing partition priority on install

Wed Oct 29 11:53:20 UTC 2008
Monty Shinn <montys at videopost.com>

Phil Schaffner wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-10-28 at 14:59 -0500, Monty Shinn wrote:
>> Greetings.
>>
>> I am in the process of installing 5.1 64 bit on a server.  The server 
>> has 2 3ware cards: 9550SX 12 port, and a 8006 2 port, both SATA.
> 
> Any reason not to use 5.2?  Will save a lot of updates, and perhaps some
> headaches.
> 
<snip>
> 
> I have vague recollections of having fixed similar problems by tweaking
> the device ordering in initrd and/or modprobe.conf; however, backing up
> a step, why do you need to change the order to make things work?  You
> can install GRUB on the boot device MBR, whatever that may be, and put
> the OS on the device you want it on without changing the ordering.
> 
> Phil
> 
<snip>

Phil,

There are a couple of reasons, although they may make no sense.  First, 
I did not want a multiple point of failure.  If the boot loader is on 
the MBR of /dev/sda, and the os is on /dev/sdb, then you have a multiple 
point of failure.  If either card dies, then I am hosed.  It would be 
*similar* to running a RAID0 on the os.  Not a good idea IMHO.

Also, if I wanted to replace the "data" drives in the future, I couldn't 
just unmount the partition and replace the drives.  The boot loader 
would be gone as well.

I did not find an option during the install prep to re-locate grub to 
the MBR of /dev/sdb.  I probably should try the text-based installer to 
see if there are more options.

Heck, I may just remove the 9550 board until the initial os install is 
completed.  That should accomplish what I am trying to achieve.  Just 
seems like there should be a more elegant way of doing this.

I am installing 5.1 because I have the isos on hand.  I was just going 
to let yum update me to 5.2...

Thanks for your help,

Monty