On Wednesday 12 August 2009, Ray Van Dolson <rayvd at bludgeon.org> wrote: > > My successor at my previous job has gleefully followed those > > instructions (he seriously needs a clueby4 which is why he bothers to > > actually read HowTos) and on a production box (who wants pop-corn and > > soda? Sorry, the er support conversation will not be on irc) and I > > think this seriously highlights the need for HowTo writers to seriously > > consider their audience as dumb monkeys that just follow whatever you > > tell them to do without thinking if you do not list out things they > > first have to think about or questions they first need to answer. I think this seriously highlights the need to hire competent system administrators. The reason you want to wipe the beginning of the drive is that some fake-raid controllers write crap to the drive and if you leave it there some linux installers (anaconda, at least) will install dm-raid using that info rather than setup md raid using normal linux conventions. Which is exactly what that section of the instruction says. My kickstart scripts do the same thing and for the same reason. Let me be even more clear - if your successor doesn't know what dd does, or what drives correspond to /dev/sda and /dev/sdb in the box he's working on, he has no business being within 10 feet of a production server without careful supervision. -- A hybrid Escalade is missing the point much in the same way that having a diet soda with your extra large pepperoni pizza is missing the point.