[CentOS] doing a new install on top of existing software raid-1

Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Thu Jan 19 21:53:45 UTC 2012


On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 3:30 PM, fred smith
<fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us> wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> One of these days I'm going to upgrade my centos 5.7 box (which is
> currently configured with raid-1 on two drives) to 6.x.
>
> i've been given to believe that I should be able to do a fresh install
> on top of the existing raid setup, i.e., without having to re-create
> the raid array, but just use the existing setup.
>
> and somewhere in the last few days (in this list I think) someone posted
> that Anaconda should detect the existing raid array and allow you to re-
> use it for a new install.
>
> so just as an experiment, I booted up the 6.2 DVD (not live) and took it
> as far as where it sets up the partitioning. So, was I unduly surprised
> when it DID NOT detect the existing raid? well, a little. more in the
> category of NOT ENTIRELY PLEASED, actually.
>
> I'd appreciate it if someone who knows something about linux hardware
> raid, and its intersection with Anaconda, could drop a few clues in my
> direction.

I tried to boot a 5.x system with several raid1 sets with a 6.0 live
dvd and not only did it not detect/match up the mirrors, it renamed
and broke them so they no longer worked on 5.x.  I think there are
major differences in the way the kernel handles things.   I probably
won't try to access existing arrays again unless someone else reports
success, and even then I'll probably pull one of the drives of each
set until I'm convinced it is safe to sync them back.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com



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