[CentOS] Install CentOS 6.3 to partitionable mdadm array

Wed Nov 7 15:15:30 UTC 2012
Nux! <nux at li.nux.ro>

On 07/11/12 15:10, Hal Martin wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm trying to install CentOS 6.3 to an mdadm partitionable array and
> not having any luck.
>
> The installer only allows me to create one file system per md device,
> or specify the md device as a LVM physical volume. I don't want to do
> either, I want to create one md device and create multiple partitions
> on top of the md device.
>
> I thought that perhaps the installer was preventing me from doing this
> because it wasn't possible to boot off a partitionable mdadm array,
> but through googling I don't believe this is the case. (See links at
> the bottom of this email)
>
> I've tried the graphical installer and the text-mode installer, and
> neither gives me the ability to install to a partitionable mdadm
> array.
>
> Even more annoying is that if I manually create such an array,
> partition it and create file systems, the installer will stop the
> array when starting the partitioning utility, preventing me from
> installing to the partitions I created.
>
> Is there an advanced mode in the installer that I can force it to
> install to a partitionable md device, or is that not an option? I'd
> like to avoid having multiple md devices on the same physical drives,
> and unfortunately the application I'm installing doesn't place nicely
> with LVM.
>
> Thanks,
> Hal

Hello Hal,

AFAIK installing on to partitionable md is  a hack that is not 
supported; it's cool, but is not supported by upstream. And when it 
breaks I hear it can be quite unpleasant to fix.
What are your requirements exactly? Maybe we can advise an alternative 
partitioning etc.