On 1/10/23 20:20, Robert Moskowitz wrote: > Official drives should be here Friday, so trying to get reading. > > > > On 1/9/23 01:32, Simon Matter wrote: >> Hi >> >>> Continuing this thread, and focusing on RAID1. >>> >>> I got an HPE Proliant gen10+ that has hardware RAID support. (can turn >>> it off if I want). >> What exact model of RAID controller is this? If it's a S100i SR Gen10 >> then >> it's not hardware RAID at all. > > Yes, I found the information: > ============================ > HPE Smart Array Gen10 Controllers Data Sheet. > > Software RAID > > · HPE Smart Array S100i SR Gen10 Software RAID > > Notes: > > - HPE Smart Array S100i SR Gen10 SW RAID will operate in UEFI mode > only. For legacy support an additional controller will be needed > > - The S100i only supports Windows. For Linux users, HPE offers a > solution that uses in-distro open-source software to create a two-disk > RAID 1 boot volume. For more information visit: > https://downloads.linux.hpe.com/SDR/project/lsrrb/ > ==================== > I have yet to look at this url. This guide seems to answer MOST of my questions. > > >>> I am planning two groupings of RAID1 (it has 4 bays). >>> >>> There is also an internal USB boot port. >>> >>> So I am really a newbie in working with RAID. From this thread it >>> sounds like I want /boot and /boot/efi on that USBVV boot device. >> I suggest to use the USB device only to bot the installation medium, not >> use it for anything used by the OS. >> >>> Will it work to put / on the first RAID group? What happens if the 1st >>> drive fails and it is replaced with a new blank drive. Will the config >>> in /boot figure this out or does the RAID hardware completely mask >>> the 2 >>> drives and the system runs on the good one while the new one is being >>> replicated? > > I am trying to grok what you are saying here. is MD0-4 the physical > disks or partitions? I see from your response to another poster you ARE talking about RAID on individual partitions. So I can better think about your approach now. thanks > > All the drives I am getting are 4TB, as that is the smallest > Enterprise quality HD I could find! Quite overkill for me, $75 each. > >> I guess the best thing would be to use Linux Software RAID and create a >> small RAID1 (MD0) device for /boot and another one for /boot/efi (MD1), > > Here is sounds like MD0 and MD1 are partitions, not physical drives? > >> both in the beginning of disk 0 and 1 (MD2). The remaining space on >> disk 0 >> and 1 are created as another MD device. Disk 2 and 3 are also created as >> one RAID1 (MD3) device. Formatting can be done like this >> >> MD0 has filesystem for /boot >> MD1 has filesystem for /boot/efi >> MD2 is used as LVM PV >> MD3 is used as LVM PV > > Now it really seems like MDn are partitions with MD0-3 on disks 1&2 > and MD3 on disks 3&4? > >> All other filesystems like / or /var or /home... will be created on LVM >> Logical Volumes to give you full flexibility to manage storage. > > Given using iRedMail which puts all mail store under /var/vmail, /var > goes on disks 3&4. > > /home will be little stuff. iRedMail components put their configs and > data (like domain and user sql database) all over the places. Disks > 1&2 will be basically empty. Wish I could have found high quality 1TB > drives for less... > > thanks > >> >> Regards, >> Simon >> >>> I also don't see how to build that boot USB stick. I will have the >>> install ISO in the boot USB port and the 4 drives set up with hardware >>> RAID. How are things figure out? I am missing some important piece >>> here. >>> >>> Oh, HP does list Redhat support for this unit. >>> >>> thanks for all help. >>> >>> Bob >>> >>> On 1/6/23 11:45, Chris Adams wrote: >>>> Once upon a time, Simon Matter <simon.matter at invoca.ch> said: >>>>> Are you sure that's still true? I've done it that way in the past but >>>>> it >>>>> seems at least with EL8 you can put /boot/efi on md raid1 with >>>>> metadata >>>>> format 1.0. That way the EFI firmware will see it as two independent >>>>> FAT >>>>> filesystems. Only thing you have to be sure is that nothing ever >>>>> writes >>>>> to >>>>> these filesystems when Linux is not running, otherwise your /boot/efi >>>>> md >>>>> raid will become corrupt. >>>>> >>>>> Can someone who has this running confirm that it works? >>>> Yes, that's even how RHEL/Fedora set it up currently I believe. But >>>> like you say, it only works as long as there's no other OS on the >>>> system >>>> and the UEFI firmware itself is never used to change anything on >>>> the FS. >>>> It's not entirely clear that most UEFI firmwares would handle a drive >>>> failure correctly either (since it's outside the scope of UEFI), so >>>> IIRC >>>> there's been some consideration in Fedora of dropping this support. >>>> >>>> And... I'm not sure if GRUB2 handles RAID 1 /boot fully correctly, for >>>> things where it writes to the FS (grubenv updates for "savedefault" >>>> for >>>> example). But, there's other issues with GRUB2's FS handling >>>> anyway, so >>>> this case is probably far down the list. >>>> >>>> I think that having RAID 1 for /boot and/or /boot/efi can be helpful >>>> (and I've set it up, definitely not saying "don't do that"), but >>>> has to >>>> be handled with care and possibly (probably?) would need manual >>>> intervention to get booting again after a drive failure or >>>> replacement. >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> CentOS mailing list >>> CentOS at centos.org >>> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> CentOS mailing list >> CentOS at centos.org >> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos