I'm trying to install Red Hat Enterprise 3.1 on a machine with a FastTrak Lite TX2000 in RAID1 mode, but I'm beginning to think it's not going to be possible...
I'll take the list's deafening silence, and my complete failure to get it working meanwhile, as an indication that it's not possible. So, I'm using software RAID (md) now.
However, I'd like to set up RAID1 using md, and have the machine boot from either disk in the event of the other going down. I'm reading the Mirroring root mini-HOWTO (http://www-oss.fnal.gov/~mengel/mirror_root_mini_howto.html) but it seems to be either wrong, or so confusing as to appear to be wrong - has anyone achieved what it's describing?
Specifically, I'm trying to work out at what point in the procedure you create the /bootc partition it's talking about. It talks about having one, but does not appear to tell you how to create it. If I follow the instructions for "Partitioning the disk" in the HOWTO exactly, lilo can't get to the second stage and hangs at the "LI" prompt.
If I try the "Configuring LILO" section, but in Red Hat rescue mode (chrooted to /mnt/sysimage), I can't rename /boot to /bootc (assuming that what I have to do, the doc doesn't say) as it's in use - although why I'm not sure. And if I ignore the /bootc thing, and follow the rest of the instructions, lilo still can't get stage two.
I'd really appreciate any help. I've mailed the maintainer of the HOWTO, but they're not answering. Also, for all I know they're referring to Red Hat 1 (putting dates on things like this really helps I find...)
The HOWTO goes about this the really hard way. I guess it was written long long ago. Just do this:
1)Go into the fasttrak bios. a)Delete your mirror. b)Create a stripped array with only a single for your first drive c)Create a stripped array with only a single for your second drive
(This gives you a bios boot drive that should have lilo, and the fasttrak bios agreeing on drive geometry.)
2)Install Red Hat normally with the following exceptions:
a)Use a partitioning scheme with the below partitions (all raid 1) /dev/hde1 md0 /boot /dev/hde5 md1 / /dev/hde6 md2 swap /dev/hdg1 md0 /boot /dev/hdg5 md1 / /dev/hdg6 md2 swap
b)Install lilo instead of grub*.
*If you really like grub make sure to install grub to the 2nd disk by hand once you've booted, or make damn sure you have a working boot floppy. Don't ask me how to do any of this this as I use lilo instead of grub, and pxe instead of floppies.
-- Unless you can't avoid it never put a serial number on any of your systems!! (The Numberless Rule of Hardware Acquisition) Sam Flory <sflory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
