On 1 Aug 2004, Ninti Systems wrote:
> I'm about to embark on building a RAID 5 Linux software array with 4
> disks (I've only ever built 2 disk RAID 1 arrays before).
>
> Q1: Is it true that Linux can't/shouldn't boot off a RAID 5 array?
Grub certainly can't boot of a software RAID-5 array, and I don't
believe that lilo can either. This is because of these tools not
understanding the RAID-5 disk layout, not any other limitation.
> Q2: The four disks have identical manufacturer, model and size, but two
> are brand new while two have had NTFS filesystems on them. Accordingly,
> if I run hdparm -g on them, two disks have these specs:
>
> geometry = 2498/255/63, sectors = 40132503, start = 0
>
> while the other two disks have these specs:
>
> geometry = 39813/16/63, sectors = 40132503, start = 0
>
> Is this an issue with software RAID?
No. Software RAID, unlike hardware raid, cares only that you have enough
blocks on the disk. You don't need to match *any* other characteristic
of the disks, and not even that if you don't mind wasting a few bytes.
Daniel
--
The PC is the LSD of the '90s.
-- Timothy Leary, __Guardian_ (June 1, 1996)
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