Hi Scott - thanks for your response - some comments below... ---------------------------------------- > Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 10:36:32 -0400 > Subject: Re: Nvidia Raid5 Failure > From: sdvileskis@xxxxxxxxx > To: merrymeetpete@xxxxxxxxxxx > CC: linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > I would advise keeping operating systems off RAID arrays in general, > Windows or Linux, because most bootloaders are loaded to a single > disk. If *that disk fails, you may not be able to boot, even if your > RAID is in degraded mode. Having your data on the RAID and a separate > OS disk allows troubleshooting with OS tools (NVIDIA's toolkit in > Windows, MDADM in Linux, or microsoft's disk manager in Windows). I totally see the logic of this now - it was my first foray into the world of RAID5 - I really didn't think it through long and hard enough! > I would also advise against what is known as 'fake raid' controllers > like your NVIDIA hardware likely is, (or Promise, highpoint, Intel, > etc) because it can be difficult to recover data if you have a > controller/mobo failure without exact hardware. Again - spot on! I bough an old motherboard from the same manufacturer to recover the data with. When I first used the RAID features on the board I didn't realise that there were flavours of RAID5 - now I know how flaky a proposition a proprietary fake raid is. > For Setting up Linux, I would advise picking up a 64 or 120GB SSD, > (even a 16/32GB would be enough). For your first steps in Linux, I > would go with a flavor of Ubuntu Linux. (XUbuntu is really nice, and > doen't have the bastardized Unity desktop environment). From most > modern Linux distros, you can setup RAID arrays at install time, or > wait until your desktop is up and running and do it from GUI tools I booted up a live CD of Ubuntu when I had the failure first time round - I thought the LIVE CD would be passive in terms of changing the disk data. I was surprised to see that with the RAIDed disks attached to the system the start up process tried to create the array - it failed to start it and marked it as degraded in the first instance. On a second run of the live CD the array was marked as failed (I think that's the right term) and the kernel panicked at start up (so did I!). At that point I bread boarded my old motherboard and managed to use the NVIDIA BIOS application to recreate the array and to my relief I was able to recreate the array and quickly set about backing up everything important with the guts of the PC hanging out all over the place. The first failure was motherboard related and the disks were still perfectly synchronised - the second failure on the replacement motherboard was a system crash which appears to have been caused by a failing RAM module. This time the NVIDIA software showed the array as degraded - I followed the same procedure as before and the array did not recreate properly. I cannot get it to rebuild what is apparently the out of sync disk. It also no longer wants to boot from the array - although it was doing so before in degraded mode before I attempted to add in the third disk. Will XUbuntu make a similar attempt as Ubuntu at starting the array up during a boot? Is it safe for this to happen in terms of changing any data that may be left on the disks? Can I stop XUbuntu attempting to create any arrays on detection? I have a 160GB IDE disk to play with for now - will see how I get along with XUbuntu before buying it an SSD to live on. It might be useful for me to setup a dual boot machine with partitions on an SSD for Windows 7 and XUbuntu. > Another idea is to grab a diskless NAS appliance like a Lenovo/Iomega > IX4 300D or a Synology for $200-400 and move your disks over. (You'll > likely have to back up all your data and wipe your disks though). I > like the Lenovo/Iomega product because is uses a custom build of > Debian Linux and linux software RAID, which I could always recover in > my linux Desktop if I had a NAS hardware failure. I like this idea a lot - my bank account doesn't! The Lenovo/Iomega devices are minimum £240 over here - I see they are much cheaper in the US! I will look into this as a sensible way forward once the dust has settled. > Good luck! I could use some about now - along with a sensible backup strategy - I am thinking of using a 2TB external disk to make images / copies of all useful data and possibly the OS partitions once re-built! Thanks again for taking the time to respond so fully. Peter. > On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 1:00 AM, peter davidson > <merrymeetpete@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Hi Folks, >> >> My computer suddenly shut down due to a failed memory module - damaging the 1.8TB RAID5 array of three disks. >> >> The computer was able to boot with a degraded array (Windows 7 OS was on the array) but I was unable to get the array to rebuild using the Nvidia toolset - either at BIOS level or in Windows 7. Now the computer will not boot from the array. >> >> I had something very similar to this happen a few weeks ago when the mother board failed - I was able to limp things along to get a backup of all important data. >> >> I am interested to know if LINUX will be able to recover the array for me this time. Having got part way through this process before on the previous failure (which led me to this forum), I am keen to follow this through as an exercise knowing I have a backup of the really important stuff. >> >> I intend to build LINUX onto a new disk and work through this in the coming days - what would be my best choice of distro for this exercise? I am hoping to find something that has all the relevant tools and is relatively simple to get up and running with a friendly GUI to help me navigate round. >> >> I used to work on various databases running on UNIX servers so I hope I can still can find my way round a terminal window. >> >> Thanks in advance for any support anyone can offer me! >> >> Regards, >> >> Peter. >> -- >> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in >> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html ےôè؛{.nا+‰·ں®‰†+%ٹثے±éف¶¥ٹwے؛{.nا+‰·¥ٹ{±¶¢wّ§¶›،ـ¨}©²ئ zع&j:+v‰¨ّ ¯ù ®w¥ٹà2ٹق™¨èع&¢)ك،«a¶عےےûàz؟نz¹ق—ْ+ƒùڑژٹف¢jےٹwèf
