Hello, > > I have built two RedHat 8.0 machines, both using soft-raid > to mirror one > > 250GB disk onto the other identical 250GB disk inside the case. > > > > During the install, I created the RAID partitions, and > assigned them to > > actual partitions, and now I have "/dev/md0" up to "/dev/md7". > > > > However, each time I boot and each time I shut down, I get > the following > > message: > > > > No spare disk to reconstruct array! -- running in degraded mode. > > > > What exactly does this mean? Both drives are visible from > the BIOS, and the > > jumpers are set to Cable Select (not Master and Slave). > > > > Despite the above error message, the machine boots fine, > shuts down fine, > > and runs fine. > > When it's up, cat /proc/mdstat -------------------------------------------------- [root@stg-slave root]# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid1] read_ahead 1024 sectors md7 : active raid1 hda9[0] 71296320 blocks [2/1] [U_] md3 : active raid1 hda8[0] 2096384 blocks [2/1] [U_] md4 : active raid1 hda7[0] 10482304 blocks [2/1] [U_] md6 : active raid1 hda6[0] 73400832 blocks [2/1] [U_] md5 : active raid1 hda5[0] 73400832 blocks [2/1] [U_] md2 : active raid1 hda3[0] 7164864 blocks [2/1] [U_] md1 : active raid1 hda2[0] 7164864 blocks [2/1] [U_] md0 : active raid1 hda1[0] 104320 blocks [2/1] [U_] unused devices: <none> [root@stg-slave root]# -------------------------------------------------- > > However, if I unplug the master hard drive, it will not > boot from the > > secondary, even if I plug it into the primary socket on the > IDE cable. > > Did you duplicate the MBR to the second drive? If you > didn't, you won't > boot. Remember that you've only mirrored the data partitions, not the > boot block. I didn't duplicate the MBR as far as I know... I assumed that RAID 1 (mirroring) mirrored the entire disk, sector for sector... If I duplicate the MBR successfully, does that mean I should be able to simply remove the primary, and boot from the secondary alone? Also, if I then insert a blank disk, will it automatically re-generate the data onto it? Will I have to duplicate the MBR manually again? Finally, how can I duplicate the MBR onto the secondary disk? > > I have even tried inserting a third 250GB hard drive on the > secondary IDE > > channel to see if that would become the spare disk it needs > to reconstruct > > the array, but that didn't work either. > > I wouldn't expect it to. I would not be happy if the software just > grabbed an extra drive and toasted the data on it unless I explicitely > told it to. Very true... It was a last ditch attempt to eliminate that if nothing else... Lol Thanks for your help Ed... I look forward to hearing from you again soon :-) Hobbs. -- Richard Hobbs (Systems Administrator) Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. - Speech Technology Group Web: http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research/ Email: richard.hobbs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tel: +44 1223 376964 Mobile: +44 7811 803377 _____________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MCI's Internet Managed Scanning Services - powered by MessageLabs. For further information visit http://www.mci.com -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list