[K12OSN] Onboard RAID or Software RAID

Robert Arkiletian robark at gmail.com
Fri Jan 19 05:13:02 UTC 2007


On 1/17/07, Robert Arkiletian <robark at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/17/07, Dan Young <dyoung at mesd.k12.or.us> wrote:
> > Krsnendu dasa wrote:
> > > I am just not sure whether to use the RAID on the motherboard or
> > > software RAID.
> > > I know addon RAID cards (e.g . 3ware) have been recommended, but for now
> > > I just want to use what I have.
> > >
> > > I have a motherboard with VIA VT8237 SATA RAID BIOS Ver 2.31
> > >
> > > In addition how do I monitor the disks. Basically, if one disk fails,
> > > how will I know?
> > >
> > > What are the pluses and minuses of going with either option.
> >
> > http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#via8237
> > It's fakeraid, i.e. it relies on software drivers rather than hardware
> > to provide RAID.
>
> the via vt8237 doesn't even have NCQ (native command queing). But it
> should do fine in a software raid using mdadm. Software raid 1 using
> mdadm is robust.
>
> >
> > The dmraid driver might work; looks like work in progress.
> > http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/readme
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DmraidStatus
> >
> > VIA apparently has proprietary RAID drivers, I tried to look deeper on
> > their page but it made my eyes bleed:
> > http://www.viaarena.com
> >
> > Software RAID (the md driver) works great. "cat /proc/mdstat" to see
> > status; I think the mdadm tools come with a cron job to test the arrays
> > and send you mail if the array degrades. Probably a winner if you want
> > your stuff to actually work.
> >
>
> I didn't know mdadm could do this. This is how I get my system to
> notify me of a failure.
>
> 1) edit /etc/mail/sendmail.mc find the smart_host line and set it to
> your mail server
> ex. smtp.mymailserver.net
>
> 2) again editing /etc/mail/sendmail.mc find masquarade_as and set your
> mail server domain
> ex. mymailserver.net
>
> 3) again editing /etc/mail/sendmail.mc enable feature(masquarade_envelope)
>
> then issue this command as root on one line
>
> m4  /usr/share/sendmail-cf/m4/cf.m4  /etc/mail/sendmail.mc  >
> /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
>
> then
>
> service sendmail restart
>
> then try this
>
> echo "raid array dead  ." | mail -s "north server" someemail at somewhere.com
>
> if it works then stick this into a cron one liner like this
>
> 3 21 * * *     grep  _  /proc/mdstat | grep -v read_ahead ; if [ $?
> -eq 0 ]; then echo "raid array failure  ." | mail -s "my k12ltsp
> server" someemail at somewhere.com

This should have been

3 21 * * *     grep  _  /proc/mdstat | grep -v read_ahead ; if [ $?
-eq 0 ]; then echo "raid array failure  ." | mail -s "my k12ltsp
server" someemail at somewhere.com ; fi

(forgot the ; fi)

You guys are not paying attention ;)

>
> cool huh?!? BTW don't forget the "." in the end of the echo text
> Beware: I haven't had a failure yet so I am not 100% sure it works. :)
>
> --
> Robert Arkiletian
> Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada
> Fl_TeacherTool http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/
> C++ GUI tutorial http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/
>


-- 
Robert Arkiletian
Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada
Fl_TeacherTool http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/
C++ GUI tutorial http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/




More information about the K12OSN mailing list