RHEL + software RAID-1 with GRUB

[Nigel Wade]

Chris wrote:
> I'm working on a personal project and would like to create software 
> RAID-1 with GRUB on RHEL 4.1.  Simple configuration:  2 physical hard 
> drives that I want to mirror the following partitions on:
> 
> /boot - 100MB
> swap - 1024MB
> /       - remainder of the drive
> 
> I can create all that while running RHEL installer using Disk Druid, but 
> when I reboot the system, it doesn't 'see' the boot partition and won't 
> boot.  My research on Google indicates that GRUB has a problem booting 
> from software RAID....?  Or that you need to set the 
> persistent-superblock? Unfortunately nothing I've tried worked, and I 
> can't get this system to boot at all.
> 
> I couldn't find any resources online that would have more detailes into 
> on how to go around this GRUB limitation, or how to properly set this up 
> using Disk Druid during RHEL installation.  All documents I've seen 
> assume you have a bootable drive and the RAID you create is on 
> second/third drives. All I want is a simple system with 2 physical 
> drives and complete mirror (RAID-1) between the two, while keeping them 
> bootable.  How does one make GRUB boot off a software RAID-1 /boot 
> partition??
> 
> Suggestions, ideas, step-by-step setup instructions or online resources 
> - much appreciated!
> 
> Chris
> 
> 

This should work. I've recently installed a new system doing exactly 
this without any problems. All you should need to do is create the RAIDs 
in DiskDruid, specify their mount points, and install. Can you be more 
detailed about the error? "It doesn't 'see' the boot partition" tells us 
almost nothing.

What type of filesystem did you use on /boot? I stick to ext2/ext3 for 
this, I've never tried any other. How far through the boot process does 
it get?

-- 
Nigel Wade