Installing ViciBox on RAID 1

[dlasry]

I am having trouble installing ViciBox on my new system with a RAID 1 controller. After defining the BIOS controller as RAID, and then setting my two SATA-II hard disks in a RAID 1 array, I start the Vicibox installation process. First thing that looks wrong to me, is that Ubuntu sees both disks separately (I assumed it would only see one volume). In any case, after installation, ubuntu will not load, and gives a error about not finding a bootable disk.

I have tried installing this on one of the disks, with no RAID array, and have no problems there.


Is it correct of me to assume that the installation should be done on the RAID array, or do I need to install the system on one disk and then add in the second disk in a RAID configuration at a later stage (which would be way more difficult)?


Thanks
David

My Setup:
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 Ghz 12MB Cache s775 133Mhz
• Motherboard: Asus P5Q Turbo (775 C2Q 1600Mhz, Intel P45, DDR2 1300, PCI-E2.0, HDAudio, 1394A
• Memory: Kingston HyperX 2x2GB DDR2 1066Mhz Pc2-8500
• Hard Disk RAID I: WD3200 – WD Caviar 320 GB 16 MB 7200RPM SATA II

[williamconley]

install without RAID. when you are done, use "g4l" (Ghost 4 Linux) to duplicate one drive onto the other (so you now have a spare duplicate drive).

Every night, after verifying that everything is ok, backup the "live" disk with the "duplicate". This will give you FASTER performance than a RAID1 (which slows down your OS) and IF you "corrupt" your databases or hard drive, the corruption will NOT be duplicated to your "backup" drive unless you make a new backup after the corruption.

[dlasry]

Thanks William.

I want a RAID 1 configuration for different reasons. I am setting up a system on a consumer grade PC, which will be always on. I want the RAID 1 for redundancy purposes, and not for backup. I intend to backup the data using a different solution.
Could you give me some pointers as to how I would go about setting up the RAID 1 on this system?



David

[dlasry]

After googling the the topic, it seems that the ICH10R chipset that my motherboard uses as a RAID controller is considered "fake raid" as it uses the motherboard's CPU to process the RAID transactions. I am quite surprised, as i was sure that I was buying a true hardware raid , and the ASUS website says nothing about the RAID not being a full raid.


I guess this leaves me with two options: Use Linux Software Raid, or forget redundancy and just go for G4L as William originally suggested.

William, does this changing your original recommendation?


David

[williamconley]

nope. not in the least. even "real raid" is not helpful when the most often occuring flaw in a system is currupted data (mysql) which then renders your "redundant" system useless as it immediately duplicates the corrupted database. and the entire time it is slowing down your system to do it (remember: with mirror systems the "raid" engine MUST write all data in both places). in a RAID 5 system, the RAID controller can decide that one of the three (or more) places is a little busy right now and write it to the other two instead. this offers a generally slight improvement in performance instead of degradation.

that being said: no matter what the "RAID" advertisement is on the box, or brochure, or case ... if it can't do RAID5 or above, it's not "real". and software RAID or motherboard RAID is not bad, but it isn't something you want in your "performance-based" system. make no mistake, vicidial requires a performance based system. hi-res timing is required and must be always available to manage the dialer.

Now: if you REMOVE mysql from the system ... then I could see a possibility for an argument for RAID1 (mirror) on your vicidial box.

how to get it? well ... this IS a fairly standard ubuntu 32-bit server install. so ... perhaps you could try the ubuntu forums and see how to get the appropriate drivers installed. it may well also apply during vicibox installation.

obviously the vicidial forum is not a place where one can expect solutions for every possible permutation of hardware/ubuntu troubleshooting ... but Ubuntu is fairly large and is likely to be the place where this information resides. not to pass you off to another forum, but the depth of knowledge on this topic likely resides there, rather than here. (just count the number of users on both systems and you'll understand ... DELL is shipping ubuntu servers in some of its systems now!)

[dlasry]

Thanks William. I understand what you are saying about RAID. I also agree that the actual ubuntu specific configuration issues, are more of an ubuntu forum issue than a Vicidial forum issue.



David