Hello,
> [root@xxxxxx raidtools-0.90]# mkraid --force /dev/md0
> DESTROYING the contents of /dev/md0 in 5 seconds, Ctrl-C if unsure!
> handling MD device /dev/md0
> analyzing super-block
> disk 0: /dev/sdb1, 4188937kB, raid superblock at 4188864kB
> disk 1: /dev/sdc1, 4188937kB, raid superblock at 4188864kB
> mkraid: aborted
I've been playing with raid-1 too, with 0.90-0399 on RH 5.2. I have been
creating/destroying raid partitions quite a lot and have had this error a
few times. I now have what I believe to be a recipe for success:
- fdisk your disks to remove the partitions that will be in the raid.
Completely remove them, don't just change the partition type.
- reboot.
- fdisk your partitions into existence, with type 'fd' as advertised in
the doc. Do not reboot.
- run 'mkraid --really-force /dev/md<n>'. I have found that if I run
mkraid on the device without the --really-force option, then try it with
it, it doesn't work. I need to really force it first time.
- wait until the raid is created ('cat /proc/mdstat' to check it), then
'mke2fs /dev/md<n>'.
- reboot, and for me it works, I see my device started.
Hope this helps. It may be that I am doing more than necessary, but I
have had this method work a few times without fail. Comments welcomed!
While I'm here, I see a lot of questions in this list about how to get
RAID working, but none from people reporting bugs in the software once it
is up and running, or serious loss of data from nasty incidents etc. I
want to install Linux-RAID in a production environment, but I cannot find
any solid information about other peoples experiences in such an
environment.
If anyone out there has any long-term experience with Linux-RAID in a
production environment would they please let me know (either directly or
via this list). Obviously, with the tools being updated constantly,
'long-term' might mean only a couple of weeks, but I still think it would
be useful to get some of this information on the web. I am willing to
put up a page summarising the results, on the other hand, if anyone
already has such a page, could they please let me know where it is!
Cheers,
Tony.
