Software RAID1 (mirroring) on XenServer 5.5
There was a need to install Citrix XenServer 5.5 on a server with “fake” RAID.
Just a classic situation: Intel Matrix Storage Manager in the BIOS normally creates a RAID1 array, but Linux (on which XenServer is built) continues to see it as two independent SCSI disks: / dev / sda + / dev / sdb ... Hello, Fake RAID !
Perhaps someone will be pleased by the fact that the recipe described in the article Configure XenServer 5.0 Free for Software RAID1 works for XenServer 5.5 (just don’t miss the amendment by Ilja in the comments).
All configuration can be done via ssh root @ xenserver or in the physical console.
')
The idea is simple: after installing XenServer on the first disk, we create a raid1-array on the second disk in degraded mode, copy the contents from the first disk, load it from this array (essentially from the second disk), and then connect the first drive and transfer the array to normal operation. You can read a little more about this on the page of the author of the idea (thanks, Dmitry Komarov!).
This is not a “real RAID controller”, but the goal has been achieved: the server will continue to work even if one of the drives dies (which will give us the opportunity to easily replace it).
Just a classic situation: Intel Matrix Storage Manager in the BIOS normally creates a RAID1 array, but Linux (on which XenServer is built) continues to see it as two independent SCSI disks: / dev / sda + / dev / sdb ... Hello, Fake RAID !
Perhaps someone will be pleased by the fact that the recipe described in the article Configure XenServer 5.0 Free for Software RAID1 works for XenServer 5.5 (just don’t miss the amendment by Ilja in the comments).
All configuration can be done via ssh root @ xenserver or in the physical console.
')
The idea is simple: after installing XenServer on the first disk, we create a raid1-array on the second disk in degraded mode, copy the contents from the first disk, load it from this array (essentially from the second disk), and then connect the first drive and transfer the array to normal operation. You can read a little more about this on the page of the author of the idea (thanks, Dmitry Komarov!).
This is not a “real RAID controller”, but the goal has been achieved: the server will continue to work even if one of the drives dies (which will give us the opportunity to easily replace it).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/68617/
All Articles