Post a Comment On: IT Tidbits

This is really quite simple but took me quite awhile to figure out.
Basically from all my reading, most on-board raid controllers are
really not Hardware Raid. A more accurate description or definition
would be a software raid controlled by a BIOS. I sort of knew this
already, but it certainly is frustrating to get one working properly. It is
especially frustrating that some "server" grade hardware uses a software
(fake raid) instead of building in a true hardware raid solution.

So the scoop...There is a function that I had forgotten about. When
you get the first splash screen to install Debian (has several options
ie. expert install, graphical install, expert graphical install etc.),
do not press enter to proceed. Press the "tab" key and you
will get a print out of the actual install/boot parameters. You
simply add to the end of this line,

dmraid=true

Presto. It recognizes the mirror setup that I had done in
the Adaptec configuration. I did not try this on the Intel
controller setting, but expect it would work as well.

Additional note...software raid is a bugger to do under Debian. However, I was well on my way to completing it when I figured this out. The slickthing about it though is that you can take any system that can support 2drives and mirror them at any time. I know that is an obvious statement, but if you come across a system that needs to be mirrored and didn't want to start from scratch, you simply install a drive ofthe same size and an hour later it is mirrored.