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Thread: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

  1. #1
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    HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    DISCLAIMER: this is my first HOWTO, so ill probably get a lot of the style wrong. I just had huge trouble finding information on this problem, and i thought i should pass it on now ive solved it.

    What this is for
    : People who have a SATA(serial ATA) raid controller, such as the sil3112 controller that comes on the Abit NF-7 S motherboard, and want to use this raid though the controller.
    This is *NOT* for people with new, blank hdds. For you it is much easier IMHO to set them up using linux software raid, i believe that there is a howto on this forum already for that.
    This *is* for people who need to access raid arrays they have already created, in my case i am dual booting with winxp and i have a large amount of data i need to access in linux.
    It is supposed to support these raid controllers:
    Highpoint HPT37X
    Highpoint HPT45X
    Intel Software RAID
    Promise FastTrack
    Silicon Image Medley


    Right, lets get started. These instructions are adapted and fleshed out from the original dmraid(the program used to discover the raid devices) README.

    1) download and install your kernel source, you can follow the instructions up to and including 'unpacking your kernel' in the kernel howto wiki
    http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org/KernelHowto

    2) Lucky for Ubuntu users, the 2.6.8 kernel that ships with warty final already has the device mapper base code! That means for raid-0 people there is nothing to do for step 2, goto 3!
    If you want to use raid-0,5 or append, you will need to apply some kernel patches and build a new kernel.
    For the 2.6.8.1 kernel they are here:
    ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/dm/patc...table/2.6.8.1/

    Apply these patches to your kernel source using something like:
    cd /usr/src/linux
    sudo cat <directory containing patches>/*.patch > patch -p1

    Then build your kernel following the instructions in the wiki link above.

    3) Install the device mapper userspace. This is located at ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/dm/
    You might as well get the latest version, which at time of writing is device-mapper.1.00.19.tgz.
    Untar this somewhere and go into the directory tar creates.
    then run
    ./configure
    sudo make install

    4) download the dmraid software
    http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/...urrent.tar.bz2

    Untar it, and again go into the directory it creates.
    ./configure
    sudo make install

    Almost done!

    5) now everything is installed. You just need to make dmraid load on startup and set up the drive mounting.
    I didnt make mine load on startup, as i do not need to access my raid drives all that often. So i made a little script to mount them when i need them in my home directory.
    Heres how:

    You need to find your device name.
    ls /dev/mapper/

    There will be a few entries that look long and confusing. They are actually just the partitions of your raid drives, prefixed with a complex name. mine looks like
    sil_0309402025011
    sil_0309402025011_p1
    sil_0309402025011_p5

    you need to note these down.

    make a new file called activateraid in your home directory.
    Put this code in it :

    dmraid -ay -v
    mount -t <fs type> -o users,owner,ro,umask=000 dev/mapper/<your partiton name> /<your mount dir>

    and add another line for every partition you have.
    Save the file.
    chmod 700 activateraid

    6) Now test it! run
    ./activateraid
    and all your drives should mount!

    !
    Hope it works for you. I was so stoked when i finally found this solution. Worth noting is that Ubuntu is the only distro of 3 or 4 ive tried that had the devicemapper code included in a form that was useful for this to work. Yay Ubuntu!
    Last edited by dave_blob; October 29th, 2004 at 02:14 PM.

  2. #2
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    THX, for this HowTo!

    It works perfectly for me.

    I have two 80gb HD at RAID-0.

    Can i install ubuntu on this array?

    sorry for my bad english.

  3. #3
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    Quote Originally Posted by regi
    THX, for this HowTo!

    It works perfectly for me.

    I have two 80gb HD at RAID-0.

    Can i install ubuntu on this array?

    sorry for my bad english.
    at first, thx for that nice Howto.
    but, I think its most for consultation purpose, and not for instalation. as mentionned above, it should be an existing howto about installing unbuntu on sata raid. i will edit and put that url as soon as I find it.

  4. #4
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    Thank you for the how-to, able to read my two hds in a raid0!

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    Tx for the info.

    Quote Originally Posted by kral
    at first, thx for that nice Howto.
    but, I think its most for consultation purpose, and not for instalation. as mentionned above, it should be an existing howto about installing unbuntu on sata raid. i will edit and put that url as soon as I find it.
    I also want to know how u can install Ubuntu on an existing sata raid 0, like when using an onboard Silicon Image raid controller. Any info in n00b terms would be more than welcome.

  6. #6
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    Quote Originally Posted by dave_blob
    This *is* for people who need to access raid arrays they have already created, in my case i am dual booting with winxp and i have a large amount of data i need to access in linux.
    Do u have Windows XP installed on the raid stripe, or only data? If so then u prob have a 3rd hdd for linux? tx
    Last edited by Zillion; February 20th, 2005 at 01:13 AM.

  7. #7
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    Okay, I'm just a little confused here... Does this only work with SATA? I've got 2 IDE drives in RAID-0 on a Fasttrak 378 SATA/IDE RAID controller. I haven't installed the kernel patches, as I am still somewhat of a newbie, and I don't have internet access without my madwifi module, and the kernel I built with the custom patches doesn't have that module included. And I just kind of assumed that given your comment in step 2... I didn't have to do that anyways.

    But I've followed all the other steps, and all that's in dev/mapper/ is a device called "control".

    Am I just plain screwed?

  8. #8
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    you need to activate your raid. That is what the 'dmraid -ay -v' is for. Once you do that you will see your partitions in /dev/mapper

    ----

    Edit Mar 24 2005:
    Problem fixed. I emailed the developer and he fixed the bug that was cuasing my problem. He was vary responsive and helpful.

    ----

    I'm having trouble of my own. The compile for device mapper and dmraid appear to go just fine. But when I do a 'dmraid -ay' I get the message

    ERROR: sil: invalid metadata checksum on /dev/sdb
    ERROR: sil: invalid metadata checksum on /dev/sdb
    ERROR: sil: invalid metadata checksum on /dev/sdb
    ERROR: sil: invalid metadata checksum on /dev/sdb

    In /dev/mapper I have

    control sil_afadbgdebbdeb sil_afadbgdebbdeb1

    There are supposed to be two ntfs partitions on the raid on /dev/sda and /dev/sdb

    When I mount the drive sil_afadbgdebbdeb1

    sudo mount -t ntfs -o users,owner,ro,umask=00 /dev/mapper/sil_afadbgdebbdeb1 /windows/h

    and do an ls I get

    ls: reading directory /windows/h: Input/output error

    edit: i forgot to mention i'm running horey 5.04 with the 2.6.10-5-k7 kernel. I'm running an asus A7N8X Deluxe with the Sil 3112A Controller with two WD 160 7200 sata drives on them. They are raided together and partitioned into a 260 and 60 gig ntfs partitions made by windows xp sp2. I have 2 maxtor 200 7200 ata drives where I have winxp duel booting with ubuntu.
    Last edited by mlidman; March 24th, 2005 at 06:11 PM.

  9. #9
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    dmraid -ay -v told me that there were no software RAID disks. Which I would assume means that this whole thing doesn't apply to me?

  10. #10
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    Re: HOWTO - Discovering and using existing sata raid (eg sil3112)

    Quote Originally Posted by Grey
    dmraid -ay -v told me that there were no software RAID disks. Which I would assume means that this whole thing doesn't apply to me?
    me too. I think it's because the raid controller is not supported. Mine is VIA 8237 southbridge raid controller.

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