Subject: Re: Install Failed when writing disklabel to RAID 5 on Digital 5305
To: None <port-alpha@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-alpha
Date: 11/05/2006 02:26:23
> Subject: Install Failed when writing disklabel to RAID 5 on Digital 5305

> I thought it was strange when it found only one hard drive and called
> it ld0.

If you're using "hardware" (which generally really means firmware) RAID
5, this is not a bit surprising.  That disk is your RAID volume.

> The server has three 4.3 Gig SCSI harddrives [...]  I examined the
> partition table. It came back with a figure of about 8200 megabits
(megabytes, more likely - I don't know of *anything* that cites disk
capacity in megabits.)
> which would lead me to think that it is seeing two of the 4.3 drives
> as one drive.

That is exactly the size I would expect for a three-drive RAID 5
volume; you lose one disk's capacity to parity, leading to the volume
presented to the OS being that of two drives.  (Well, every so slightly
under two drives, in most cases, since most RAID setups steal at least
a little space for administrative overhead.)

Unfortunately, I can't explain the problem you're seeing, but perhaps
this will clear up a little of the confusion you exhibit.

> So my question is, how to I install to the hard disk on a system like
> this?  I believe it is set up as a RAID 5 array from the "show
> device" command in SRM.  I really don't understand what that means
> because I have never had or used a RAID controler.

Ah, then your confusion is understandable.

> Is there a way for it to see all of the drive individually?

Probably.  Look in the firmware configuration utility for the RAID card
for something called JBOD.  If it has it, that should allow you to
basically make the RAQID go away and present the underlying disks more
or less directly to the OS.  (JBOD = Just a Bunch Of Disks.)

You *ought* to be able to use the ld as if it were a single disk,
though.  If that doesn't work, there's a bug, or at least lack of
support, somewhere.  (Which may be totally expected on alpha, for all I
know - my one real encounter with firmware RAID and NetBSD was on i386.)

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