i am using the md driver to implement a 16m swap space raid 0 (2 8 meg
partitions on /dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdc1.....i know, maybe not very
efficient or anything, but just seeing how it works, and if it is stable
enough) from /dev/hdb (120m drive) and /dev/hdc (408m drive)...
also, a linear volume from /dev/hdb2 and /dev/hdc2, which contains the
rest of the space (about 500m or so)...
now, i had a problem (stupid me, i upgraded several software packages
simultaneously without checking the impact on the system, and the system
got toasted) and had to reload the os (redhat 4.2)...i have / and /usr
on 2 different partitions, and /home (regualar partition), and
/home/misc (the linear md device) on separate partitions, so i didnt
lose any REAL data, just the os stuff which could easily be reloaded...
enabled md support in the new kernel, recompiled fine...
however, when i tried to compile the raidtools, i found out that the
patch that supplies raid1,4,5 has to be applied first, because some
definitions that the md programs use dont exist in the include files....
here is my concern:
if you can use the md device (raid0 and linear) without the patch, but
you cannot use the raidtools to manage the md devices without the patch,
and have to apply the patch, what is the point here? why not include
the patch in the kernel normally, or have the entire md device support
be in the patch?
also, another thing....i rebuilt the kernel several times after
compiling the raidtools, but never re-applied the raid1,4,5 patch....the
tools worked fine still....apparently you just need the patch to create
the tools, and but you dont need it to use them (unless you try to use
raid1,4,5)...
any comments?
Lance Dillon
UNIX/NT Sysadmin
Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc.