Hi, On Fri, 05.01.2007 at 11:09:56 -0800, Dag Richards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Toni Mueller wrote: > >in theory, this should work in that you first upgrade your > >non-raidframe'd root partitions, then reboot and proceed with the > >normal upgrade. Or at least I've yet to find out how to make the > >machine "genuinely" boot from a root partition on raid - including the > >kernel... > > Yes that is the theory, and that I am sure would work. > What I was trying to do is have _every_ slice be raidframe raid1. > I was able to get that to work, with a custom kernel sitting on a small > boot slice on each disk.
well, I have a small "rescue system" like root partition on non-raid, but a kernel with root-on-raid and raid-autoconfigure, and a "real" root partition on the raid. I've done upgrades with this a few times already. > Every solution I came up with seemed to be a kludge, and not conducive > to a click and drool upgrade path. So we just do an rsync to the other > disk daily and know that here will be a drive swap and reboot required > in the event of disk failure. This is not so much an option in my scenario because there's noone near the machines who has enough clue to do it. > Hardware raid is very much preferred if possible, I've thought this for a long time, too, but in the light of vendors obstructing proper controller support for several years now, I've come to dislike this option - it only works if you can put enough spare cards onto your shelves because you are guaranteed to be unable to swap controllers should the vendor become unsupported, fold, or you otherwise run out of supply. With a software raid, I can, in theory, easily just move the disks from one box to another which only needs to be similar enough, and it continues to work. > IBM has some nice low end x series servers with raid controllers. Recently I visited a very friendly colleague who had a number of small IBMs, but he recommended strongly against them because they allegedly break much more often than the Sun x2100, hardware-wise. Also, I still resent them because I've tried for about a year to get them to release enough docs for OpenBSD to be able to support their RAID controllers, but in vain. Iow, if you get their machines, you should be prepared to ignore their "hardware raid" anyway... Best, --Toni++
