mkfs v/s reinstall

[sonun]

Now, kudzu detects the two raid devices installed a sda and sdb. Dmesg reposts
Vendor: RaidWeb. Model: Com Rev: 0001
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Vendor: RaidWeb. Model: Com Rev: 0001
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 1, lun 0
Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi1, channel 0, id 2, lun 0
(scsi1:0:1:0) Synchronous at 160.0 Mbyte/sec, offset 31.
SCSI device sda: 1050918912 512-byte hdwr sectors (538070 MB)
sda: unknown partition table
(scsi1:0:2:0) Synchronous at 160.0 Mbyte/sec, offset 31.
SCSI device sdb: 1050918912 512-byte hdwr sectors (538070 MB)
sdb: unknown partition table

I just want to draw your attention to the "unknown partition table" clause. I guess it says so as I have not given ita filesystem yet. Here I guess I go,
'mkfs -t ext2' or just 'mkfs -t'
Now am I correct in assuming that if I reinstall the OS on the server now, when it brings up the format partition section, it would also list sda and sdb and here I can specify a mount point and a file system ext2 for it.
Now my question is, are these two options equivalent. I could go with either.
Please correct me if I am wrong and also which do you think would be faster.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[ady2k]

You should use fdisk command to create the partition.
And you should choice linux filesystem (83).
After that you can use mkfs -t.You dont need to reinstall your linux OS again.Because the linux OS can detect your raidweb devices.
example :
# fdisk /dev/sda
# mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sda
You can mount it after that 2 jobs done.

 

[sonun]

Ok, lets say I format the partition with ext2 and now I want to chage it to ext3.
Now what do I do. I can build the journal with
tune2fs -j /dev/whatever
and then ??
just change the entries in /etc/fstab and reboot ??
Should I or shouldnt I create a separate partition for the journal.
Woudld I be able to mount ext3 partitions on a ext2 formatted server.
Can I have ext3 and ext2 partitions on the same server ??
Please advise.
Thanks.