Netfinity 5500 - Raid Question

[spacebass5000]

Let me preface this post by first stating that I have never configured a box with a raid controller. Also note that I am not a dolt so don't run away scared just yet!

Ok...

I am trying to build a Netfinity 5500 (type 866011U) and I don't want to utilize the raid functionality this box possesses. I am trying to use the ServeRaid configuration utility to do one of two things; Completely disable the raid controller or simply configure each installed drive as its own logical drive at Raid Level 0.

Am I headed in the right direction? I want my box to see each drive seperate from the others. Bascially, I don't need the Raid functionality. I am using ServeRaid Bios Version 5.10.21 and it seems pretty counterintuitive to me (in other words, I am unable to make it "work&quot.

Any help or suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated..

 

[catorze]

The Netfinity 5500 is one of the most solid boxes built by IBM...nothing but good things to say about this workhorse. Fundamentally, I don't understand why you would want to bypass the built in functionality on the box, but that's your perogative. You can completely disable the ServeRAID II in the system BIOS, but you will have to add a SCSI controller and connect the backplane cable to the card. If its simply RAID (redundacy) you're looking to bypass, you will have to perform two steps from the ServeRAID Manager utility: 1. Configure each physical drive as its own Array, then 2. Create a (RAID 0)logical drive in each Array.

I'm curious as to why you want to do this if you don't mind. There may be a better way than the direction your heading, which does not leave many options in the way of changing it later without having to blow away the entire configuration.

 

[spacebass5000]

Oh my god.... never in my life has one person been so helpful with an initial post... thank you very much... I so appreciate someone so willing to offer sound advice...

ok.. here is what this box is being used for...

I work for dot-com company that is going to help out a sister company by building a server that they will sell web space for. This 5500 will be that server. We have a standard for our boxes that is as such:

//======================================================

(This is a Redhat 7.2 box btw...)

Disk 1 – System Disk
/
/boot
/tmp
/usr
/opt

Disk 2

/usr/local
/var
swap

Disk 3 – Home

/home

Depending on the amount of users, Disk 2 & 3 could be combined if necessary.

Disk 4 – Backup
/backup

This could very well be located on Disk 2 or 3 depending on space and amount of backups to be made.

//======================================================

We want to be able to swap out drives in case one or the other goes bad. If we have a standard install it wouldn't be much to reconfigure the box if a drive goes down. Now this isn't entirely my idea. I am new to the sysAdmin gig and was instructed to do such a thing.

I am open to ANY opinions you have on this matter as I am still in the learning process.

I will wait to go through with this until after I have heard your opinion.

Thanks again!

 

[catorze]

OK...first some assumptions on my part: 1) you're using six drives in the box, 2) they're all the same size.

If that's the case, then I recommend using 5 of the HDDs to create an Array, then create RAID 5 Logical Drives for each of the "disks" you referenced or one large logical drive and partition it for the disks. Define the last HDD as a Hot Spare. The benefits of this config are numerous:
1. Read access will be faster (5 heads vs 1 per disk)
2. Redundancy - if a HDD fails, the ServeRAID controller will automatically rebuild to the Hot Spare. If another fails, the server will still operate in a "critical" state - all without user intervention. In either case, you can replace a failed HDD without an outage, as the HDDs are hot-swappable, and without having to rebuild/restore data.

If you only have 5 HDDs, setup the same, without the Hot Spare - you can still have on HDD failure and keep the server up until the failed HDD is replaced.

Info to remember: The physical disks in a (HW) RAID configuration are invisible to the Operating System. It will see Logical Drives as physical disks. For any of you MCSEs, you can install NT/W2K on a RAID 5 Array when using HW RAID.

 

[spacebass5000]

Sweet...

Well, I only have 3 HDD's and I am not sure if they are all the same size (I haven't placed the third one in the box yet). Either way, I can't get the ServeRaid Utility to do anything for me. I have looked on IBM's site for some form of literature that explains how to use the utilities. I have the rather large binder that accompanies the software CD's but it's in French.

I think we bought the server from some online auction site so go figure eh?

I noticed that ServeRaid 5.11 is available. Is it much different/better than 5.10?

/me scratches head and goes back to work...

Thanks for your help!

 

[catorze]

Yes. ServeRAID v5.11 is the one you want to use. The online help is excellent to help you navigate. Since the box came from somewhere else, you may have to zero out any previous configuration. Right-click on the controller an select "restore to factory defaults", then begin as described. Your best bet is to create one Array and RAID 5 logical drive(s) for the redundancy. I would look for HDDs from an auction site to get more disk space - look at IBM's site for the part numbers that will fit.