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I am relatively new to LVM and RAID.

I have a Server (HP ProLiant) with a Hardware Raid (RocketRaid 2710). Given two HHDs (500 GB) I wanted to setup RAID 1 (Mirroring). When installing Ubuntu I made the one 500 GB HDD use LVM, the other HDD I left untouched.

Is this the correct setup in this scenario? Or should I configure both hard disks with LVM?

Thanks!

craaaft
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3 Answers3

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You should create a RAID 1 array using your hardware raid controller. It will them present that array to the OS as a single disk. You should then install your OS onto that disk using LVM if you want.

user9517
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  • Yes, I first created a raid 1 array. After that I booted from the os cd to install ubuntu. But I still see both hdds seperate when it comes to setup the partitions. – craaaft Feb 08 '16 at 14:40
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    You didn't set up your RAID array correctly. – user9517 Feb 08 '16 at 15:18
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If your system has only 2 HDDs and you still see 2 HDDs after setting up the RAID1 array, you didn't get it right. After the RAID config is done, you should only see one 500GB HDD. What kind of HP server have you got? Is the RAID controller HPs own (some sort of Smart Array) or aftermarket?

Stuggi
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  • Thanks for the response! The server is a hp proliant ml310e gen8 v2. The RAID controller is a HighPoint RocketRaid 2710 which I bought seperatly since the original RAID on the server is a fake RAID (Smart Array) from what I understand. – craaaft Feb 08 '16 at 14:56
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    Do you have the P420 or the B120i? The P420 is a very robust hardware controller, while the B120i is something between HW RAID and fake RAID, it uses the CPU to do the RAID processing and (probably) doesn't support write caching. That being said, I've run the previous B110i in production on many servers for 5 or more years, and I can't say that there's anything wrong with it, it just doesn't have quite the performance of a HW RAID controller, but as long as you aren't running anything too hardcore (like VMware ESXi or huge database servers) on it I wouldn't worry too much about it. – Stuggi Feb 08 '16 at 15:04
  • Did you check that you used the right utility to configure the RAID? There might be as much as 3 storage controllers in that server with the RocketRaid installed, so make sure you're using the right utility? Since you see the discs alright and you installed the RAID card yourself it shouldn't be possible, but it's worth checking that the discs are hooked up to the right controller. – Stuggi Feb 08 '16 at 15:07
  • B120i. The problem with this was that it didn't support some linux distribtuions. That's why I bought the RocketRaid 2710, which should be fine for linux os. – craaaft Feb 08 '16 at 15:07
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    Ubuntu LTS 14.04 is supported on the ML310 gen 8 v2 according to the HPE OS matrix , so that shouldn't be an issue. http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/ubuntu.aspx Here's also some additional links pertaining to that server; http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/certification.aspx?var=ML310e%20Gen8%20v2#.VriwOvm7hBc And here's a link where you can get the SmartArray driver for Ubuntu: http://downloads.linux.hp.com/SDR/ – Stuggi Feb 08 '16 at 15:14
  • @Stuggi People really [shouldn't use Ubuntu on bare metal hardware](http://serverfault.com/a/568388/13325). – ewwhite Feb 08 '16 at 16:00
  • That might be true or not, I'm just going with what the OP asked about. It all depends on the usage, as I said, the B-series RAID controller will be fine as long as you aren't running anything too hardcore (like VMware or database servers). The link you posted references limited support outside the compability matrix. If you click the links I provided, you'll find that Ubuntu is supported, and there are binary drivers available for the for the storage controller. – Stuggi Feb 08 '16 at 20:08
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HP ProLiant gen8 is quite new and a year ago I couldn't configure any raid because the kernel that was the latest at that moment didn't have the RAID driver required.

HP works closely to Microsoft interests.

In the gen7 it do work, so I guess it's matter of time that it can work. In the meantime focus on configuring LVM to work as a RAID 1.

TheBeliar
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