Raid question for pbiaf 1.4

[tbooth]

I'm reinstalling a system tomorrow that is a pbiaf 1.2 that's on a supermicro server with hardware raid controller with 2 sata drives. When I did the initial install there was no support for raid on the ISO so I loaded it up as a normal install not taking advantage of the raid.
My question is will the setup walk me through the raid installation? I have not set up a system with raid before and want to know if there is anything I should be aware of or is it pretty basic?

Thanks

 

[wardmundy]

Software RAID is certainly available in the distribution, but it's untested for the most part. I wouldn't stake my business on it. Hardware RAID is the way to go.

 

[tbooth]

it is a hardware raid. is that supported on the new iso?

 

[wardmundy]

Hardware RAID normally is transparent to the operating system. It just looks like a single hard drive to the OS. Most of the more popular RAID controllers are supported in CentOS 5.2.

 

[tbooth]

with that said I just do a normal install?
don't have to specify raid at the initial screen or anything like that?

 

[OTA]

If you're using the hardware RAID, you must define the array via RAID controller. Usually this is configured in the controller's BIOS. Usually a keypress is required before the system boots, ie: CTRL-K, etc.

I've been using Dell Poweredge 2650 servers for various things, most recently PiaF systems. Once you configure the RAID in the BIOS, everything installs normally as expected. Just make sure that the drive size reported by linux matches what you've defined. No further intervention should be needed.