Solaris RAID 0 + 1

[blur0224]

Hi all,

I'm designing a system that will use Solaris 10/9 with a RAID 0 + 1 configuration.

My guess is that if I install the system using one disk with partitioning, I'll be able to setup the RAID 0 + 1 configuration from command line. If the installation is all on one disk, when I setup RAID 0 for the additional disks, it will need to stripe the install across all the disks, which doesn't make sense because it would have to overwrite where it's reading from. I feel as though the RAID setup should be completed in BOIS prior to installation, but all of the tutorial/books indicate that the configuration is done after the installation.

Once I have one set of disks stripped, I'll stripe the other set then mirror the two sets.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[rch1231]

I don't believe what you are describing is possible with just one hard drive. You are attempting to use partitions for the RAID instead of physical disks. RAID, an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (Changed from its original term Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), is a technology that provides increased storage functions and reliability through redundancy. This is achieved by combining multiple disk drive components into a logical unit, where data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways called "RAID levels".

You would actually run slower attempting to access multiple partitions on the same drive as opposed to accessing data across multiple physical drives. The following site may give you a better idea of what RAID is and how it is used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

[blur0224]

I need to clarify what I want to do. Forget about the partitioning for now, that's a non-issue.

I want to install Solaris 10/9 on 2 (or possibly 4) stripped hard disks, RAID 0. The issue is that RAID 0 is setup after Solaris is installed, according to all the tutorials, books, and documentation. Unless there is something I'm missing, this is impossible unless RAID 0 is setup prior to the installation.

Supposing there are two disks not stripped. Solaris is installed on one of them. Then Solaris is configured with RAID 0 for both disks. This doesn't seem possible because it would have to read from the same disk that it's writing too, i.e. the information it would have to read would be overwritten prior to being read.

I've come to the conclusion that RAID 0 will need to be configured in the BIOS prior to installation, however, I'm unable to find anything that verifies this.

[rch1231]

What you want is a RAID controller card to connect the drives to. You will setup the RAID on the drives prior to installing the OS and the OS will see the array without any problems as a single install drive.

[blur0224]

Supposing I used a RAID controller for 4 disks, should I use another one for the other 4? After installation, I can do this through Solaris, but it seems like I should be consistent.

[blur0224]

I just realized that if I setup all 8 disks with a single controller, I can configure the controller to use a RAID 0 + 1 configuration.

Thanks for your help!