IDE RAID Controller with Linux

Support knowledgebase (ide_raid)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Versions since 6.4

Symptom:

You have a PC with an IDE RAID controller. During the installation, only the single hard drives instead of the whole RAID are recognized.

Cause:

The RAID functionality of your controller is presently not supported by Linux. Many IDE RAID controllers get their functionality through the driver. For those devices, it is a sort of software RAID.

Solution:

There are already drivers available for some of these controllers. Withouth the corresponding driver, hard drives connected to it can only be used separately and not as a group. From SuSE Linux 7.3 on, some of these controllers are automatically detected and can be fully utilized as RAID controllers. On the other hand, previously configured RAID volumes cannot be used!

3ware IDE RAID controllers are completely supported on SuSE Linux 7.1 or higher.

Regarding Promise FastTrack66 and FastTrack100 controllers, a driver for SuSE Linux 7.1 or higher is available at the following URL:

http://support.promise.com/Linux/Default.htm

Unfortunately, Promise is not prepared to publish this driver's source code. For this reason we are unable to support this driver, which is not included in the distribution. Should you have any questions concerning this driver, please refer directly to Promise.

RAID is also currently supported only by those devices based on Highpoint HPT370, such as Dawicontrol DC-100 RAID and mainboards Abit KT-7 RAID. The drivers can be found at:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/370drivers_linux.htm

Support for these drivers is also provided by the manufacturer (i.e. Highpoint) only.

At the following page, you can find information from the IDE kernel developer Andre Hedrick regarding the supported IDE chipsets.

http://www.linux-ide.org/chipsets.html.

Tips for booting hard drives on additional IDE controllers

Please notice that changes in the file
/etc/lilo.conf
are necessary if you want to boot hard drives connected to additional IDE controllers.

Please add the following entry in the Global Section if you want to boot from hde and do not have other hard drives on the first controllers.

disk=/dev/hde
  bios=0x80
If you use a second hard drive as master on the second controller add
disk=/dev/hdg
  bios=0x81
After that you need to execute
lilo
as user root.

If you have a so-called mixed system, please have a look at the "Boot: (E)IDE and SCSI" article. There you will find some informations about how to use the
lilo -v -v -v
command to find out what bios numbers LILO wants to have.


See also:
o IDE RAID Controller with Linux

Keywords: IDE, RAID, PROMISE, HPT370, FASTTRACK, ABIT, DAWI, HOTROD, 3WARE, BOOT, LILO

SDB-ide_raid, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 06. Apr 2001
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 29. Apr 2002 by snbarth (sdb_gen 1.40.0)