diff --git a/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.sgml b/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.sgml
deleted file mode 100644
index ae5c5922..00000000
--- a/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.sgml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,478 +0,0 @@
-
-
-
-
-
- Linux-RAID FAQ
-
-
- Gregory
- Leblanc
-
-
- gleblanc (at) cu-portland.edu
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- v0.0.10
- 24 April 2001
- gml
-
- Added a new section and question about benchmarking.
-
-
-
- v0.0.9
- 9 October 2000
- gml
-
- Updates to the location of the patches, and a couple of other
- things which I can't remember.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- This is a FAQ for the Linux-RAID mailing list, hosted on
- vger.kernel.org. vger.rutgers.edu is gone, so don't bother
- looking for it. It's intended as a supplement to the existing
- Linux-RAID HOWTO, to cover questions that keep occurring on the
- mailing list. PLEASE read this document before your post to the
- list.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- General
-
-
-
- Where can I find archives for the linux-raid mailing
- list?
-
-
- My favorite archives are at http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/Linux/57/0/.
- Other archives are available at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-raid&r=1&w=2
- Another archive site is http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-raid@vger.rutgers.edu/
-
-
-
-
-
- Where can I find the latest version of this FAQ?
-
-
-
- The latest version of this FAQ will be available from the
- LDP website at http://www.LinuxDoc.org/FAQ/.
- As soon as I get my server at home fixed I'll make it available
- there as well.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- What sorts of things does this list cover?
-
-
-
- Well, obviously this list covers RAID in relation to
- Linux. Most of the discussions are related to the raid code
- that's been built into the Linux kernel. There are also a few
- discussions on getting hardware based RAID controllers working
- using Linux as the operating system. Any and all of these
- discussions are valid for this list.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Kernel
-
-
-
-
- I'm running [insert your linux distribution
- here]. Do I need to patch my kernel to make RAID
- work?
-
-
-
- Well, the short answer is, it depends. Some distributions
- are using the RAID 0.90 patches, while others leave the kernel
- with the older md code. Unfortunately, I don't have a list of
- which distributions have which kernels. If you'd like to
- maintain such a list, please email me
- <gleblanc@cu-portland.edu> as well as the
- linux-raid mailing list.
-
- If you download a 2.2.x kernel from ftp.kernel.org, then you
- will need to patch your kernel.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- How can I tell if I need to patch my kernel?
-
-
-
- That depends on which kernel series you're using. If
- you're using the 2.4.x kernels, then you've already got the
- latest RAID code that's available. If you're running 2.2.x, see
- the following instructions on how to find out.
-
- The easiest way is to check what's in
- /proc/mdstat. Here's a sample from a 2.2.x
- kernel, with the RAID patches applied.
-
-
-
-[gleblanc@grego1 gleblanc]$ cat /proc/mdstat
-Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [translucent]
-read_ahead not set
-unused devices: <none>
-
-
-If the contents of /proc/mdstat looks like the
- above, then you don't need to patch your kernel. The
- "Personalities" line in your kernel may not look exactly like the
- above, if you have RAID compiled as modules. Most distributions
- will have RAID compiled as modules to save space on the boot
- diskette. If you're not using any RAID sets, then you will
- probably see a blank space at the end of the "Personalities"
- line, don't worry, that just means that the RAID modules aren't
- loaded yet.
-
- Here's a sample from a 2.2.x kernel,
- without the RAID patches applied.
-
-
-
-[root@serek ~]# cat /proc/mdstat
-Personalities : [1 linear] [2 raid0]
-read_ahead not set
-md0 : inactive
-md1 : inactive
-md2 : inactive
-md3 : inactive
-
-
-
-If your /proc/mdstat looks like this
-one, then you need to patch your kernel.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Where can I get the latest RAID patches for my kernel?
-
-
-
- The patches for the 2.2.x kernels up to, and including,
- 2.2.13 are available from ftp.kernel.org.
- Use the kernel patch that most closely matches your kernel
- revision. For example, the 2.2.11 patch can also be used on
- 2.2.12 and 2.2.13.
-
- The patches for 2.2.14 and later kernels are at http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/.
- Use the right patch for your kernel, these patches haven't
- worked on other kernel revisions yet. Please use something like
- wget/curl/lftp to retrieve this patch, as it's easier on the
- server than using a client like Netscape. Downloading patches
- with Lynx has been unsuccessful for me; wget may be the easiest
- way.
-
- These patches should also be available from
-
- ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mingo/raid-patches/
- I could not find them on my local mirror, but please check
- yours before using the main kernel.org site. You can find a
- list of the local mirrors at http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- How do I apply the patch to a kernel that I just
- downloaded from ftp.kernel.org?
-
-
-
-
- First, unpack the kernel into some directory, generally
- people use /usr/src/linux.
- Change to this directory, and type patch -p1 <
- /path/to/raid-version.patch.
-
-
-
- On my RedHat 6.2 system, I decompressed the 2.2.16 kernel
- into /usr/src/linux-2.2.16. From
- /usr/src/linux-2.2.16, I
- type in patch -p1 <
- /home/gleblanc/raid-2.2.16-A0.
- Then I rebuild the kernel using make
- menuconfig and related builds.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- What kind of drives can I use RAID with? Do only SCSI or
- IDE drives work? Do I need different patches for different kinds
- of drives?
-
-
-
- Software RAID works with any block device in the Linux
- kernel. This includes IDE and SCSI drives, as well as most
- harware RAID controllers. There are no different patches for IDE
- drives vs. SCSI drives.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- RAIDtools
-
-
-
-
- Why are the RAIDtools at http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/
- labeled dangerous, and if they're dangerous,
- should I use them?
-
-
-
- The tools are labeled dangerous
- because the RAID code isn't part of the stable
- Linux kernel. The tools found at the above URL are
- the latest and greatest. You should use
- these tools with the kernel patches from the same
- location.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Are there any tools other than the
- dangerous ones available?
-
-
-
- No, the dangerous tools available from
- http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/
- are the most current tools to use. Everyone using
- RAID with the patches at the above location should be using
- these dangerous tools.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Disk Failures and Recovery
-
-
-
-
- How can I tell if one of the disks in my RAID array has
- failed?
-
-
-
- A couple of things should indicate when a disk has failed.
- There should be quite a few messages in
- /var/log/messages indicating errors
- accessing that device, which should be a good indication that
- something is wrong. You should also notice that your
- /proc/mdstat looks different. Here's a snip
- from a good /proc/mdstat
-
-
-
-[gleblanc@grego1 gleblanc]$ cat /proc/mdstat
-Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [translucent]
-read_ahead not set
-md0 : active raid1 sdb5[0] sda5[1] 32000 blocks [2/2] [UU]
-unused devices: <none>
-
-
-
- And here's one from a /proc/mdstat
- where one of the RAID sets has a missing disk.
-
-
-
-[gleblanc@grego1 gleblanc]$ cat /proc/mdstat
-Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [translucent]
-read_ahead not set
-md0 : active raid1 sdb5[0] sda5[1] 32000 blocks [2/1] [U_]
-unused devices: <none>
-
-
-
- I don't know if /proc/mdstat will
- reflect the status of a HOT SPARE. If you have set one up, you
- should be watching /var/log/messages for any
- disk failures. I'd like to get some logs of a disk failure, and
- /proc/mdstat from a system with a hot
- spare.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- So my RAID set is missing a disk, what do I do now?
-
-
-
- RAID generally doesn't mark a disk as bad unless it is, so
- you probably need a new disk. Most disks have a 3 year warranty,
- but some good SCSI hard drives may have a 5 year warranty. See
- if you can get the manufacturer to replace the failed disk for
- you. When you get the new disk, power down the
- system, and install it, then partition the drive so that it has
- partitions the size of your missing RAID partitions. After
- you're finished partitioning the disk, use the command
- raidhotadd to put the new disk into the array
- and begin reconstruction. See Chapter
- 6 of the Software
- RAID HOWTO for more information.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- dmesg shows md: serializing
- resync, md4 has overlapping physical units with md5
.
- What does this mean?
-
-
-
- In that message physical units
refers to
- disks, and not to blocks on the disks. Since there is more than
- 1 RAID array that needs resyncing on a disk, the RAID code is
- going to sync md4 first, and md5 second, to avoid excessive seeks
- (also called thrashing), which would drastically slow the resync
- process.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Benchmarking
-
-
-
-
- How should I benchmark my RAID devices? Are there any
- tools that work particularly well?
-
-
-
- There are really a few options for benchmarking your RAID
- array, depending on what you're looking to test. RAID offers the
- greatest speed increases when there are multiple threads reading
- from the same RAID volume.
-
- One tool specificly designed to test and show off these
- performance gains is tiobench. It uses
- multiple read and write threads on the disk, and has some pretty
- good reporting.
-
- Another good tool to use is bonnie++. It
- seems to be more targeted at benchmarking single drives that at
- RAID, but still provides useful information.
-
- One tool NOT to use is
- hdparm. It does not give useful
- performance numbers for any drives that I've heard about, and has
- been known to give some incredibly off-the-wall numbers as well.
- If you want to do real benchmarking, use
- one of the tools listed above.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
diff --git a/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.xml b/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.xml
index ae5c5922..ecfa28ca 100644
--- a/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.xml
+++ b/LDP/faq/docbook/Linux-RAID-FAQ.xml
@@ -1,22 +1,36 @@
-
+
-
+
Linux-RAID FAQ
Gregory
Leblanc
-
-
- gleblanc (at) cu-portland.edu
-
-
+ gleblanc@linuxweasel.com
+
+ v0.0.12
+ 2003-03-05
+ gml
+ Fleshed out questions that cover using mdadm, small formatting
+ changes
+
+
+
+ v0.0.11
+ 2003-01-08
+ gml
+ Updated Archive Locations, information on when to patch, added
+ a note about old patches being missing, removed question about the
+ raidtools being dangerous (since they don't appear to be so labeled any
+ longer).
+
+
v0.0.10
24 April 2001
@@ -25,15 +39,6 @@
Added a new section and question about benchmarking.
-
- v0.0.9
- 9 October 2000
- gml
-
- Updates to the location of the patches, and a couple of other
- things which I can't remember.
-
-
@@ -47,29 +52,71 @@
-
+
-
+ Linux RAID FAQ Copyright
-
- General
+ This documentation was developed for the Linux Documentation Project
+ by Gregory Leblanc.
-
-
+ Redistribution and use in source (XML DocBook) and 'compiled' forms
+ (XML, HTML, PDF, PostScript, RTF and so forth) with or without
+ modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
+ met:
+
+
+
+ Redistributions of source code (XML DocBook) must
+ retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions
+ and the following disclaimer as the first lines of this file
+ unmodified.
+
+
+
+ Redistributions in compiled form (transformed to other
+ DTDs, converted to PDF, PostScript, RTF and other formats)
+ must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of
+ conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
+ and/or other materials provided with the
+ distribution.
+
+
+
+
+ THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY THE GREGORY LEBLANC "AS IS" AND
+ ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+ IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
+ PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL NETWORKS ASSOCIATES
+ TECHNOLOGY, INC BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
+ EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
+ PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
+ PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
+ LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
+ NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
+ DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ General
+
+
+
Where can I find archives for the linux-raid mailing
list?
+
- My favorite archives are at http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/Linux/57/0/.
- Other archives are available at The only archives left seem to be available at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-raid&r=1&w=2
- Another archive site is http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-raid@vger.rutgers.edu/
-
+
Where can I find the latest version of this FAQ?
@@ -77,14 +124,12 @@
The latest version of this FAQ will be available from the
LDP website at http://www.LinuxDoc.org/FAQ/.
- As soon as I get my server at home fixed I'll make it available
- there as well.
+ url="http://www.tldp.org/FAQ/">http://www.tldp.org/FAQ/.
-
+
What sorts of things does this list cover?
@@ -102,12 +147,10 @@
-
-
+
Kernel
-
-
+
I'm running [insert your linux distribution
here]. Do I need to patch my kernel to make RAID
@@ -115,21 +158,16 @@
- Well, the short answer is, it depends. Some distributions
- are using the RAID 0.90 patches, while others leave the kernel
- with the older md code. Unfortunately, I don't have a list of
- which distributions have which kernels. If you'd like to
- maintain such a list, please email me
- <gleblanc@cu-portland.edu> as well as the
- linux-raid mailing list.
+ At this point, most major distributions are shipping with a 2.4
+ based kernel, which already includes the necessary patches. If your
+ distribution is still using a 2.2.x kernel, upgrade!
If you download a 2.2.x kernel from ftp.kernel.org, then you
will need to patch your kernel.
-
-
+
How can I tell if I need to patch my kernel?
@@ -179,13 +217,10 @@ md3 : inactive
If your /proc/mdstat looks like this
one, then you need to patch your kernel.
-
-
-
-
+
Where can I get the latest RAID patches for my kernel?
@@ -196,46 +231,37 @@ one, then you need to patch your kernel.
url="ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/daemons/raid/alpha/">ftp.kernel.org.
Use the kernel patch that most closely matches your kernel
revision. For example, the 2.2.11 patch can also be used on
- 2.2.12 and 2.2.13.
+ 2.2.12 and 2.2.13.
+ These patches are no longer available
+ from this location! I haven't been able to find the new location for
+ them, please email me if you know where they've gone.
+
+
The patches for 2.2.14 and later kernels are at http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/.
Use the right patch for your kernel, these patches haven't
- worked on other kernel revisions yet. Please use something like
+ worked on other kernel revisions. Please use something like
wget/curl/lftp to retrieve this patch, as it's easier on the
server than using a client like Netscape. Downloading patches
with Lynx has been unsuccessful for me; wget may be the easiest
- way.
-
- These patches should also be available from
-
- ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mingo/raid-patches/
- I could not find them on my local mirror, but please check
- yours before using the main kernel.org site. You can find a
- list of the local mirrors at http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/.
-
-
-
+ way.
-
-
+
How do I apply the patch to a kernel that I just
downloaded from ftp.kernel.org?
-
First, unpack the kernel into some directory, generally
people use /usr/src/linux.
Change to this directory, and type patch -p1 <
/path/to/raid-version.patch.
-
On my RedHat 6.2 system, I decompressed the 2.2.16 kernel
into /usr/src/linux-2.2.16. From
@@ -247,13 +273,10 @@ one, then you need to patch your kernel.
-
-
-
-
+
What kind of drives can I use RAID with? Do only SCSI or
IDE drives work? Do I need different patches for different kinds
@@ -270,54 +293,45 @@ one, then you need to patch your kernel.
-
- RAIDtools
+
+ RAID tools
-
+
- Why are the RAIDtools at http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/
- labeled dangerous, and if they're dangerous,
- should I use them?
+ What tools are available for dealing with my Linux Software RAID
+ arrays?
- The tools are labeled dangerous
- because the RAID code isn't part of the stable
- Linux kernel. The tools found at the above URL are
- the latest and greatest. You should use
- these tools with the kernel patches from the same
- location.
+ There are currently two sets of tools available. Both sets work
+ quite well, and have essentially the same functionalty. I recommend the
+ newer set of tools, because they're much easier to use, but I'll mention
+ where to get the older tools as well.
+
+ The new set of tools is called mdadm.
+ It doesn't have much of a homepage, but you can download tarballs and
+ RPMs from http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/source/mdadm/.
+ I suggest that anyone who isn't already familar with the 'raidtools'
+ package use these (and in fact, I suggest that folks who already know the
+ raidtools package switch over to these).
+
+ The older set of tools is called
+ raidtools. They're available from http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raidtools/.
+ I believe there are other locations available, since Red Hat Linux is
+ shipping based on a tarball numbered 1.00.3, which I can't find online.
+ If anybody knows where these are, please let me know.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Are there any tools other than the
- dangerous ones available?
-
-
-
- No, the dangerous tools available from
- http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/
- are the most current tools to use. Everyone using
- RAID with the patches at the above location should be using
- these dangerous tools.
-
-
-
+
Disk Failures and Recovery
-
-
+
How can I tell if one of the disks in my RAID array has
failed?
@@ -365,58 +379,69 @@ unused devices: <none>
-
-
+
So my RAID set is missing a disk, what do I do now?
- RAID generally doesn't mark a disk as bad unless it is, so
- you probably need a new disk. Most disks have a 3 year warranty,
- but some good SCSI hard drives may have a 5 year warranty. See
- if you can get the manufacturer to replace the failed disk for
- you. When you get the new disk, power down the
- system, and install it, then partition the drive so that it has
- partitions the size of your missing RAID partitions. After
- you're finished partitioning the disk, use the command
- raidhotadd to put the new disk into the array
- and begin reconstruction. See Software-RAID generally doesn't mark a disk as bad unless it is, so
+ you probably need a new disk. Most decent quality disks have a 3 year
+ warranty, but some exceptional (and expensive) SCSI hard drives may have
+ wararnties as long as 5 years, or even longer. More and more hard drive
+ vendors are giving a 1 year warranty on their "consumer" drives. I
+ suggest avoiding any drive with a 1 year warranty if at all possible.
+ Try to have the manufacturer replace the failed disk if it's still under
+ warranty.
+
+ When you get the new disk, power down the system, and install it,
+ then partition the drive so that it has partitions the size of your
+ missing RAID partitions. Once you have the partitions set up properly,
+ just run mdadm --add /dev/md0
+ /dev/hdc1, where
+ /dev/md0 is the RAID array you're adding the
+ partition to, and /dev/hdc1 is the partition
+ that you're trying to add. Reconstruction should start
+ immediately.
+
+ If you would prefer to use the RAIDtools suite, you can use the
+ command raidhotadd to put the new disk into the array
+ and begin reconstruction. See Chapter
6 of the Software
RAID HOWTO for more information.
-
-
+
- dmesg shows md: serializing
- resync, md4 has overlapping physical units with md5
.
- What does this mean?
+ dmesg shows md: serializing resync,
+ md4 has overlapping physical units
+ with md5
(where md4 and md5 are two
+ of your software RAID devices). What does this mean?
In that message physical units
refers to
disks, and not to blocks on the disks. Since there is more than
- 1 RAID array that needs resyncing on a disk, the RAID code is
- going to sync md4 first, and md5 second, to avoid excessive seeks
- (also called thrashing), which would drastically slow the resync
- process.
+ one RAID array that needs resyncing on one of the disks in use for your
+ RAID arrays, the RAID code is going to sync md4 first, and md5 second, to
+ avoid excessive seeks (also called thrashing), which would drastically
+ slow the resync process.
-
-
+
+
Benchmarking
-
+
How should I benchmark my RAID devices? Are there any
tools that work particularly well?
@@ -447,9 +472,7 @@ unused devices: <none>
been known to give some incredibly off-the-wall numbers as well.
If you want to do real benchmarking, use
one of the tools listed above.
-
-
@@ -461,7 +484,7 @@ unused devices: <none>