[KLUG Members] PANIC!!! Need Raid 5 array install help.

[Bob Kanaley]

Yesterday by clicking on the wrong button I trashed my hardware Raid 5
array, /dev/sdb, while I had my central file server down to fix a
malfunctioning tape drive backup. (I have been having intermittent backup
problems ever since my DDS2 tape drive died and I replaced it with a DDS3.
After I fixed the tape drive, I put a hot spare in the Raid Array and pushed
the wrong button to add the hot spare to the array.)

I am struggling to get the Raid 5 array back up and need help that Adaptec
tech support couldn't help with.

In /etc/fstab, the Raid 5 array is mounted on /dev/sba as a single partition
at /home.

cfdisk and fsck.ext2 indicate that I lost at least the partition table and
superblocks.

I tried recreating the partition table with cfdisk. (In creating the
partition from free space, I assumed since /dev/sdb is not a boot device the
partition table does not have to marked bootable.)

I would like to try an /sbin/mke2fs -S as a last ditch effort to see if the
inodes are still OK.

However, since this is a hardware Raid 5 array, I don't know if I have to
include the -R stride="stripe size" option when I do this, or if this is
only pertinent to software raid. I don't know if having this setting wrong
will affect the functioning of the raid array.

If this doesn't work, I guess I will have to do a complete "mke2fs /dev/sdb,
but once again, I don't know if I MUST include the -R stride="stripe size".

Currently, I am only subscribed to the KLUG digest, and I never know when I
will get those.
I suspect it will be faster if someone could call directly (1-800-622-4342)
so I can get this system back up.

By the time I could resubscribe to get direct KLUG email, I might not have a
job.

My Raid 5 array is backed up nightly to tape, but the tape drive failed
completely on Monday night and I have been unable to down the server until
this past weekend.

Consequently if I can't get to the data on the raid 5 array, I will have to
do a restore from a week old tape that I hope is good.

Bob

Robert V. Kanaley
Manager Information Systems
Agdia, Inc.
rvk@agdia.com
http://www.agdia.com