[KLUG Members] Can I Boot SLES 9 from a RAID 1 array?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> Can I boot SLES 9 off a RAID 1 array (with hot spare) or do I need to stick
> the OS on a separate hard drive to boot off of?

It should work.

> I am asking because I know that once upon a time booting off of RAID was a
> big deal for Linux.
> I am trying to replace a Samba file server for fifty users and I found a
> deal on an IBM xSeries 346 server that seems too good to be true. We all
> know what that means. I am looking for any gotchas before I plunk down my
> $2671 for an IBM xSeries 346 server, Intel Xeon, 2.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 1 MB
> L2 cache, 2GB, 400 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM, Integrated Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI,
> ServeRAID-7k Ultra320 SCSI controller, ATI RADEON 7000M, Gigabit Ethernet.

Nice.  Our groupware server runs on an IBM 34x of similiar specs; SuSe
Pro 9.3.

> Please tell me I can install SLES and boot off the RAID 1 array, please,
> please, please.

If the controller is supported (and the ServeRAID should be) then it
isn't a problem.  The OS doesn't really even know about the array.  Even
if you have to create the RAID array with MD you just create a 256Mb
boot partition on the first disk and still install everything into the
MD array.
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