I just built up a server running CentOS 4.3, and trying to boot from a 3Ware 9550SX-16ML, 16 port card. This system has 9x500GB drives, AMD Opteron, Tyan K8SD mobo and 1 GB of ram. I downloaded the latest (9.3.0.4) driver from 3Ware, and after a couple of botched attempts, I got CentOS installed. In my two botched attempts, the problem was X hanging during the formatting of the drives, so I switched to another virtual screen while formatting took place, and the system didn't freeze. My problem now is the system won't boot. I know this is not exactly a CentOS problem, I'm just hoping some kind sole would help me outta this overworked fog I'm in. When the system tries to boot, the cursor just sits there in the left corner of the screen flashing. Nothing happens. I am probably missing something very simple, that will cause me great public embarrassment, but I really don't care right now. Yes, I set the bios to boot from the 3Ware card, and CentOS install did show grub stage(1) and stage(2) getting installed. After that, I'm not exactly sure where to look. I googled, and went through the 3Ware KB, but not much luck there... Thanks! Mark Schoonover IS Manager American Geotechnical V: 858-450-4040 - F: 714-685-3909 - C: 858-472-3816
Mark Schoonover wrote:> I just built up a server running CentOS 4.3, and trying to boot from a 3Ware > 9550SX-16ML, 16 port card. This system has 9x500GB drives, AMD Opteron, Tyan > K8SD mobo and 1 GB of ram. I downloaded the latest (9.3.0.4) driver from > 3Ware, and after a couple of botched attempts, I got CentOS installed. In my > two botched attempts, the problem was X hanging during the formatting of the > drives, so I switched to another virtual screen while formatting took place, > and the system didn't freeze. > > My problem now is the system won't boot. I know this is not exactly a CentOS > problem, I'm just hoping some kind sole would help me outta this overworked > fog I'm in. When the system tries to boot, the cursor just sits there in the > left corner of the screen flashing. Nothing happens. I am probably missing > something very simple, that will cause me great public embarrassment, but I > really don't care right now. > > Yes, I set the bios to boot from the 3Ware card, and CentOS install did show > grub stage(1) and stage(2) getting installed. After that, I'm not exactly > sure where to look. I googled, and went through the 3Ware KB, but not much > luck there... >Do you have the array set up as one big 4.5gig partition? Not sure if this will help, but have you tried putting /boot on a separate small (100-200mb) partition? Also, just out of curiosity, what case are you using and did it come with drive cages that were already ML friendly? Cheers,
On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 at 10:16am, Mark Schoonover wrote> I just built up a server running CentOS 4.3, and trying to boot from a 3Ware > 9550SX-16ML, 16 port card. This system has 9x500GB drives, AMD Opteron, Tyan > K8SD mobo and 1 GB of ram. I downloaded the latest (9.3.0.4) driver from > 3Ware, and after a couple of botched attempts, I got CentOS installed. In my > two botched attempts, the problem was X hanging during the formatting of the > drives, so I switched to another virtual screen while formatting took place, > and the system didn't freeze. > > My problem now is the system won't boot. I know this is not exactly a CentOS > problem, I'm just hoping some kind sole would help me outta this overworked > fog I'm in. When the system tries to boot, the cursor just sits there in the > left corner of the screen flashing. Nothing happens. I am probably missing > something very simple, that will cause me great public embarrassment, but I > really don't care right now.How is your array setup? You can *not* boot from a device >4TiB. On such a device, you must use a gpt disklabel and neither grub nor LILO support such. -- Joshua Baker-LePain Department of Biomedical Engineering Duke University
Mark Schoonover wrote:> I just built up a server running CentOS 4.3, and trying to boot from a 3Ware > 9550SX-16ML, 16 port card. This system has 9x500GB drives, AMD Opteron, Tyan > K8SD mobo and 1 GB of ram. I downloaded the latest (9.3.0.4) driver from > 3Ware, and after a couple of botched attempts, I got CentOS installed. In my > two botched attempts, the problem was X hanging during the formatting of the > drives, so I switched to another virtual screen while formatting took place, > and the system didn't freeze. > > My problem now is the system won't boot. I know this is not exactly a CentOS > problem, I'm just hoping some kind sole would help me outta this overworked > fog I'm in. When the system tries to boot, the cursor just sits there in the > left corner of the screen flashing. Nothing happens. I am probably missing > something very simple, that will cause me great public embarrassment, but I > really don't care right now. > > Yes, I set the bios to boot from the 3Ware card, and CentOS install did show > grub stage(1) and stage(2) getting installed. After that, I'm not exactly > sure where to look. I googled, and went through the 3Ware KB, but not much > luck there... >Mark, You may have to rebuild the initrd file to include the 3Ware drivers. Probably easier said than done since it looks like a Catch-22 unless you can boot from some other media and mount the array. Bob...
Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:> On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 at 10:16am, Mark Schoonover wrote > >> I just built up a server running CentOS 4.3, and trying to boot from >> a 3Ware 9550SX-16ML, 16 port card. This system has 9x500GB drives, >> AMD Opteron, Tyan K8SD mobo and 1 GB of ram. I downloaded the latest >> (9.3.0.4) driver from 3Ware, and after a couple of botched attempts, >> I got CentOS installed. In my two botched attempts, the problem was >> X hanging during the formatting of the drives, so I switched to >> another virtual screen while formatting took place, and the system >> didn't freeze. >> >> My problem now is the system won't boot. I know this is not exactly >> a CentOS problem, I'm just hoping some kind sole would help me outta >> this overworked fog I'm in. When the system tries to boot, the >> cursor just sits there in the left corner of the screen flashing. >> Nothing happens. I am probably missing something very simple, that >> will cause me great public embarrassment, but I really don't care >> right now. > > How is your array setup? You can *not* boot from a device >4TiB. On > such a device, you must use a gpt disklabel and neither grub nor LILO > support such.My array size is 4.5TB. It's just one large single RAID5, so it's slightly less than 4.5TB. So, what you're saying then is to either put a small single HD to install CentOS, or make the array smaller than 4.5TB. I could easily make something much smaller, say ~1TB, install CentOS on that. Once that's finished, create the rest of the array as another array at the size that I need. Could use LVM to stitch it all together... I'll give this a try, thanks for the help. Mark
Simon Banton wrote:>> not if you used the DD at install time, the system will be ready to >> go from post-install-reboot fine. > > ... but don't then do what I did, and run yum update (upgrading the > kernel in the process) immediately after the post-install-reboot. Doh! > > S.Well, you can but then you'll need to mkinitrd to have the updated driver available during booting... HTH Mark
Yes, I did try to boot off a 4.5TB device. Now, the individual partitions are: / 1GB /dev/sda2 ext3 /boot 250MB /dev/sda1 ext2 (Marked as primary partition.) swap 1024 /dev/sda3 ext3 /data 4.449TB /dev/sda4 ext3 All 9 drives are RAID5 together via the 3Ware card. Tomorrow, I'll don my earplugs and create a small 1TB RAID device to install CentOS, then RAID5 the remaining 7 drives for all the data. I'l recreate the partitions above in the 1TB array, then use LVM to add the remaining 3.5TB into the LVs I need. I could also read up on array carving, that's new to me. Thanks for all the help on this, I really thought I was doing something silly with the BIOS or some other setting. Didn't realize I would be running into limits of the OS. Now, if anyone knows how to tune this thing for best write performance, that would be really cool. This server is part of a tapeless backup system using rsync. There's a good howto in the Linux Hacks book. We started from that, and it's just grown into a fully automated system that does hourly, daily and weekly backups. Plus, it sends it offsite to a colo location.... In case people were wondering why so much disk space... Mark