> On 1/9/19 2:30 AM, Gary Stainburn wrote: >> 1) The big problem with this is that it is dependant on sda for booting. >> I >> did find an aritcle on how to set up boot loading on multiple HDD's, >> including cloning /boot/efi but I now can't find it. Does anyone know >> of a >> similar article? > > > Use RAID1 for /boot/efi as well.? The installer should get the details > right.Are you sure? How is the EFI firmware going to know about the RAID1? RAID1 is going to have type FD00 (Linux RAID) whereas EFI firmware expects type EF00 (EFI System Partition) to boot from. EFI then reads the GPT table directly and looks for a vfat filesystem to boot from. Default Linux software RAID1 on EL7 uses metadata 1.2 which is located at the beginning of the partition. EFI won't recognize the vfat filesystem behind the RAID metadata. Maybe certain EFI firmware is more tolerant but at least in my case I didn't get it to work on RAID1 at all. I'd really be interested if someone got it to work, how exactly it's configured. How exactly do the GPT tables look, how exactly is the RAID1 configured. Regards, Simon
Stephen John Smoogen
2019-Jan-10 17:58 UTC
[CentOS] Help finishing off Centos 7 RAID install
On Thu, 10 Jan 2019 at 11:35, Simon Matter via CentOS <centos at centos.org> wrote:> > On 1/9/19 2:30 AM, Gary Stainburn wrote: > >> 1) The big problem with this is that it is dependant on sda for booting. > >> I > >> did find an aritcle on how to set up boot loading on multiple HDD's, > >> including cloning /boot/efi but I now can't find it. Does anyone know > >> of a > >> similar article? > > > > > > Use RAID1 for /boot/efi as well. The installer should get the details > > right. > > Are you sure? How is the EFI firmware going to know about the RAID1? > > RAID1 is going to have type FD00 (Linux RAID) whereas EFI firmware expects > type EF00 (EFI System Partition) to boot from. > >It works on our Dell and IBM systems. I have multiple systems with multiple disk RAID1 /boot/efi disks. part raid.300 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sda --size=477 part raid.310 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sdb --size=477 part raid.320 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sdc --size=477 part raid.330 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sdd --size=477 part raid.340 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sde --size=477 part raid.350 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sdf --size=477 part raid.360 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sdg --size=477 part raid.370 --fstype="mdmember" --ondisk=sdh --size=477 raid /boot/efi --device=1 --fstype="efi" --level=RAID1 --fsoptions="umask=0077,shortname=winnt" raid.300 raid.310 raid.320 raid.330 raid.340 raid.350 raid.360 raid.370 That said, I don't know what the low level items for it are or if this is universal. From dealing with various EFI chipsets.. I am guessing the standard is rather loose in what is EFI compliant :).> EFI then reads the GPT table directly and looks for a vfat filesystem to > boot from. Default Linux software RAID1 on EL7 uses metadata 1.2 which is > located at the beginning of the partition. EFI won't recognize the vfat > filesystem behind the RAID metadata. > > Maybe certain EFI firmware is more tolerant but at least in my case I > didn't get it to work on RAID1 at all. > > I'd really be interested if someone got it to work, how exactly it's > configured. How exactly do the GPT tables look, how exactly is the RAID1 > configured. > > Regards, > Simon > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >-- Stephen J Smoogen.
On 1/10/19 8:35 AM, Simon Matter via CentOS wrote:> Are you sure?Yes.> How is the EFI firmware going to know about the RAID1?It doesn't specifically.? Anaconda will create two EFI boot entries, each referring to one of the mirror components: # efibootmgr -v BootCurrent: 0001 Timeout: 1 seconds BootOrder: 0001,0000 Boot0000* CentOS Linux HD(1,GPT,534debcc-f3d6-417a-b5d4-10b4ba5c1f7d,0x800,0x5f000)/File(\EFI\CENTOS\SHIM.EFI) Boot0001* CentOS Linux HD(1,GPT,05883d1e-df21-4938-bfa1-ac11ff376572,0x800,0x5f000)/File(\EFI\CENTOS\SHIM.EFI) # blkid -p? -o value -s PART_ENTRY_UUID /dev/sda1 534debcc-f3d6-417a-b5d4-10b4ba5c1f7d # blkid -p? -o value -s PART_ENTRY_UUID /dev/sdb1 05883d1e-df21-4938-bfa1-ac11ff376572> RAID1 is going to have type FD00 (Linux RAID) whereas EFI firmware expects > type EF00 (EFI System Partition) to boot from.I think you're referring to MBR partition types.? I'm not certain, but I don't see those values in a GPT.> EFI then reads the GPT table directly and looks for a vfat filesystem to > boot from. Default Linux software RAID1 on EL7 uses metadata 1.2 which > located at the beginning of the partition. EFI won't recognize the vfat > filesystem behind the RAID metadata.Anaconda knows that it needs to use 1.0 metadata for EFI system partitions, which is what I mean when I said "the installer should get the details right." # df /boot/efi/ Filesystem???? 1K-blocks? Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/md125??????? 194284 11300??? 182984?? 6% /boot/efi # mdadm --detail /dev/md125 /dev/md125: ?????????? Version : 1.0> Maybe certain EFI firmware is more tolerant but at least in my case I > didn't get it to work on RAID1 at all. > > I'd really be interested if someone got it to work, how exactly it's > configured. How exactly do the GPT tables look, how exactly is the RAID1 > configured.It might be more useful to know if this is still a problem for you with the current release.? I'm not sure when support for this was added to Anaconda, but it was fairly recent.? You may have last tried this before that release.
> It doesn't specifically.? Anaconda will create two EFI boot entries, > each referring to one of the mirror components: > > # efibootmgr -v > BootCurrent: 0001 > Timeout: 1 seconds > BootOrder: 0001,0000 > Boot0000* CentOS Linux > HD(1,GPT,534debcc-f3d6-417a-b5d4-10b4ba5c1f7d,0x800,0x5f000)/File(\EFI\CENTOS\SHIM.EFI) > Boot0001* CentOS Linux > HD(1,GPT,05883d1e-df21-4938-bfa1-ac11ff376572,0x800,0x5f000)/File(\EFI\CENTOS\SHIM.EFI) > # blkid -p? -o value -s PART_ENTRY_UUID /dev/sda1 > 534debcc-f3d6-417a-b5d4-10b4ba5c1f7d > # blkid -p? -o value -s PART_ENTRY_UUID /dev/sdb1 > 05883d1e-df21-4938-bfa1-ac11ff376572So far my config looks similar.> >> RAID1 is going to have type FD00 (Linux RAID) whereas EFI firmware >> expects >> type EF00 (EFI System Partition) to boot from. > > > I think you're referring to MBR partition types.? I'm not certain, but I > don't see those values in a GPT.No, it's GPT. What does "gdisk -l /dev/sda" show? That would be interesting to see.> > >> EFI then reads the GPT table directly and looks for a vfat filesystem to >> boot from. Default Linux software RAID1 on EL7 uses metadata 1.2 which >> located at the beginning of the partition. EFI won't recognize the vfat >> filesystem behind the RAID metadata. > > > Anaconda knows that it needs to use 1.0 metadata for EFI system > partitions, which is what I mean when I said "the installer should get > the details right." > > # df /boot/efi/ > Filesystem???? 1K-blocks? Used Available Use% Mounted on > /dev/md125??????? 194284 11300??? 182984?? 6% /boot/efi > # mdadm --detail /dev/md125 > /dev/md125: > ?????????? Version : 1.0OK I see. Do you also have /boot mounted on its own MD device?> >> Maybe certain EFI firmware is more tolerant but at least in my case I >> didn't get it to work on RAID1 at all. >> >> I'd really be interested if someone got it to work, how exactly it's >> configured. How exactly do the GPT tables look, how exactly is the RAID1 >> configured. > > > It might be more useful to know if this is still a problem for you with > the current release.? I'm not sure when support for this was added to > Anaconda, but it was fairly recent.? You may have last tried this before > that release.IIRC the initial install was with 7.5. Thanks, Simon