How to start SW raid later in boot?

How to start SW raid later in boot?

[michael]

Hello,

I have a SW raid md0(raid5) setup with a 10 disks.
/dev/sdb --> /dev/sdk

Some are plugged into motherboard, and some into a pci raid card
using the rr232x raid driver.

/dev/md0 assembes just fine except upon a reboot. I'm "guessing" the raid
driver rr232 is loaded after mdadm tries to assemble md0 and therefore
doesn't fully assemble because the system can't see the pci plugged in 
drives. dmesg seems to have this order.

Is there a way to delay the mdadm assemble until after the driver is loaded?
The / system is on single disk /dev/sda.


Thanks!

Mike

Re: How to start SW raid later in boot?

[KwangErn Liew]

michael wrote:
  > /dev/md0 assembes just fine except upon a reboot. I'm "guessing" the 
raid
> driver rr232 is loaded after mdadm tries to assemble md0 and therefore
> doesn't fully assemble because the system can't see the pci plugged in 
> drives. dmesg seems to have this order.
> 
> Is there a way to delay the mdadm assemble until after the driver is loaded?
> The / system is on single disk /dev/sda.

Do you have initrd enabled?


KwangErn

Re: How to start SW raid later in boot?

[michael]

On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:47:58 +0100, KwangErn Liew wrote

> 
> Do you have initrd enabled?
> 

I believe I do, its a standard install of Debian stable.
For now, I suppose I can do as the last poster suggested and 
run a startup script to assemble the array, and mount it.

I will look more into the driver as its a 3rd party loaded module.
Perhaps it can be setup to load earlier in the boot.

Thanks,
Mike 

Re: How to start SW raid later in boot?

[Bill Davidsen]

michael wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:47:58 +0100, KwangErn Liew wrote
>
>   
>> Do you have initrd enabled?
>>
>>     
>
> I believe I do, its a standard install of Debian stable.
> For now, I suppose I can do as the last poster suggested and 
> run a startup script to assemble the array, and mount it.
>
> I will look more into the driver as its a 3rd party loaded module.
> Perhaps it can be setup to load earlier in the boot.
>   

If you put the module into the initrd (see man mkinitrd) you can get it 
loaded early. You may be able to prevent early start by changing the 
partition types (unlikely) or keeping the md device out of fstab and 
starting and mounting it from rc.local. I would go initrd.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  "Woe unto the statesman who makes war without a reason that will still
  be valid when the war is over..." Otto von Bismark