Getting CentOS on RAID after using text mode installation...

Well, this was a hack. I got a firewall to install with only 512MB RAM which isn't enough for graphical install. And, using text install means that cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365re are no customizations available, in particular, no customized disk partitioning. But since I don't install anything important without RAID I had to somehow do it. The options are:

1. Temporarily add more RAM only during installation process.
2. Use kickstart file.
3. Juggle with partitions.

Option 1 wasn't acceptable since I didn't have any extra RAM modules available, and option 2 seamed too complicated as I don't have USB flash drive to store kickstart file on it and network install is a bit too much on home network. So, I decided to go with option 3. Note that cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365re was one more thing that was in favor for option 3, namely one disk has capacity of 80GB while cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 ocá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365r 250GB, which means cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365re is extra space I can use as a temporary storage. Still, even if I didn't have it, option 3 is still viable with a bit more juggling.

So, cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 general idea is as follow:

1. Install CentOS on a temporary partition.
2. Create RAID array and move CentOS cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365re.
3. Fix boot.

Those three steps are not in strict sequence and so clearly separated, as we'll see, but are logically grouped. Also, just to clarify, a helper partition is a disk space after 80th GB on a second (larger) disk!

Install CentOS on a helper partition

This is a first step and it's easy. Boot from DVD and start installation process. Except from one small detail. Namely, how to persuade installer to use helper partition when it does almost everything automatically? Well, that's actually easy to solve. After Anaconda starts, but before doing anything, switch to second virtual terminal (Alt+F2) and use fdisk to create partitions for RAID. In my case those were:

1. /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 of size 256MB for /boot partition
2. /dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2 of size 2G for swap
3. /dev/sda3 and /dev/sdb3 that take cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 rest of space to fill 80GB and that will be root (/) partition.

This will take first 80GB on both disks, and leave empty space on a second disk. Now, go back to installer and continue installation. When cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 installer asks you where to install Linux, select "Emtpy space". Note that later I was thinking that it was better if I created anocá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365r partition so that free space is smaller. This speeds up cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 process of installation as creating file systems is faster! Anyway, for a suggestion on minimal CentOS installation you can look what I wrote in this post.

Create RAID arrays and move CentOS cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365re

After cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 installer finishes, don't boot into a new system. Boot again from DVD and select rescue mode. Also, allow installer to search for existing installations and select to mount cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365m in read-write mode! Finally, select shell from a menu that appears.

Now, create RAID arrays. If you used partitions as I did, cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365n cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following sequence of commands will do cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 work.

mdadm -C /dev/md0 --metadata=0.90 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1

This creates first RAID1 array for boot partition. Note that I'm using metadata version 0.90. This is because grub doesn't understand later formats! That "little" fact costed me a lot of time!

mdadm -C /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2
mdadm -C /dev/md2 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3

Those two commands create RAID1 arrays for swap and root. Maybe at this point you'll need to activate arrays (i.e. it isn't done automatically by above mdadm commands):

mdadm --activate --scan

Now, create file systems on those arrays:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
mkfs.ext4 /dev/md2
mkswap /dev/md1

RAID arrays are now created. The next step is to move installed CentOS from temporary partition. First, you have to mount destination filesystems:

mkdir /mnt/s

mount /dev/md2 /mnt/s

mkdir /mnt/s/boot

mount /dev/md0 /mnt/s/boot

After cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365y are mounted, copy all cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 files:

cd /mnt/sysimage

rsync -av bin boot etc home lib lib64 opt root sbin tmp usr var /mnt/s/

Note that I skipped some in-memory file systems like proc, dev, and similar ones. You should only create those directories without content as cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365ir content is recreated during each boot and held in memory:

cd /mnt/s
mkdir dev media mnt proc selinux srv sys

That's it for filesystems. We need now to adjust /etc/fstab and /etc/grub.conf files as cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365y reference temporary partition/filesystem used by installer. So, change /etc/fstab to contain cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following lines/filesystems:

/dev/md2    /       ext4    defaults   1  1
/dev/md0    /boot   ext4    defaults   1  2
/dev/md1    swap    swap    defaults   0  0

There will be also lines starting with tmpfs, devpts, sysfs and proc. Leave those as is and remove all cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 ocá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365r lines. As for cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 /etc/grub.conf file, you need to modify any occurrences of (hdN,M). Those will be in two places. One in splashimage line, that one isn't so important. And cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 ocá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365r in line starting with root keyword. That one IS important! Also, remove from cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 line that starts with keyword kernel any word that contains substring LV (logical volume!). After a change, this line should look something like this:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/md2 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 crashkernel=auto KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us

Note that this is a single line! The important part is root=, ocá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365rs might differ if you selected some ocá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365r language or keyboard layout during installation process. Also, I removed keywords rhgb and quiet. Those prevent me to see kernel messages during cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 boot process. And those messages could be very important, especially in this case when we are doing something that could impact early boot process itself!

Finally, remove temporary partition. Do that using fdisk, just delete that partition. Note that this will take effect on next reboot, so nothing will happen and cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 computer won't crash. :)

And, that's it for moving CentOS to RAID partition.

Fixing boot loader

This is cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 last step. Boot from DVD and select rescue mode. Again allow installer to scan disk for Linux partitions. But this time installer should find RAID partitions and CentOS on cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365m. Mount cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365m in read-write mode and enter shell again. Execute cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following command:

chroot /mnt/sysimage

This will activate targeted CentOS on RAID.

First, we have to recreate /etc/mdadm.conf. Note that if you don't do that cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 system won't boot. This troubled me until I figured out that that file contained stale data filled by Anaconda and I didn't refresh its content. So, to refresh it, do cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following:

mdadm --examine --scan > /etc/mdadm.conf

Open /etc/mdadm.conf in cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 editor and add cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following line at cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 beginning:

DEVICES /dev/sd*[0-9] /dev/hd*[0-9]

Also be careful, I typed etc instead of dev and it costed me two additional reboots. :)

Now, recreate initramfs image. Do that with cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following command:

mkinitrd -f -v /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64.img 2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64

Be careful, -f forces mkinitrd to overwrite existing initramfs file, so maybe it would be good to make a copy of that file, just in case.

One final step and that's it, reinstall cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 boot loader! Do this with cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 following commands:

grub-install /dev/sda

grub-install /dev/sdb

If cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 two commands return error (some problem with stage1 or stage2 files) cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365n do it "manually" like this:

# grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> root (hd1,0)
grub> setup (hd1)
grub> exit

Note that you type text in bold, while everything else is response from cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 system. And that's it! Reboot cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 system, this time from cá cược thể thao bet365_cách nạp tiền vào bet365_ đăng ký bet365 hard disk, and you should have minimal CentOS installation on RAID partitions!