[RESOLVED] Newbie to CentOS having several issues

General support questions
drakeonfire
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Joined: 2012/04/12 19:37:53

[RESOLVED] Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by drakeonfire » 2012/04/12 19:52:58

Hello,

I've not tried linux before, and a friend recommended using CentOS on the HP ProLiant MicroServer I just bought to play around with.

I managed (after a while I admit) to create a USB that was bootable with the installation files on, and installed it to that USB, also selecting a 250GB HDD as a system drive when going through the installation process.

I have 2 other HDDs in the server, both of them 2TB.

The issues I am facing at the moment mainly revolve around these ... I want to create a RAID1 with them both, however when I did this in the hardware (BIOS etc) it did not appear to work (Well it may have done, but it wasn't showing in the OS).

So I undid that, and in the "Disk Utility" in CentOS, I tried to create a raid 1 array, however it says there are insufficient number of disks for this type of array. I tried to format my two 2TB drives and it says they can not be formatted as they are 'busy'.

I've been searching the web for hours and am not able to find a solution to this issue, from what I can tell it knows they are there, but I can't access them etc through 'Computer' (where you'd normally find different drives on a Windows OS).

The Disk utility shows this kind of format:

Local Storage:
SATA Host Adapter
250 GB HDD
2 TB HDD
2 TB HDD
PATA Host Adapter
Peripheral Devices
54 GB HDD
10 GB HDD
2 TB HDD
185 GB HDD
Corsair Voyager (The USB the OS runs off)

When trying to create a raid array from the disk utility, only the 2TB HDD in the 'Peripheral Devices' is selectable ... and there's only one there even though there is two physical drives in the machine.

I'm not really sure what reports or info you need ... hopefully I've managed to explain my current situation and why I need help (getting it so the RAID works / drives are recognised).

My aim for this system is to attach it to the network so my family can use it to backup and store files in their own areas on the drives (which can not be accessed by anyone other than themselves and the superadmin), and also a web server area where I can test websites etc (I currently use XAMPP on my PC, but when I'm not at home, I can't access my machine unless it's turned on, so having this central device will be more ideal).

Thank you and sorry for being so newb!

pschaff
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[RESOLVED] Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by pschaff » 2012/04/12 22:52:39

Welcome to the CentOS fora. Please see the recommended reading for new users linked in my signature. No need to apologize. Everyone is a newbie sometimes, and in some situations.

Motherboard so-called RAID controllers are universally FakeRAID/HostRAID. You need to turn off RAID in the BIOS, usually be choosing AHCI mode. See the Wiki RAID articles for more:

[url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/SoftwareRAIDonCentOS5]Setup a Software RAID on CentOS 5[/url]
[url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/CentOS5ConvertToRAID]Convert a CentOS System to RAID 1[/url]
[url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Install_On_Partitionable_RAID1]Install on Partitionable RAID1[/url]

Please [url=http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=28723&forum=54]provide more information about your system[/url] by running "./getinfo.sh" and showing us the output file.

drakeonfire
Posts: 12
Joined: 2012/04/12 19:37:53

Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by drakeonfire » 2012/04/13 17:01:00

Hello,

Okay thank you for the info.

I haven't tried the RAID links you've sent yet, I've been trying to get the getinfo.sh to work ... (I must be completely stupid as I have no idea why it is not working). I copied the text from the link on the guide, saved it as getinfo.sh, placed it on my desktop and several other places when it wasn't working there. (It was made so it can run as a program), and I run it in terminal, all I get everytime is:



[code]No option provided.
Default to all information.
WARNING!!! Not running as root. No fdisk, parted, or LVM information will be provided!
Collecting system information for all questions.[/code]

And then the window just closes ... looking at the inside of the file, it should be saying where it saved the temp file? ( I have looked but can't find any newly created files) ...

Sorry, but I have no clue why this isn't working for me.

Thanks.

pschaff
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Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by pschaff » 2012/04/13 17:06:40

If the window is closing when the script completes you are not running from a shell login in a terminal, and thus you are missing the message showing the location of the output file. If you look in /tmp you will find a file (or more likely if you have tried repeatedly, files) named /tmp/basedata.. Start a terminal and try [code]ls /tmp/basedata.*[/code]

drakeonfire
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Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by drakeonfire » 2012/04/13 17:16:57

Hi Phil,

thanks for the quck reply.

Here's the info on pastebin: http://pastebin.centos.org/38667

(The file was in the tmp folder, Doh!)

Thanks.

pschaff
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Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by pschaff » 2012/04/13 17:28:22

What's there seems pretty normal. To get the full disk information you need to [url=http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/BecomingRoot]become root[/url] properly before running the script.

drakeonfire
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Joined: 2012/04/12 19:37:53

Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by drakeonfire » 2012/04/13 17:33:14

Ok - I'll post back with the new file once I've got it, at the moment, from reading the RAID pages you sent me, it sounds like I should of done it when installing my system?

Would it be a wiser choice to just start over and follow the RAID guide to do it instead? The only thing being I'm not sure how to wipe my HDDs of the current system.

Thanks again for the quick response, will post the file soon (Just figuring out how to make it root and run the file).

drakeonfire
Posts: 12
Joined: 2012/04/12 19:37:53

Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by drakeonfire » 2012/04/13 17:40:00

And as promised, the file is here: http://pastebin.centos.org/38668

Running it as root wasn't so hard after all!

-- Edit --

It may show a few errors when regarding anything involving the network (e.g. name servers etc) as I'm currently switching my internet between my main PC and the server that the issue is on. Just incase you were wandering :-).

pschaff
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Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by pschaff » 2012/04/13 17:53:27

[quote]
drakeonfire wrote:
...
Would it be a wiser choice to just start over and follow the RAID guide to do it instead?[/quote]
That is probably easier than trying to create the RAID setup now, but it really depends on how you want to use the storage. If you want the OS on RAID then certainly it would be easier to do a fresh install. If you just want to add the RAID for additional data storage then there is less to be gained by re-installing, but it may still be the easiest way to go.

[quote]
The only thing being I'm not sure how to wipe my HDDs of the current system.
[/quote]
The default is to remove all Linux partitions so that should not be a problem.

Looks like your networking needs some attention also.

drakeonfire
Posts: 12
Joined: 2012/04/12 19:37:53

Re: Newbie to CentOS having several issues

Post by drakeonfire » 2012/04/13 17:57:27

Okay thank you.

I think I'll just try with a clean install, I haven't done anything on the system yet (other than update it), so it's not setting me back much further than what I am now.

The setup I was intending was:

USB (16GB) + HDD 250GB to use for the OS etc
2 x 2TB HDDs (RAID1) - Used for Data Storage (So people can back up to them etc) - the idea here being if the OS does go down, the data is still intact etc.

Thank you for all your help. (Though on another note ... how do I change the forum topic title to include SOLVED / RESOLVED?)

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