Can grub be installed on a md array?

John Hubbard ender8282 at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 15 18:48:01 UTC 2008


Mark Haney wrote:
> John Hubbard wrote:
>   
>> I am trying to set up my system (8.04 server) with software raid.  I got 
>> most of the way through the install and then it failed to install grub.  
>> I tried installing lilo and that failed as well.  I feel like the 
>> problem is that my /boot partition is part of a 4 disk raid 5 array.  Is 
>> it possible to install your boot loader onto a raid array?  When setting 
>> up a partition on a raid array, there is no option to make the partition 
>> bootable.  I guess this makes sense but the question is how do I get 
>> around this?  Does the logical partition on each of the disks that makes 
>> up the /boot raid need to be made bootable?  Does just one of those 
>> partitions need to be made bootable? 
>>
>>     
>
>
> It /can/ be done, but it is NOT recommended.  If a drive fails, it might 
> make the system unbootable.
>
> My personal recommendation for this is to have a boot drive mirrored, 
> then RAID the data drives.  It is NEVER a good idea to make the boot 
> drive part of the RAID array.
>
>
>
>   
Thanks for the advice Mark and Rashkae. I guess now I actually have a 
valid reason for having a separate partition for /boot. Would you 
recommend setting the bootable flag for /boot partition on each drive or 
just one of them?

-- 
-john

To be or not to be, that is the question
                2b || !2b
(0b10)*(0b1100010) || !(0b10)*(0b1100010)
        0b11000100 || !0b11000100
        0b11000100 || 0b00111011
               0b11111111
        255, that is the answer.






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