I believe I set up the RAID array. Can someone help confirm?

[Mega2]

As a bit of background I recently got an IBM/Lenovo x3850 x5 server that came with BIOS already configured and a ServerRAID M5015 controller.

 

The server came with no hard drives, so I bought a 2 TB hard drive (SATA SSD).

 

To summarize, I need to access the raid menu during the boot up process to switch from raid to ahci, as I want to run Linux natively and it only supports ahci. No hypervisor has been/will be installed.

 

In order to set this up, I first have to configure the raid array. For that, I used the video embedded below.

 

After following all of the steps in his video, I got the logical view attached. The one thing that concerns me slightly is the fact that it says "Total free capacity" 82.875 MB." If I want to install a Linux distro, does that mean it's only going to give me 82 MB of space?

 

I guess the only thing out of the ordinary in my set up process was that, at 19:07 in the embedded video, the "select size" cell was empty (the units were, however, set to terabytes automatically). I was able to type in "1.818" and it accepted that. However, everything else in my set up process was the same as his.

 

As a second question, is there anything I have to do after this in order for the drive to show up when setting up my OS? Thank you.

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

19 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

To summarize, I need to access the raid menu during the boot up process to switch from raid to ahci, as I want to run Linux natively and it only supports ahci. No hypervisor has been/will be installed.

linux supports raid cards just fine. Installed linux on a raid card today

 

20 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Free capacity is hte amount of space you haven't used, so thats fine.

 

That virtual disk is 2tb, and what you will install you os on.

 

 

[leadeater]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

linux supports raid cards just fine. Installed linux on a raid card today

@Mega2When you create the array and virtual drive you also need to mark it as bootable then you'll be able to install an OS on it, any OS. If you don't do that then you can't.

[Mega2]

9 minutes ago, leadeater said:

@Mega2When you create the array and virtual drive you also need to mark it as bootable then you'll be able to install an OS on it, any OS. If you don't do that then you can't.

Thank you, how would I go about doing that?

[Mega2]

16 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

linux supports raid cards just fine. Installed linux on a raid card today

 

Free capacity is hte amount of space you haven't used, so thats fine.

 

That virtual disk is 2tb, and what you will install you os on.

 

 

Interesting, I've  heard some people complaining about how Linux (specifically CentOS 7/8) doesn't work in raid mode, just ahci mode. Granted, the raid card is fine, it just needs to be set to ahci mode. Were you able to successfully install a CentOS/RHEL-based distro in raid mode?

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Interesting, I've  heard some people complaining about how Linux (specifically CentOS 7/8) doesn't work in raid mode, just ahci mode. Granted, the raid card is fine, it just needs to be set to ahci mode. Were you able to successfully install a CentOS/RHEL-based distro in raid mode?

Just just installed fedora(basically beta centos) on a lsi raid card.

 

You don't need ahci, that post was about a complety different system with a different raid system, as it was using the intel onboard raid, which should be disabled in linux.

 

Make sure the drive is set to the boot drive in the lsi megaraid utility(i think its under virtual disk settings). Then go and install centos to the virtual disk.

[leadeater]

9 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Thank you, how would I go about doing that?

You click on the virtual drive in the RAID WebUI and there is an option for it. The RAID card you have btw does not have a AHCI mode. What a RAID card like that has is two different firmware you can load on to it known as IR mode or IT mode. IT mode is basically HBA function and turns it in to a mode that acts like drive ports on a regular motherboard.

 

You don't need to change the firmware and I wouldn't. Just put both SSDs in the server, delete any existing virtual drives and drive groups, create a new one using the wizard selecting RAID 1 when asked. Then once it's created click on the now new virtual drive and enable it to be bootable. Once you've done this you'll be able to install Linux on it.

 

A RAID array/virtual drive marked as bootable is indistinguishable to Linux as a RAID array or just a single disk, there is nothing special required of the OS to support it.

[Mega2]

6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

You click on the virtual drive in the RAID WebUI and there is an option for it. The RAID card you have btw does not have a AHCI mode. What a RAID card like that has is two different firmware you can load on to it known as IR mode or IT mode. IT mode is basically HBA function and turns it in to a mode that acts like drive ports on a regular motherboard.

 

You don't need to change the firmware and I wouldn't. Just put both SSDs in the server, delete any existing virtual drives and drive groups, create a new one using the wizard selecting RAID 1 when asked. Then once it's created click on the now new virtual drive and enable it to be bootable. Once you've done this you'll be able to install Linux on it.

 

A RAID array/virtual drive marked as bootable is indistinguishable to Linux as a RAID array or just a single disk, there is nothing special required of the OS to support it.

Thank you for the advice. I only have the option to select "raid0", will that be okay?

[Mega2]

12 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Just just installed fedora(basically beta centos) on a lsi raid card.

 

You don't need ahci, that post was about a complety different system with a different raid system, as it was using the intel onboard raid, which should be disabled in linux.

 

Make sure the drive is set to the boot drive in the lsi megaraid utility(i think its under virtual disk settings). Then go and install centos to the virtual disk.

Sounds good. I selected the "Virtual Drive" option and received the attached pop up. Should I select "Set boot drive" and hit go?

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Sounds good. I selected the "Virtual Drive" option and received the attached pop up. Should I select "Set boot drive" and hit go?

Just hit set boot drive, and the reboot the server, boot from the usb, and you can install centos.

[Mega2]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Just hit set boot drive, and the reboot the server, boot from the usb, and you can install centos.

Do I need to hit "go"? If not, what does the "go" button do?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Do I need to hit "go"? If not, what does the "go" button do?

Yea select the box, hit go, it will update the boot drive, then exit that menu.

[Mega2]

19 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea select the box, hit go, it will update the boot drive, then exit that menu.

Awesome, looks like it identified the hard drive in CentOS.

 

I'm using the embedded video below to configure CentOS. At 1:30 the narrator creates a partition manually and selects a desired capacity of 500 MB.

 

In my situation, would I pick the full 1.8 TB as my desired capacity and create a mount point to /boot like he did? I ask this only because the narrator's 500 MB seems quite small, which may just be for the sake of the video.

 

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Mega2 said:

 

In my situation, would I pick the full 1.8 TB as my desired capacity and create a mount point to /boot like he did? I ask this only because the narrator's 500 MB seems quite small, which may just be for the sake of the video.

 

500mB seems about right for /boot. It just contains boot files, so no need to make it bigger

 

1 minute ago, Mega2 said:

Awesome, looks like it identified the hard drive in CentOS.

 

I'm using the embedded video below to configure CentOS. At 1:30 the narrator creates a partition manually and selects a desired capacity of 500 MB.

If you haven't done manual partitioning in linux before, just select the auto partition, and its will set it up for you.

[Mega2]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

500mB seems about right for /boot. It just contains boot files, so no need to make it bigger

 

If you haven't done manual partitioning in linux before, just select the auto partition, and its will set it up for you.

Thanks, is that milli bytes or mega bytes?

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Thanks, is that milli bytes or mega bytes?

Just let the auto partioner do its work.

 

Mega bytes. Milibytes isn't really a thing.

[Mega2]

31 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Just let the auto partioner do its work.

 

Mega bytes. Milibytes isn't really a thing.

Thanks so much for all the help.

 

I ended up booting from a USB plugged into the front panel. Once I shut down the server, can I move the bootable USB to another port or do I have to leave it in the port I first inserted it into?

 

I assume I'd be able to move it, however I don't want to be wrong and mess up the set up.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Thanks so much for all the help.

 

I ended up booting from a USB plugged into the front panel. Once I shut down the server, can I move the bootable USB to another port or do I have to leave it in the port I first inserted it into?

 

I assume I'd be able to move it, however I don't want to be wrong and mess up the set up.

You can take the usb out, its only needed for the install.

[Mega2]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can take the usb out, its only needed for the install.

Thanks. When I rebooted the device and it turned back on it sent me to the IBM start up screen. Which options should I select to get into the installed version of CentOS 7?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Mega2 said:

Thanks. When I rebooted the device and it turned back on it sent me to the IBM start up screen. Which options should I select to get into the installed version of CentOS 7?

check the boot order to have it boot to the raid card.

[Mega2]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can take the usb out, its only needed for the install.

Nevermind, I was able to resolve that issue. Thanks for all of your help and have a wonderful weekend!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Mega2 said:

Nevermind, I was able to resolve that issue. Thanks for all of your help and have a wonderful weekend!

Did it boot? Glad its working.

[Mega2]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Did it boot? Glad its working.

Works like a charm! I'll likely be buying a graphics card for it, as the built in graphics are pretty laggy and things like COMSOL will require better graphics.

 

By the way, if I later decided that I wanted to install Win10 and have it run when CentOS is shutdown, would there be a way for me to do that without using a hypervisor or having to delete the current version of CentOS I installed? I'd likely buy another hard drive for it, as SAS is pretty cheap.

[Electronics Wizardy]

33 minutes ago, Mega2 said:

Works like a charm! I'll likely be buying a graphics card for it, as the built in graphics are pretty laggy and things like COMSOL will require better graphics.

 

By the way, if I later decided that I wanted to install Win10 and have it run when CentOS is shutdown, would there be a way for me to do that without using a hypervisor or having to delete the current version of CentOS I installed? I'd likely buy another hard drive for it, as SAS is pretty cheap.

Id probably just use soemthing like x forwarding or just ssh in an do the work there. There often just not made for adding graphics cards.

 

Why not put a hypervisor on it? Makes it much easier to do most server things, and very little performance hit.

[Mega2]

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id probably just use soemthing like x forwarding or just ssh in an do the work there. There often just not made for adding graphics cards.

 

Why not put a hypervisor on it? Makes it much easier to do most server things, and very little performance hit.

Unfortunately SolidWorks, the program I wanted to run in Wi10, doesn't work with any hypervisor that might work on my server. ProxMox is the only real solution but I've heard that it's extremely messy for IBM servers, which aren't very friendly as is.

 

Regardless, I still have a new laptop which can run SolidWorks no problem, having the server run it may have just been me being a bit greedy lol. CentOS 7 should cover just about everything else however.

 

Thank you again for all the help!