Software Raid 5

[hateeecs]

I have just come from a total data failure using an sx4000 from promise. Basically the card did not work and I lost everything :(

So now I'm considering software raid 5. When trying to setup the installation for raid 5 however, I am told that the only raid that can house the / partiton is raid 1.

So my question is how do i setup raid 5, and have that mount on /

Thanks,
-Chris

[CrystalCowboy]

I've done RAID5 under Linux, but not on the root disk. I googled a bit, and most write-ups I found specified RAID1. I did find this link (http://news.nocrew.org/display.html?id=113) which seems to cover the topic. It's a couple years old now, and I can't vouch for it. If it works for you, let us know and put something over in the 'HOW-TO' forum.

[james_in_denver]

I am pretty certain that you can raid (in any flavor) any partition with the exception of "/boot" (which you CAN raid as well, except you will be forced to boot off of a CD, so it really doesn't do you any good to raid the "/boot" partition.)

That said, it's not a task for the faint-hearted and will require a fair amount of work and frustration, but if you DO try it, you will have a most excellent understanding of the linux boot process!!!!!

You will have to create a custom kernel from source, with "raid5" and "loopback" enabled, then you will have to create your own initrd, that mounts the raided root filesystem.

I suppose I could write a FAQ/How-to on the subject, I've done this to create bootable, encrypted CD-Roms that contained some highly confidential client accounting data. The same method will also work for encrypted root filesystems and raid'ed root filesystem.

If i get a few private messages requesting this, I suppose I could go back over my old notes and write up a FAQ, private message me if you are interested.....