Chapter 5. Software RAID Configuration

Read Chapter 4 first to learn about RAID, the differences between Hardware and Software RAID, and the differences between RAID 0, 1, and 5.

Software RAID can be configured during the graphical installation of Red Hat Linux or during a kickstart installation. You can use fdisk or Disk Druid to create your RAID configuration, but these instructions will focus mainly on using Disk Druid to complete this task.

Before you can create a RAID device, you must first create RAID partitions, using the following step-by-step instructions.

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If you are using fdisk to create a RAID partition, remember that instead of creating a partition as type 83, which is Linux native, you must create the partition as type fd (Linux RAID). Also, for best performance, partitions within a given RAID array should span identical cylinders on drives.

Continue these steps to create as many partitions as needed for your RAID setup. Notice that all the partitions do not have to be RAID partitions. For example, you can configure only the /home partition as a software RAID device.

Once you have all of your partitions created as software RAID partitions, select the Make RAID button on the Disk Druid main partitioning screen (see Figure 5-3).

Next, Figure 5-2 will appear, where you can make a RAID device.

Figure 5-2. Making a RAID Device

Figure 5-3. Creating a RAID Array