Building Out XenServer 6.5 with USB Boot and Software RAID 10

[DustinB3403]

Romo can you confirm if SDA is the USB drive?

we need to confirm that it's not attempting to be added to the Array with

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sd[a-d]

[Romo]

Yes in my setup sda simulates to be the usb, thats why the array starts with sdb

[DustinB3403]

OK so scott change the script to start at sd[b-e]

[Romo]

I believe it should be in this order:

modprobe raid10
chmod a+x /etc/sysconfig/modules/raid.modules
mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sd[a-d]
cat /proc/mdstat

[DustinB3403]

@Romo

You mean

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sd[b-e]

Need to be very certain we aren't attempting to overwrite the OS USB

[Romo]

We should also add that he needs to finish the array building before trying to add the filesystem

watch cat /proc/mdstat to see it build in real time

And also @scottalanmiller i only get mkfs.cramfs mkfs.ext2 and mkfs.ext3 as available fs by default

[Romo]

@DustinB3403 said:

@Romo

You mean

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sd[b-e]

Need to be very certain we aren't attempting to overwrite the OS USB

Yes, sorry I just copied the OP to show the order. The array needs to start with sdb, sda is the usb

[Romo]

Thats the screenshot of the array detail as you can see the array goes from sd[b-e]

[DustinB3403]

OK Well I've directed him to this topic here, and given him the information he'll need to build the array, following the updated OP.

Lets see how it goes.

[Romo]

Don't believe it was quite ready for him yet. At least not from only looking at the OP of this thread. @scottalanmiller hasn't yet changed several things from there

[DustinB3403]

Is mkfs.xfs not included in XenServer 6.5?

with mkfs -help I get mkfs.ext2

[Romo]

No it is not there by default best option would be mkfs.ext3

[Romo]

options found by default

[scottalanmiller]

Well that sucks. Ext3? Ugh.

[DustinB3403]

Yeah I'm thinking he adjusted the command to be

mkfs.ext3 /dev/md0

And hit enter, just waiting for confirmation.

[scottalanmiller]

Script has been updated.

[Romo]

@scottalanmiller remeber to change the line that targets devices sd[a-d] to sd[b-e],

There is also a typo in the last line,
device-config:device=/dev/md10 should be /dev/md0 following that guide

[DustinB3403]

@Romo The typo's have been addressed.

[Romo]

@DustinB3403 said:

@Romo The typo's have been addressed.

Great, this way more people can follow the guide

[DustinB3403]

We should probably make a topic on building an off-host ISO and backup target server to complement this guide here.

Since we've already gone full tilt with the USB mdadm RAID 10....