Slack on Compaq Proliant 1500

[illiadum]

I just bought an old Compaq Proliant 1500 Server, and I've recently taken an interest in Slackware, so I though I would put Slack on the server and take advantage of the RAID array, so I don't have to worry about my data. I'm having a hell of a time though! It took me a while to figure out that I needed to boot off a floppy and upgrade the BIOS before it would boot off a cd. Now I'm booting off the Slackware 10.1 installation disk and trying to get something going. I have no experience with RAID arrays and this is proving difficult. I can't figure out what device the array is represented by in my /dev, so I can set up partitions. I read that using mkraid or mdadm is recommended, but obviously both of these would require me to know which /dev node I need. Furthermore, the array is an actual RAID array off of Compaq's controller, NOT a software RAID built from multiple independent drives...I have a feeling this could either make things easier or present a major problem. I'm not really comfortable with compiling a kernel and using to install on the machine, since I don't have any other hard drive on the server to run the kernel from, I would have to figure out how to make my own boot CD with my own kernel, which is just out of my league at this point. If anyone can offer any ideas on this I would really appreciate it. I just have this RAID array sitting there teasing me and I can't use it!

HW is Compaq Proliant 1500, Pentium 75MHz, 132MB RAM, RAID array of Fast SCSI-2 4.3GB Disks in EISA slot 6. 2x CD-Rom Running on SCSI Channel 5. BIOS E12 8/xx/98. 1 Floppy Drive, 1 DAT Drive also SCSI. No IDE Controller, No USB. Got a 3Com EtherLinkIII which I installed and the BIOS seems to be OK with.

/dev:
amiraid
arp
ataraid
atibm
audio
audio1
aztcd
bpcd
cciss
cdu535
cm206cd
console
cua0
cua1
cua2
cua3
cua4
eda
eda1
eda2
eda3
eda4
eda5
eda6
eda7
eda8
eda9
fd0
fd0h1200
fd0h1440
fd0u1440
fd0u1680
fd0u1722
fd1
fd1h1200
fd1h1440
fd1u1440
full
gscd0
hda
hdb
hdc
hdd
hde
hdf
hdg
hdh
hdi
hdj
hdk
hdl
hdm
hdn
hdo
hdp
hdq
hdr
hds
hdt
icmp
ida
inet
inportbm
input
ip
kmem
lmscd
log
logibm
loop0
loop1
loop3
loop4
lp0
makedevs.sh
mcd
mcdx0
mcdx1
md0
md1
md2
md3
mem
nrft0
nst0
nst1
null
optcd0
par0
par1
par2
parport0
parport1
parport2
parport3
pcd0
pcd1
pcd2
pcd3
pda
pda1
pda2
pda3
pda4
pda5
pda6
pf0
pf1
pf2
pf3
port
psaux
ptyp0
ptyp1
ptyp2
ptyp3
ptyp4
ptyp5
ptyp6
ptyp7
ptyp8
ram0
ram1
random
rd
rft0
rmt16
rmt8
sbpcd
sbpcd0
sbpcd1
scd0
scd1
scd2
scd3
scd4
sga
sgb
sgc
sgd
sge
sgf
sgg
sgh
sjcd
socket
socksys
sonycd
spx
sr0
sr1
sr2
sr3
sr4
st0
st1
tape-d
tape-reset
tcp
tty
tty0
tty1
tty2
tty3
tty4
tty5
tty6
tty7
tty8
tty9
ttyS0
ttyS1
ttyS2
ttyS3
ttyS4
ttyp0
ttyp1
ttyp2
ttyp3
ttyp4
ttyp5
ttyp6
ttyp7
ttyp8
udp
unix
urandom
zero

...odd there's no /dev/sda.../dev/md0 won't mount, doesn't exist etc...

when I look in /dev/ida, it's blank:

/dev# ls i*
icmp
inportbm
ip

ida:

inet:
egp
ggp
icmp
idp
ip
ipip
pup
rawip
tcp
udp

input:
event0
js0
keyboard
mice
mouse
mouse0

But in /proc/mdstat, I do have *something*:

Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] 
read_ahead not set
unused devices&#58; <none>

I'm at a loss. Sorry for the excessive dumps...but I hope somebody might see something I'm missing in here...I'm pretty new to linux...so basically I have no idea what I'm doing here. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

[serz]

You don't probably have scsi support.. the installation asks you what type of kernel you want to install (default is bare.i, I think).

If you know how to compile a kernel yourself then go ahead, but don't forget to add SCSI support.

[illiadum]

Yeah, I was afraid I might have to compile one...I can do it, I'm just not real comfortable with it yet....also, the original installation iso include stuff other than just the bare.i? Are you talking about booting from floppy and then installing from the CD? I'm gonna try that, although I booted off of raid.s before and I still couldn't find the array, any suggestions for an image that might recognize it? Thanks!

[serz]

http://www.slackware.org/install/bootdisk.php

Look at the scsi bootdisks.

[illiadum]

Yeah, I know about the SCSI boot disks....I tried booting one before and according to everything on the net, there should be stuff under /dev/ida representing my array....I found the option to select the kernel on the install CD, I'm stupid for not having seen it there before! Anyway, I booted the raid.s like before (Supports Compaq Smart Raid Array) and still, nothing in the /dev/ida....I found a Rom flash for the controller on Compaq(HP)'s website that claims it will make the controller useable in linux....I'm going to try that...thanks for prodding my lazy butt into looking a little harder!

[illiadum]

If anyone is interested...I hope someone cares because this has been quite the project.... the raid.s did not recognize the array... what I ended up doing is gettin pissed....I installed an old Adaptec SCSI Controller in the Proliant 1500 instead of the Proprietary Compaq Array Card...I will be using software RAID rather than on the controller, but no big deal, as long as it works!

I've got all the partitions configured and my software RAID up and running a RAID5 data storage array as well as a RAID0 Swap, what do you know adaptec.s recognized the card right away! Problem is...it still didn't see the CD-Rom which was plugged into the SCSI controller on the motherboard...

Rather than go out and buy a new CD-Rom to plug into the remaining ports on the Adaptec controller, I set up an NFS server on an old Win98 box...and am copying the files from the IDE CD on that machine over the network into the data storage md0. Getting the NIC working was also an adventure...but hey hopefully this will work now....

I'm gonna install off the local drives and then wipe out the installation files once its up and running...whew!

Thanks for the advice; turns out the proprietary hardware is just junk!