ubuntu 11.04 and Rocketraid

Question

I have an oldish server that I am trying to re-use. I need to install a new version of Linux (ubuntu 11.04 server edition), It has a RocketRaid hardware controller, with 4 SCSI discs configured as RAID-10 and another SCSI disc not part of the array. I would like to have one logical volume on the hardware array and the other disc to be swap plus other space.

I am trying to install ubuntu 11.04, but I am unsure as to what hard disc partitioning options to choose, the installation screen only sees the individual discs that comprise the array, I can combine them in to a logical volume but I thought having them on a hardware RAID would make them appear as one disk e.g. /dev/sda.

It is possible I am misunderstanding some or all of this, If there is a guide to which you could refer me I would appreciate it.

Answer 1

The Raid controller is a RocketRaid 2310, it is not, however, a true raid controller, it uses the CPU for processing and requires a driver to work (see HighPoint open source driver), hence Linux was not seeing one RAID drive.

I decided rather than experience the pain of compiling the open source version of the driver for the kernel, and again every time it upgrades (see RAID Configuration with Highpoint RocketRaid 1640) I would to use software raid (mdadm).

However I also had to disconnect the hard discs from the RocketRaid Controller, as keeping it in place caused the server to fail to boot, displaying the grub rescue prompt with the error fd0 read error no such disk.