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How do I revive a software RAID array?

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by efrahm

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I am NOT linux savvy. We have one linux server no longer supported by the original consultant which is built with 3 scsi drives running software raid. The server failed with repeated i/o errors, then failed to reboot normally. I have run disk verification on the drives, but still cannot get a successful reboot. I get past the LILO prompt, but it fails while mounting the raid array with the root fs. I have no idea where to go from here. As it turns out, the backup tapes have been bad for over a year, and no one noticed. This server was scheduled for retirement anyway, but we'd like to archive the data if at all possible.

3 replies

by les

If data retrieval is all you are worried about then the following may help:

1. boot to a linux system rescue cd. (either redhat linux cd by typing "linux rescue" at the boot prompt or another boot rescue cd.
My choice would be bg-rescue from http://home.tiscalinet.ch/bgiannone/rescue

2. You can now check all your partitions. first use fdisk to see your device files and partition names. Then you can mount them.

3. If you get a successful mount you can then look at configuring an IP address for the booted cd image to get it on your network and then use smbclient or nfs to mount another server to copy the data across.

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