5.2 Using RAID Devices for Linux POSIX Volumes

You can use a hardware RAID device to achieve device fault tolerance for Linux POSIX volumes. Novell Storage Services (NSS) management tools can see and use any available free space on a hardware RAID device.

We recommend that you do not use Linux software RAIDs (such as MD RAIDs and Device Mapper RAIDs) for devices that you plan to use for storage objects that are managed by NSS management tools. The Novell Linux Volume Manager (NLVM) utility and the NSS Management Utility (NSSMU) list Linux software RAID devices that you have created by using Linux tools. Beginning with Linux Kernel 3.0 in OES 11 SP1, NLVM and NSSMU can see these devices, initialize them, and allow you to create storage objects on them. However, this capability has not yet been fully tested.

IMPORTANT:In OES 11, a server hang or crash can occur if you attempt to use a Linux software RAID when you create storage objects that are managed by NSS management tools.

Linux software RAID devices do not support concurrent activation on multiple nodes, and are not cluster aware. They cannot be used for shared disk storage objects such as cLVM volume groups and the Novell Cluster Services SBD (split-brain detector) partitions.

NSS software RAID devices are supported for use with NSS pools and Novell Cluster Services SBD (split-brain-detector) partitions. Linux POSIX file systems are not supported on NSS software RAID devices.

IMPORTANT:Do not create linux partitions (or any non-Novell type partition) on an NSS software RAID device. Doing so causes all pool creations on that RAID device to fail.