RHEL5u5 Software Mirroring /boot post install

[DantePasquale]

If you have a moment can you look over this procedure and let me know if
it will work OK. The problem I'm trying to solve is that during the RH5
install, it let's you build software mirrors, but let's you only have
one /boot ! We didn't leave an empty partition on the 2nd disk for /boot so the partition tables are out of sync.
Danté

----------------------------

I think the best way to do this is to destroy the mirror, repartition,
add to the array and install grub onto the 2nd disk. The reason for this
is that /boot has to be the first partition on a disk and we don't have
a partition already reserved.

Fail the mirror disk:

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sdb1
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --fail /dev/sdb2
(continue for all raid devices)

Remove the mirror disk:

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --remove /dev/sdb1
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --remove /dev/sdb2
(Continue for all raid devices)

Verify that /dev/sdb is removed:

cat /proc/mdstat

Now we need to destroy the information mdadm puts in each device that it
uses:

mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb1
mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdb2
(Continue for all raid devices)

Now, let's repartion /dev/sdb so that it looks like /dev/sda at least
for the partitions we are interested in mirroring. NOTE: /boot has to be
the first partition!

Copy the partition table from sda to sdb

sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb

Verify that it has the correct partition table

fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Use fdisk interactively to set partition types to 0xfd Linux Raid Autodetect

cat /proc/mdstat to verify that /dev/sda is still there.

Check that /etc/mdadm.conf is accurate and shows that /dev/sdb has been
removed:

cat /etc/mdadm.conf

if /etc/mdadm.conf is not accurate:

mdadm --examine --scan > /etc/mdadm.con

Prepare Grub on the 2nd drive /dev/sdb; NOTE: grub calls the drives
hd0,hd1,hd2 etc.

enter grub interactive:

grub > root (hd1,0)
grub > setup (hd1)
grub > quit

Now add /dev/sdb back into the raid devices using the new partitions:

/boot
  mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sda1
/
  mdadm --add /dev/md1 /dev/sdb2
swap
  mdadm --add /dev/md2 /dev/sdb2

Verify Mirroring is in Process:

cat /proc/mdstat

Then update /etc/mdadm.conf to reflect the newly partitioned /dev/sdb

mdadm --examine --scan  > /etc/mdadm.conf

Update /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/grub.conf in order to have an entry
to boot from the 2nd drive:

add a stanza for /dev/sdb1 booting:

copy current stanza and change hd0 to hd1. keep both so that you can
boot off either if a drive fails.

Then update the ramdisk:

mv /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img_orig2
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r

Reboot and test each stanza. Remove a drive and reboot off the remaining
drive,
Add that drive back and check mirroring to finish via: cat /proc/mdstat