Creating a Software RAID Resource

To create a hierarchy in which a file system or higher-level application uses a software RAID virtual device, the following high-level procedure should be followed.

1. 
   
2. Determine the desired configuration of your virtual devices. In doing this, keep in mind all of the disk resources associated with a given virtual device must move together from one server to another in the LifeKeeper cluster.

3. On the system which is to be the primary server for your application, create the desired virtual devices using mdadm(8) provided by the mdadm package and described in the Linux Software RAID HowTo and the mdadm(8) on-line manual page referenced in the Documentation and References section above. When creating the virtual device, a persistent superblock MUST be used. Refer to the section Persistent Superblock above for further details.

4. If using shared storage, ensure that all components of the virtual device are properly shared between the machines in the LifeKeeper cluster on which the protected application will be run.

5. Create file systems on each virtual device. If raw I/O will be used instead, bind a raw device to each of the virtual devices.

6. Configure the protected application on the file systems, following the configuration instructions in the administration guide for the LifeKeeper recovery kit associated with the application.

7. Create and extend the application hierarchy following the instructions in the appropriate application recovery kit administration guide