[UFO Chicago] Dell PowerEdge 4200 w/Megaraid question

[Peter A. Peterson II]

Quoting Jesse Becker:
> For strict software RAID, you need to run 'raidstart'
> before you actually use the array, but once that's done,
> you should be all set.  Since this is fancy Dell hardware,
> I don't know if that's required.  Again, for software raid,
> the devices are /dev/md{0,1,2, etc}; I expect that the
> Megaraid stuff is similar.

It appears that the raidtools2 package (Debian) is for md -- or
software raid -- devices... 

> At this point, you should be able to make a filesystem,
> mount the device, and start using it.  You should be able
> to use /dev/megaraid0 just like you would /dev/sda,
> /dev/hdb, or any other block device.

When I try, I get this:  

[null(/dev)] sudo fdisk /dev/megaraid0

Unable to open /dev/megaraid0
[null(/dev)]

> Since you are doing RAID5, I would experiment with
> different stripe sizes for the array--there can be
> drasitcally different transfer rates for different
> settings.

I currently have it configured as per what the Dell Linux tools call
"optimal" for my hardware.

> Since you haven't set anything up on the array yet, it
> shouldn't matter if you corrupt anything, right?  :-)

You got it. Any further ideas would be appreciated.

Peter