Linux Software RAID
Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:37 am
Hi all,
Well, with thanks to your advice, I bought the parts discussed here, including 2x1TB drives which I intend to RAID1 for data security.
viewtopic.php?t=52809
I am hoping that some of you here have done software RAID1 using Linux and can advise me? In particular with Ubuntu (chosen for it's larger community base).
I have installed Ubuntu 8.1, created 3 partitions on each drives - 15gb for /, 4gb for swap, and the 981gb rest for /home. I specified these were for RAID and then created the multiply devices as per http://kuparinen.org/martti/comp/ubuntu/en/raid.html.
On boot, Linux took some 4hours to synch the arrays, and is now happy.
Grub
Next, I need to sort grub. Currently, grub is just on the first harddisk, so on boot if the 1st harddisk is down, the system will not be able to start. Reading around, I need to add 'fallback' to grub's menu.lst, and then point it at a Kernel declaration just like http://www.howtoforge.com/software-raid ... an-etch-p2.
On booting with just one harddisk, the system asks me what to do, but tells me that I can add bootdegraded=true to the kernel boot options - any idea where these go? menu.lst has something called "kopt", so I'm thinking here.
Testing
Next, I need to test this to prove to myself it is working reliably in a failure.
The scenarios are
1) Drive 1 fails during boot
2) Drive 2 fails during boot
3) Drive 1 fails whilst machine on
4) Drive 2 fails whilst machine on
I'm guessing that when I put a "new" drive back in, I can use mdadm to add the drive to the array. When I do this, I am guessing I will need to go through synching again?
Reporting
Is there a way that I can set up reporting, so if a drive fails I am notified. A silently failing drive is no good as from the outside all will appear well!
I'm just hoping one of you has done this or something similar before...
Thanks in advance,
MG
Well, with thanks to your advice, I bought the parts discussed here, including 2x1TB drives which I intend to RAID1 for data security.
viewtopic.php?t=52809
I am hoping that some of you here have done software RAID1 using Linux and can advise me? In particular with Ubuntu (chosen for it's larger community base).
I have installed Ubuntu 8.1, created 3 partitions on each drives - 15gb for /, 4gb for swap, and the 981gb rest for /home. I specified these were for RAID and then created the multiply devices as per http://kuparinen.org/martti/comp/ubuntu/en/raid.html.
On boot, Linux took some 4hours to synch the arrays, and is now happy.
Grub
Next, I need to sort grub. Currently, grub is just on the first harddisk, so on boot if the 1st harddisk is down, the system will not be able to start. Reading around, I need to add 'fallback' to grub's menu.lst, and then point it at a Kernel declaration just like http://www.howtoforge.com/software-raid ... an-etch-p2.
On booting with just one harddisk, the system asks me what to do, but tells me that I can add bootdegraded=true to the kernel boot options - any idea where these go? menu.lst has something called "kopt", so I'm thinking here.
Testing
Next, I need to test this to prove to myself it is working reliably in a failure.
The scenarios are
1) Drive 1 fails during boot
2) Drive 2 fails during boot
3) Drive 1 fails whilst machine on
4) Drive 2 fails whilst machine on
I'm guessing that when I put a "new" drive back in, I can use mdadm to add the drive to the array. When I do this, I am guessing I will need to go through synching again?
Reporting
Is there a way that I can set up reporting, so if a drive fails I am notified. A silently failing drive is no good as from the outside all will appear well!
I'm just hoping one of you has done this or something similar before...
Thanks in advance,
MG