How to create a RAID1 when installing Leap 16.0?

[kls]

I have a new PC with two SSDs and want to create a RAID1 device to install Leap 16.0 on. With my current Leap 15.3 system and YaST it was no problem doing so during install, but in this new “Agama” thingy I can’t find the option to do this. Can somebody please tell me how this can be done?

[oxwrongagain]

I succeeded in installing in wee hours this morning …

I created a luks1 root on top of raid 1 with leap 15.6. The “secret” to forcing Agama to play along is NOT using an external “/boot”, but rather leave boot in the root fs …

Agama is TERRIBLE!, but what you are trying to do is POSSIBLE!

[kls]

My SSDs are completely new and unformatted. So I would need the installer to create the RAID1.

[oxwrongagain]

Hello @kls,

My initial reply was bit too vague. I installed leap 15.6 to a fast usb stick! From there, I used mdadm and mkfs to create the devices on the TWO nvme sticks to host the Leap 16 install. I then rebooted and pointed and clicked and pointed and clicked and pointed and clicked and pointed and clicked until Agama FINALLY successfully saw how it should install correctly.

Is it worth the effort … don’t know yet!

[oxwrongagain]

As far as I can tell, you must a use a different system to create the partitions/devices … the Agama installer for Leap 16 is NOT going to do this.

[oxwrongagain]

orca:~ # mdadm -D /dev/md/root
mdadm: Value "orca:root" cannot be set as devname. Reason: Not POSIX compatible. Value ignored.
/dev/md/root:
           Version : 1.0
     Creation Time : Sun Oct  5 22:58:15 2025
        Raid Level : raid1
        Array Size : 41942912 (40.00 GiB 42.95 GB)
     Used Dev Size : 41942912 (40.00 GiB 42.95 GB)
      Raid Devices : 2
     Total Devices : 2
       Persistence : Superblock is persistent

       Update Time : Mon Oct  6 16:17:36 2025
             State : clean 
    Active Devices : 2
   Working Devices : 2
    Failed Devices : 0
     Spare Devices : 0

Consistency Policy : resync

              Name : orca:root  (local to host orca)
              UUID : b18000e4:0cc0161e:ded76cd6:78df2253
            Events : 23

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0     259        4        0      active sync   /dev/nvme1n1p3
       1     259        9        1      active sync   /dev/nvme0n1p3

[malcolmlewis]

@oxwrongagain no, you can actually do it from the installer, just from the command line via ctrl+alt+F1, login as root user, install gdisk, modify the disk as required.

Create the array with mdadm;

mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md126 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 --metadata=0.90
To optimalize recovery speed, it is recommended to enable write-indent bitmap, do you want to enable it now? [y/N]? y
mdadm: size set to 124509120K
mdadm: array /dev/md126 started.

Pop back to the installer GUI (I actually used ssh from another system and also the web based installer from the same system…)

Rescan the disks and setup as required, in my case;

sda           8:0    0 119.2G  0 disk  
├─sda1        8:1    0   512M  0 part  
└─sda2        8:2    0 118.7G  0 part  
  └─md126     9:126  0 118.7G  0 raid1 
sdb           8:16   0 119.2G  0 disk  
├─sdb1        8:17   0   512M  0 part  <== Not Used
└─sdb2        8:18   0 118.7G  0 part  
  └─md126     9:126  0 118.7G  0 raid1

Completed the install and when ready to reboot, from the ssh session also ran;

mount /dev/md126 /mnt
mdadm --detail --scan --verbose | tee -a /mnt/etc/mdadm.conf

Rebooted the system and all good… I do see it changed the device to /dev/md127?

[oxwrongagain]

Thanks @malcolmlewis ,

That’s good to know, even if a little late .

[kls]

How did you manage to make it say ‘The whole device will be used for “/”’?
Mine says ‘A new partition will be created for “/”’.
Plus it complains that “The boot device cannot be automatically selected”.

[malcolmlewis]

@kls you need to use the drop downs and select the device and partition, likewise there is an option to ‘not modify’ rather than delete.

[kls]

Found it, thanks. Now ‘The whole device will be used for “”/"’.
What’s till left is “The boot device cannot be automatically selected”.

[malcolmlewis]

@kls it the drop down select custom, think that fixed it for me…

[kls]

Found it: it’s in “Other options/Change boot options”.

[kls]

Thanks to @malcolmlewis and @oxwrongagain for your help.
I have now gone through the whole procedure twice and put together the following for future reference for myself. Maybe it helps others, too.

Setting up RAID1 upon install of openSUSE Leap 16.0

Leap 16.0 doesn’t offer setting up RAID1 directly from within the installer.
Here are step-by-step instructions how to do it manually.

• Boot from your Leap 16.0 USB stick.
• When the “Select a product” screen appears, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to
  a text console.
• Log in as root (use the password shown on the screen).
• Select your keyboard layout if necessary:
  loadkeys de
• Identify your disks:
  lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL
  (Assume they are /dev/sda and /dev/sdb for the following steps.)
• Optionally clean existing metadata:
  mdadm --stop /dev/md0
  mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sda /dev/sdb
  wipefs -a /dev/sda /dev/sdb
  (Ignore “unrecognized component” or “probing initialization failed” messages,
  they just mean the disks are clean.)
• Create new GPT partition tables:
  parted -s /dev/sda mklabel gpt
  parted -s /dev/sdb mklabel gpt
• Create EFI system partitions:
  parted -s -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB
  parted -s /dev/sda set 1 boot on
  parted -s -a optimal /dev/sdb mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB
  parted -s /dev/sdb set 1 boot on
  (The 512 MiB ESP on each disk allows either drive to boot independently.)
• Create RAID partitions:
  parted -s -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 513MiB 100%
  parted -s -a optimal /dev/sdb mkpart primary 513MiB 100%
  Use
  parted -s -a optimal /dev/sdX mkpart primary 513MiB 50%
  parted -s -a optimal /dev/sdX mkpart primary 50% 100%
  (X = [a, b]) if you want to have two RAID-1 partitions of the same size.
• Create the RAID-1 device:
  mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 --bitmap=internal /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2
  (when a note about “meta data at the start” is given, select Yes).
• Format partitions:
  mkfs.fat -F32 -n EFI /dev/sda1
  mkfs.fat -F32 -n EFI /dev/sdb1
  (warnings about codepage can be ignored)
  mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
• Mount for installation:
  mount /dev/md0 /mnt
  mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
  mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
  (You only need to mount one of the EFI partitions ? GRUB will install boot files there.)
• Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to return to the installer.
• Select “Leap 16.0” and click “Select”.
• In the left side bar click “Storage”.
• Check if “Installation devices/More devices/Select another device to define partitions or to mount”
  contains /dev/sda and /dev/md0.
  If not: select “Other options/Rescan devices” until it does.
• In “More devices/Select another device to define partitions or to mount”
  select /dev/md0 and click Confirm.
• If “Installation devices” shows any other devices besides /dev/md0, click on the “…” of these devices
  and select “Do not use”.
• In “Installation devices/Use RAID md0/Details” select “Use the RAID without partitions”.
• In “Configure device /dev/md0” set the “Mount point” to “/” and select the desired “File system”; click Accept.
• “Installation devices/Use RAID md0/Details” should now read “The whole device will be used for “/””.
• Select “More devices/Select another device to define partitions or to mount”, select “/dev/sda” and Confirm.
• Select “Other options/Change boot options”
• In “Boot options” click on “Select a disk” and select “sda” from the drop down. Click Accept.
• Do the rest of the configuration, like Localization, Software, Authentication etc.
• Click “Install”.
• After the first boot, copy EFI files to /dev/sdb1 to make the second disk bootable as well:
  dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M