So I just filled up my harddrive on my HTPC and decided to install a RAID 5 system on it to greatly expand my storage and my backup abilities. I currently have 4 1TB HDs installed on the motherboard and was hoping to use OpenSUSE’s software RAID option. This setup would give me 3TB of storage with 1 parity drive.
I backed up all my data and started to do a reinstall on 11.3 off a DVD. When it came time to partition the four drives, I’m coming up with an error. I’m a fairly low skill level user but I’m a quick learner. Anyway, after doing some reading on forum posts that address issues somewhat different than mine, I have a few questions:
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Do I need to have a dedicated HD for the OS? I was previously trying to partition all four drives for RAID usage and then install the OS onto them, the RAID having been setup and they all behaving like one drive. But then I read a few posts about people having a dedicated HD for the OS and then the RAID installed to /home for storage. If this is not possible, would it be possible for me to partition one of the drives with ~60gb of space for the OS (as well as 5gb of SWAP and 2gb for the Grub boot). This isn’t ideal, as it would mean an overall loss of almost 200gb from the final product after partitioning the other drives needlessly so as to make the RAID partitions all of equal size, but it is more ideal than purchasing another HD. Not to mention I’m out of SATA ports on the mobo.
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Does a step-by-step guide exist for how to install a RAID using the OpenSUSE installer/YaST that loads on the boot CD? It seems pretty straightforward but, as one without a detailed understanding of everything going on in a RAID, there are options and settings that I’m leaving untouched since I don’t know what they do. If there isn’t, does anyone know how to do this (seems all fairly simple) and could you post some help for me?
Thanks in advance for all your help!!
Ben