Hi everyone,
I have one question. I use opensuse 13.2 and would like to make raid 1 on it. Is it possible?
I don’t like make fresh install because i use it from 11.3 version and have many settings.
Thanks in advance.
On 2015-06-12 08:46, drimers wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
> I have one question. I use opensuse 13.2 and would like to make raid 1
> on it. Is it possible?
Of course.
> I don’t like make fresh install because i use it from 11.3 version and
> have many settings.
That’s a big complication…
You would have to first create a new partition, on two disks, make a
raid of it, make a small /boot partition (on both), then copy your
current root to the raid, adjust the fstab and grub configs, install
grub, try boot, solve problems.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
A RAID situation can be reached in many ways.
Sometimes the system (BIOS) is able to create RAID from the disk (firmware RAID). When that is the case, openSUSE (and the installation process) is not even aware about the RAID.
Then there is Linux Software RAID (MD devices). You can manage them using YaST.
And Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is also able to create RAID. Again YaST has a module to configure LVM.
But in all cases, you have to copy all your data first to a backup device, create what you want in the way you want it and then copy back (this is a very global description, dertails are to be planned when you decided what method you want to use).
I will use Software RAID.
Thanks robin for good idea.
Hi hcvv i understand.I will copy my hdd with dd to third hhd and after that will create raid on my two disks and rollback data on raid from third hdd. Is it true?
That sounds basicaly allright. Do create the partitions (I do not know how many you have, no need to save Swap, I do not even know if you want a RAID1 Swap) with the correct size.
And you need a life system to do the dd and use YaST for creating the md devices.
And of course your fstab must be adapted to the new device files. Same for Grub. While I basicaly know what should happen, I can not advice you on all the details. Planning this will take some time and study and a good step by step book.
Others might add usefull comments here, thus do not hasten, think it over and ask here.
To make it more difficult for you to decide which scenario to use :P, I probably would go for a different one.
Of course I would backup the present file system(s). I am not sure I would use dd in this case, but I would create new file systems on the extra disk (large enoughto hold the data, not large enough to hold the old file sytems). And for copying I would use tar because I use that for these kind of things for about 30 or more years, but others use copy or rsync to the same effect.
I then would install a new openSUSE. This will clean up a lot of old stuff still present from 11.3 (once a while one needs a clean-out). It would allow me to install directly on the MD RAID 1 in a way that the installer should configure things like fstab and Grub correctly without me having to thinks a lot about that.
Then I would copy the contents of tthe saved /home back to th new place. This assures that the end-users still have all of thir existing configurations (e.g. of the desktop)… Configuring several system aspects can be done using YaST (and eventual other application dependant ways), where the fact that the old configuration files are still available on the saved / file system (most prominent in it’s /etc) can be very helpfull when one doubts “how was that earlier”.
Result will be a fresh system on RAID fit for the future.
BTW, installing a newer openSUSE on different file systems from the current system is a thing I do mostly. It allows me to run and test the new system, while still being able to boot the old one as a fall back. And when I switch to the new system, I will still have the old configurations available for consultation. After some time I delete the contents of the old partitions and can then use them for a newer version in the cycle of openSUSE version.
On 2015-06-12 15:56, hcvv wrote:
> I do not even know if you want
> a RAID1 Swap) with the correct size.
There are pros and cons. 
Two swap partitions on different disks, at the same priority, make
swaping faster, as the kernel balances the load on both disks. It can
actually write or read to both simultaneously, thus doubling the disk speed.
However, if one disk fails, the entire system crashes, which is the
point raid protects from. If that is the case, place swap inside raid -
but of course, then it is slower: it has to write the exact same things
on two places.
If surviving a disk failure without a minute downtime is not the issue,
then you can “simply” disable in fstab the failing swap partition, and
have them outside of the raid. The computer will be able to work with
one degraded disk, albeit after a little downtime.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)