What Setup for Software Raid 1

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#1

Hi all. I have a HP micro server running 12.2. I am using it as media and document server at home for laptop, TV, hifi. I initially set it up with the supplied 250gb drive. I now have 2 x 2TB drives. I want to add these into the system for primarily storing data in for some degree of fault tolerance RAID 1. The unit has an AMD fakeraid integrated, but I have not enabled this as I don’t think it’s supported by Opensuse and is dog slow in any event. I therefore will go for software raid 1.

What would people recommend as the process / set up. Should I:

A: ditch the 250 gb drive and do a fresh install on the 2 X 2TB drives alone? Not a disaster, but more of a pain of wasted time setting the system back up and reloading data.

B: integrate the 2 x 2TB drives with the 250 drive into a raid 1 system without doing a fresh install? I have looked at partinoner in Yast. Although the documentation for setting up raid is a bit sketchy (Chapter 3 advanced disk setup). I am not as you can tell proficient in setting up drives etc.

If option B is viable, can someone point me to a page with a walk through of how to do this?

Thanks Ben.

#2

I would go for C: using the existing drive for the system and using the RAID for the data you are talking about.
Or sd I misunderstand you completely?

#3

thanks… sorry for confused message. baby twins and sleep deprivation. Yes option C is what I meant for B!

But how do I create a raid for the two 2TB drives for the data? Is it simply through partioner in yast? If so what are the steps and settings I need? thanks ben

#4

I hope you are not mixing up mirrored babies and twin 2TB disks rotfl!

I can give you the following general directions.

Install the system as usual on the small disk.

You can create the containers on the 2TB disks at the same time, but I would do it later as you will only need those strict data containers later.

Use YaST > System > Partitioner to create 1 (or more) partition(s) of the same size on each of the disk. Give them type Linux raid autodetect (fd).

Maybe finish this first and reboot to check. Then the same YasT mosule will show them and you can use those pairs to create file systems on them. I think it is rather straight forward, but you can allways ask here.

#5

I’m inclined to agree with hcvv.

#6

Hi all… slightly less sleep deprived. Definitely only one set of twins! Thanks for advice, I will do as you suggest, keep the system installed on smaller drive and set the two 2Tb drives for data in raid 1. Your note seems stright forward and I have read up more on partioner and think I understand the process now.

thanks Ben,

#7

Hi well so far so good. extended partion for both drives and linux raid. no mount no format. Then add raid, raid 1, ext4, 4kb block (default), mount srv, on both disks and set to go. Now seems to be formatting drives, been constantly active now for 3hrs? Is this right? One 1.8tb drive showing in dolphin. I have not looked into the drive yet.

Hope this sounds right? Thanks Ben.

#8

3 hrs seems a bit long are you seeing disk activity. If not something is frozen

#9

Well, I am not sure. They are big and when they are morrored, then everything from one disk must be copied to the other. Could take osme time.

BTW I do not understand that extended partition the OP is talking about. Did you now make several partitions (more then four) on the mirror or what?

#10

Why I asked about disk activity aas long as it is happening then something is happening.

Thisk he was talking about the small disk he put the OS on. If there is also Windows there it may require a extended. I agree it was not stated clearly

#11

Hi guys thanks. Discs stopped. To clarify, a pure suse box. OS on 250gb drive. two data drives of 2TB each.

I now just have “lost and found” directory on the 2TB drive. One large 2tb partition for storing data.

thanks.

Ben.