New user's registration have been closed due to high spamming and low trafic on this forum. Please contact forum admins directly if you need an account. Thanks !

Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Got problems with your B2 or B3? Share and get helped!
Post Reply
splitbrain
Posts: 12
Joined: 21 Oct 2010, 17:18

Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by splitbrain »

Hi,

I ordered a second hard disk and connected it via eSATA to my B3. My aim is to setup a RAID mirror. However, choosing this option from the administration interface warns me that I will loose all data on the internal hard disk. Since my B3 is new, that's no problem I don't have much data on it, yet and can easily back it up. But I'm wondering about the operating system...

Here are my questions:

1) Will the OS be destroyed by preparing the RAID?
2) Will the OS be mirrored once the RAID is working?
3) Is there some documentation on how to recover the RAID when the internal, not the external disk dies?

Andi
Image
RandomUsername
Posts: 904
Joined: 09 Oct 2009, 18:49

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by RandomUsername »

1. I don't believe so.

2. No, it only mirrors the storage partition.

3. Yes there is somewhere. I don't have RAID so I wasn't paying attention but I think there are instructions in the original manual the B2 shipped with (as opposed to the light-weight one newer versions come with). I think you can still download the original pdf somewhere from the Excito site.
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by pcrene »

Hello

I used RAID on my 2 B2. But when activating the RAID the /home is emtied...

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
Magnus
Posts: 51
Joined: 02 Jan 2007, 03:52
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by Magnus »

Hi Andy,
1. Creating a RAID will destroy all user data. The Linux installation on your internal HD will not be touched.

2. The OS will not be mirrored. The Linux installation will only exist on the internal HD in B3.

3. We are working on a B3 manual, but in the mean time have a look in the Bubba|2 manual, the information is correct but the screen dumps are not: http://download.excito.net/web/BubbaTwo ... /raid.html

BR
Magnus
Magnus, Excito developer
www.excito.com
support@excito.com
Ubi
Posts: 1549
Joined: 17 Jul 2007, 09:01

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by Ubi »

If this thing is software raid, it's actually not difficult of moving to RAID without destroying the content of the partition. You just need some lowlevel hacking of the partition table and a manual edit of /etc/mdstat
RichoDemus
Posts: 22
Joined: 27 Mar 2012, 17:39

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by RichoDemus »

Sorry to bump this thread but I figured it better to ask my question here than to create a new, nearly identical question :)

I know the instructions say that "all user data" will be removed, but can anyone confirm if /home (and subdirectories) is the only directory that will be emptied?, running df gives me:


3:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 9.9G 1.6G 7.9G 17% /
tmpfs 252M 0 252M 0% /lib/init/rw
udev 10M 144K 9.9M 2% /dev
tmpfs 252M 4.0K 252M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/bubba-storage
907G 8.8G 852G 2% /home

which makes me think that it is true that only /home will be cleared, but I want to be sure before I do anything stupid :)

Thanks for reading!
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by pcrene »

Yes its true.

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
RichoDemus
Posts: 22
Joined: 27 Mar 2012, 17:39

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by RichoDemus »

Thank you for the swift reply!
grndvl1
Posts: 12
Joined: 04 Mar 2012, 04:38

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by grndvl1 »

By the way how long does it take to setup the RAID and let it run? Mines been going for 3 hours and I can't ping the B3 yet, used to be able to before the I started the raid setup from the interface. Will it reboot back to normal once its done?
RichoDemus
Posts: 22
Joined: 27 Mar 2012, 17:39

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by RichoDemus »

How big are your drives? I added a 1TB drive to the already existing 1TB drive and I think it took less than an hour to get it working
grndvl1
Posts: 12
Joined: 04 Mar 2012, 04:38

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by grndvl1 »

I have 2TB drives...I left it running overnight and it never rebooted so I rebooted and was able to connect but lost everything in home too and then had some weird errors in the webpages too. Only way I fixed it was to reinstall the whole image. I will try the RAID again but only if I can figure a way for home not to be destroyed.
RichoDemus
Posts: 22
Joined: 27 Mar 2012, 17:39

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by RichoDemus »

I don't know if it's possible to set up a disk RAID without formating the home partition, I just made a giant tarball of my entire home directory and moved it to my workstation and then moved it back when the raid was done
nobody
Posts: 226
Joined: 10 Mar 2012, 14:46

Re: Will setting up RAID will destroy the OS?

Post by nobody »

Yes it's possible but not via the web interface. It's a five minute job really, yet not suitable for the faint-hearted

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html
https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/
http://www.howtoforge.com/software-raid ... ebian-etch
Post Reply