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RAID Questions

Got problems with your B2 or B3? Share and get helped!
darione75
Posts: 76
Joined: 06 Aug 2008, 12:28

RAID Questions

Post by darione75 »

Hi all
i would to ask to developers some questions about RAID functions:

1) When raid work properly in full sync with an external HDD eSATA and the internal disk of B2 broke, what happen? The B2 continues to work and do something for advise that is using the external hdd?
2) In case of broken internal HDD of B2, i'm able to change the hdd with a new clean, power up B2 with the external and start to sync? Or i need to re-install the whole system and restore data from raid? or for restore i need to make a previuos backup to another disk?

Usually in the "normal" server when one hdd broke you are able to sostitute one hdd and automatically the server start up again and start to sync, in B2 how works exactly?

Many thanks.
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: RAID Questions

Post by pcrene »

Hello

As i reads the Raid functionallity correct only the /home is under raid
So exchanging the disks wont work.

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
Henri
Posts: 62
Joined: 14 Jul 2009, 07:56

Re: RAID Questions

Post by Henri »

Is this correct ?

Your Bubba is configured as RAID-1 (mirroring) system with external eSATA hard drive.

[KABOOM!! ] Your internal disk brokes down --> Bubba is a dead duck.
You need to do replace new internal hard drive first and then do complete crash recovery operation and rebuild your RAID array.
Hmmm ... This does raise some concerns about data retention reliability. Maybe a one wrong mouse press during RAID rebuild process and your valuable data is lost?

So ... isn't Bubba able to boot up from external eSATA hard drive, even if that drive is part of RAID-array ?


- just a little bit curious RAID constructor -
pcrene
Posts: 305
Joined: 17 May 2008, 15:49

Re: RAID Questions

Post by pcrene »

Hello Henri,

An easy and short answer to your question: no

Rene
B3 1T + B-Stor 2T, B2 1T as backup
40 users active....
Opensat4all.Com
darione75
Posts: 76
Joined: 06 Aug 2008, 12:28

Re: RAID Questions

Post by darione75 »

And so, whats the proupose of RAID if b2 isn't able to boot up from eSATA external drive?
tor
Posts: 703
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 12:24
Contact:

Re: RAID Questions

Post by tor »

Hello all,

Regarding RAID, it is true that we don't run raid on the system partition itself. Which i agree is a bit of a shortcoming.

The main reason for this decision is that the unit comes preloaded without RAID. And if we where to convert the whole system it would required to boot the system from an installer and convert it from there. Possibly reverting all system modifications made by user.

Further more the RAID setup in this case is primarily targeted at protecting user data. Resulting from a malfunctioning disk.

It could however be possible in future releases that we provide a pure raid-installer. That would do a basic install with RAID out of the box, covering the whole disk.

/Tor
Co-founder OpenProducts and Ex Excito Developer
darione75
Posts: 76
Joined: 06 Aug 2008, 12:28

Re: RAID Questions

Post by darione75 »

Now i've realize that RAID don't work as i aspect, but basically i think don't work as the 99,99% of people aspect.
What's the sense of raid if a internal HD crash don't active the eSATA? Is less than Backup because you can't restore from eStata.
Now i think to back again, stop raid and start using backup by eSATA hd buy for raid function. So, now i have do disinstall ad format again my b2 for disinstall RAID???
What happen if i stop to connect the esata hdd, format as a brand new hdd ad use the ex-radi hdd for backup? The system work or not?
Thanks
nitram
Posts: 27
Joined: 02 Oct 2008, 16:01

Re: RAID Questions

Post by nitram »

darione75 wrote: What happen if i stop to connect the esata hdd, format as a brand new hdd ad use the ex-radi hdd for backup? The system work or not?
Good question, what will happen? will B2 still work?
Can anyone of excito answer this?

Thanks,
Martin
carl
Posts: 474
Joined: 07 May 2008, 04:41

Re: RAID Questions

Post by carl »

nitram wrote:
darione75 wrote: What happen if i stop to connect the esata hdd, format as a brand new hdd ad use the ex-radi hdd for backup? The system work or not?
Good question, what will happen? will B2 still work?
Can anyone of excito answer this?

Thanks,
Martin
if you remove the external disk from the RAID, the RAID will enter a so called degraded mode. In this mode, it will function similar to as an raw disk, and no differences should be noticeable. I've done some testes, and it looks like it will work just fine.

/Carl
/Carl Fürstenberg, Excito Software Developer
http://www.excito.com
support@excito.com
Henri
Posts: 62
Joined: 14 Jul 2009, 07:56

Re: RAID Questions

Post by Henri »

Sorry to hijack this thread once more.

I have got a bit of problem with RAID recovery.
I did a RAID1 mirroring with Bubba and external eSATA hard drive. Creation of RAID went fine and Bubba reported RAID "clean" and "sync". Then I transferred couple hundreds Megabytes of data to Bubba and let it settle for a week.

After that I simulated internal hard drive failure ...
1. I backed up Bubba settings to a USB stick.
2. Shut down Bubba.
3. Disconnected external eSATA RAID disk.
4. Made a full recovery installation to Bubba from USB stick.
4.1 Did a web update to Bubba --> 1.21
5. Restored Bubba settings from USB stick.
6. Shut down Bubba.
6.1 Reconnected external RAID hard drive to Bubba.
6.2 Fired up Bubba again.
7. Went to Bubba's web menu "Disk/RAID" section and tried to recover RAID system.
7.1 Clicked "RAID recovery" button in RAID subpage, which lead to an error, saying "No RAID disk detected" or something similar.
8. Can not figure out how to recover RAID from external disk to internal disk.

I did a second RAID recovery attempt, where I left out phase 5 and tried to recover RAID with factory settings only doing web update to 1.21 before recovery attempt. This was unfortunately also unsuccesful attempt.

I wonder is there a way to mount external RAID disk to another Linux computer and extract contents of disk that way.
pa
Posts: 308
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 04:38
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: RAID Questions

Post by pa »

Can you post a screenshot of the "disk" page prior to trying to recover the raid?
That is prior to your step 7.

And you have connected the external disk using esata, not accidentally using USB?

/PA
Henri
Posts: 62
Joined: 14 Jul 2009, 07:56

Re: RAID Questions

Post by Henri »

Hi

I believe this is the picture from the requested moment.

Image

or this ...

Image

Now when you press button "Recover RAID array" Bubba says ... no RAID disks detected or something and that's it nowhere to go there but create RAID array from the scratch.

I am quite positive that I haven't mixed eSATA and USB connectors.

Thanks.
pa
Posts: 308
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 04:38
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: RAID Questions

Post by pa »

Hi,

No, that was unfortunately not the one I meant.
The one I want is the first page of the "Disk" section "Disk->Information".

/PA
Henri
Posts: 62
Joined: 14 Jul 2009, 07:56

Re: RAID Questions

Post by Henri »

Here you are.

Please take another look.
pa
Posts: 308
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 04:38
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: RAID Questions

Post by pa »

If you have the external disk connected during boot, bubba will detect that you have a raid system and initialize it, but not use it.

So in order to recover the raid, boot without the external disk connected. Once Bubba has booted connect you external disk with RAID information. You should then be able to recover your raid.

I realize that the manual is incomplete on this issue, it will be updated....

/PA
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