Basically I have two 250gb samsung drives of near identical models that I wanna put into a raid 1 array and install linux on, probably arch but i'm open to most distros.
I tried this by using the intel raid manager thingy before you boot but it doesn't seem to work, and i'm completely lost. Can anyone with experience in this guide be through setting it up?
Thanks in advance.
[B]Edit:[/B]
I worded this really badly and it makes me look like an idiot, lemme clarify.
Basically I used the onboard raid controller and it's setup utility thing (ctrl-I when booting) to mirror the two drives. I then installed Arch onto one of them assuming the onboard raid controller would handle everything on it's own but now that Arch is installed there's no indication it's actually worked as the second hard drive is accessible as usual inside arch and is completely empty.
Normally, if it's hardware raid you don't need to do anything special. Linux or any other OS should see the raid array as one big hard drive.
[QUOTE=chipset;33074883]Basically I have two 250gb samsung drives of near identical models that I wanna put into a raid 1 array and install linux on, probably arch but i'm open to most distros.
I tried this by using the intel raid manager thingy before you boot but it doesn't seem to work, and i'm completely lost. Can anyone with experience in this guide be through setting it up?
Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]
First off, what you want is a RAID 1, not a RAID 1 array.
Second, why do you want to do this? There's a very high chance that a RAID is not what you need.
Third, I used Debian for mine and it runs fine. The partition manager makes it very easy to create RAID devices and then you simply partition the resulting md0 (or how many you need) just like any other hard drive. Try it out in a virtual machine beforehand (you can use VirtualBox for this, as it is free).
[QUOTE=gparent;33076460]First off, what you want is a RAID 1, not a RAID 1 array.
Second, why do you want to do this? There's a very high chance that a RAID is not what you need.
Third, I used Debian for mine and it runs fine. The partition manager makes it very easy to create RAID devices and then you simply partition the resulting md0 (or how many you need) just like any other hard drive. Try it out in a virtual machine beforehand (you can use VirtualBox for this, as it is free).[/QUOTE]
1. Semantics but yes you're correct.
2. Data security, it's gonna be a home server of sorts and one of the functions will be file backup.
3. I'm not sure what you mean here, my linux experience is very limited so even in a virtual machine I don't know what you mean. Basically I used the onboard raid controller and it's setup utility thing (ctrl-I when booting) to mirror the two drives. I then installed Arch onto one of them assuming the onboard raid controller would handle everything on it's own but now that Arch is installed there's no indication it's actually worked as the second hard drive is accessible as usual inside arch and is completely empty.
[QUOTE=chipset;33079601]1. Semantics but yes you're correct.
2. Data security, it's gonna be a home server of sorts and one of the functions will be file backup.
3. I'm not sure what you mean here, my linux experience is very limited so even in a virtual machine I don't know what you mean. Basically I used the onboard raid controller and it's setup utility thing (ctrl-I when booting) to mirror the two drives. I then installed Arch onto one of them assuming the onboard raid controller would handle everything on it's own but now that Arch is installed there's no indication it's actually worked as the second hard drive is accessible as usual inside arch and is completely empty.[/QUOTE]
As for your RAID issue, it has nothing to do with Linux. Linux doesn't ever notice that your RAID exists if it's a hardware raid. You'll want to find out how to properly configure your intel RAID thingy.
Also, if you want data security then there's no point in setting up a RAID. Use your second hard drive to store your backups instead, using one of the many solutions that exist for Linux (rsync, amanda, etc., take your pick).
[QUOTE=gparent;33097457]As for your RAID issue, it has nothing to do with Linux. Linux doesn't ever notice that your RAID exists if it's a hardware raid. You'll want to find out how to properly configure your intel RAID thingy.
Also, if you want data security then there's no point in setting up a RAID. Use your second hard drive to store your backups instead, using one of the many solutions that exist for Linux (rsync, amanda, etc., take your pick).[/QUOTE]
On one side it feels good knowing I technically did nothing wrong then, on the other side now I don't know why it didn't work as I did everything correctly. I've used the intel raid utility before and it's not exactly rocket science, in addition I've had those two exact drives in raid before so this is certainly interesting. Anyways thanks for your help, I'll consider the idea of scrapping raid altogether but if I just backup the files on the other drive, if the main drive dies won't I have to reinstall linux? For that alone I'd rather go with raid, as it's as simple as replacing the dead drive and letting the array rebuild.
Do you want a backup or not? If your only reason for wanting a RAID is being able to keep running if one of your drives die, then sure. If you actually want protection for your data, then a RAID is not appropriate. Also the point of backups is to not have to reinstall if your drive dies...
Run it on a VM with drive 1
Use drive 2 to store Snapshots and whatnot
RAID is not a backup, raid is meant for up time and drive redundancy (and address large amounts of disks as one)
The VM idea is a really good one if you don't mind the slight performance loss.
[QUOTE=gparent;33107072]The VM idea is a really good one if you don't mind the slight performance loss.[/QUOTE]
1~2% isn't going to be noticable
[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;33107120]1~2% isn't going to be noticable[/QUOTE]
Like I said.. It's a good solution.
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