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Edward_178118
Asked: 2020-02-12 13:03:29 +0800 CST

Upgrading CentOS 8 with an existing RAID?

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I have a software RAID running on another distribution of Linux and are upgrading the server to CentOS 8.

I've only configured a server in the past when there was no data on the boot device or software RAID. How do I upgrading just the boot device to CentOS 8 so it will recognize the existing software RAID?

centos raid

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Tested with centos8:

    • during installation do not do anything that will touch the software raid drive components
    • install the mdadm package
    • edit /etc/fstab to mount the raid (copy fstab line in current fstab)
    • reboot

    You don't need an /etc/mdadm.conf and the boot process autodetects and assembles md devices (unless you have an exotic config).

    Make sure your backups are up to date before beginning.

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  2. Stable solution for migration to any other OS flavor would be:

    • disassemble your RAID to free up some of your block devices (BD) for a new OS;

    • set up new OS solely to dedicated BDs (set up incomplete/fail-state RAID within there if required);

    • migrate mandatory OS/user data to new semi-RAID BDs;

    • switch to new OS & reassemble your RAID again.

    In case your RAID structure can deal with that (I.e. not RAID-1 or alike without any redundancy).

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