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Nuno
Asked: 2010-10-22 10:28:27 +0800 CST

Install RAID 1 using two disks

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I have a Unix server running with 2 disks with the same capacity, but 1 is being used only for backups storage.
I would like to temporarily use that secondary disk as a mirror of the first, and move the backups to the main disk (which will obviously then be mirrored to the secondary disk too).

Is this a good idea? If yes, I am just not sure on how to install the RAID 1 (as software) to start using the secondary disk as a mirror of the first. Could you please help me here?

Thank you!

raid1

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Maybe this would be a starting point?

    You will lose all the data on the second drive. Make sure you have backups of the system first, in case something goes wrong, then move the data from disk two to disk one, and see if you can create the RAID volume.

    Normally it's easier in logistics, to make sure things go smoothly, to make a backup and then wipe the volumes and create the RAID from a clean slate then restore your data to the new volume, but you might be able to create it without accidentally wiping the drives. Make backups first.

    Otherwise Google for "linux software raid 1" and see what resources come up for managing mdadm.

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  2. You can install a RAID volume utility that will do the mirroring during runtime, but to get there you'll need to copy the entire disk (not only files but the whole disk in raw like with dd command in unix).

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