Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Can I retain a software RAID if I reimage?

Asked by Eric Nadeau

Hello,

I'm looking at switching to Ubuntu for my XBMC setup, but I have a question around software raid that I've been unable to find an answer for.
If I setup a software RAID 5 array in Ubuntu, and then need to reimage the PC for some reason (just the system drive- not the external RAID array), will the new install be able to view the old array? If so- is this something that will just work, or will I need to reconfigure and repair the array?

thanks in advance!

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Ubuntu ubiquity Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Thomas Krüger (thkrueger) said : 		#1

There are several levels of doing an image.

1. You are imaging all the HDD themselfs. That would be device like /dev/sd[a-z]. It would take a lot of storage, but that raid would be recreated without any problems.

2. You can image the RAID device. That would be /dev/md[0-9]. It takes less storage, your netto RAID capacity. To recover you should recreate the RAID from a boot CD/stick and then write the image to the md device again.

3. You can image a partition. That works pretty much as on a normal HDD. To recover you have to recreate the RAID first and then partition with the same size as before.

4. Create a tar archive of the files on the partition. You can recover pretty well from that on Linux. Here you have to recreate the RAID, partition (no fixed size this time, just big enough) and create a file system (does not even need to be the same as before).

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Eric Nadeau for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.