Software RAID 6 on Debian Etch Micro-HOWTO
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- Published: Saturday, 21 February 2015 18:34
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http://n0tablog.wordpress.com/howtos/software-raid-6-on-debian-etch-micro-howto/
Introduction
RAID6 is very much like RAID5, only you can afford to loose two drives before you start to worry. An overkill? – Recall that all your drives probably came from the same batch, and suddenly RAID6 feels barely sufficient.
RAID 6 is as standard as RAID 5, and offers comparable performance (allegedly slightly slower, but how much is your peace of mind worth to you?)
This document does NOT cover setting up bootable RAID 6. I believe that it is possible to set up bootable RAID6 (even with LVM if you want to be really fancy) in Debian Etch, but I have not tried it, an, given my needs, not likely to try in the future. Modern mdadm is extremely helpful and will try to assist you with configuring bootable RAID during its (mdadm) installation. If you want embark on that adventure, you may consider reading this document (if you know a better source, please post the link in the comments!)
I chose to stick to non-bootable RAID6 – it is perfect for ever-changing data like your /home, /srv, or /var
Disclaimer
Everything you see here has worked fine for me on my Slug running Debian Etch. (If you are interested in RAID6 on OpenSlug, check out my older HOWTO). There is no reason why it would not work on any other Etch installation. Still, my expertise is limited and your configuration is guaranteed to differ, so think before you do anything.
Step One: Creating Partitions
fdisk -l will show you the drives you got. Figure out which one is which, how many you intend to use, and whether you need to create new partitions. On flash memory the “physical” parameters of the “disk” (heads, sectors, cylinders) do not really mean much. Just make sure that the numbers add up. Otherwise your filesystems will get very confused later.
This is not an fdisk HowTo - read the man page, or this (oversimplified) HOWTO.
You do not really need the partitions: you can assamble your RAID aray from any kind of block devices. Unpartitioned drives will do just fine. Or, if you feel twisted, you can build an array from a USB flash stick, your old SCSI drive, and a partition on your brand spanking new SATA drive. It will work too. I built my array with six USB sticks. Because I could. But if you do not need the partitions, skip to the next chapter.
Within fdisk menu use p command and you will get something like
Disk /dev/sda: 65 MB, 65536000 bytes 8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 500 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 256 * 512 = 131072 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/sda1 1 500 63984 83 Linux
In this case the math is simple: 131072 bytes/cylinder * 500 cylinders = 6553600 bytes. If you see any messages about physical and logical parameters of the partition being different – take your time and sort it out. (I ignored it first time around at my own peril)
Create a partition for your raid (it does not usually make much sense to have multiple partitions of the same drive within the same array).
Use t command within fdisk interface to set partition type to fd – Linux raid autodetect.
Exit fdisk using w command – that’s when all your changes are actually written to the drive.
Do not attempt to label your newly minted partitions: the label is a feature of filesystem superblock, and there is no filesystem yet.
Your fdisk session will look something like this
foobar:~# fdisk /dev/sddCommand (m for help): pDisk /dev/sdd: 65 MB, 65536000 bytes
3 heads, 42 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 126 * 512 = 64512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Notice that I dive into the expert menu to change the disc configuration – do not do it unless you have a really good reason:
Command (m for help): xExpert command (m for help): cNumber of cylinders (1-1048576, default 1015): 500
Expert command (m for help): r
back to normal
Command (m for help): pDisk /dev/sdd: 65 MB, 65536000 bytes3 heads, 42 sectors/track, 500 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 126 * 512 = 64512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-500, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-500, default 500):
Using default value 500
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): fd
Changed system type of partition 1 to fd (Linux raid autodetect)
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
foobar:~#
Repeat for every component of your future array.
Now on with the fun.
Step Two: Install RAID support
mdadm is a simple and effective tool that has taken over the niche previously occupied by raidtools.
The installation is as simple as it gets. There is a couple of tricky choices to be made, but mdadm gives you extremely detailed descriptions – I am truly humbled by the thought that has gone into making these decisions user-friendly.
Your installation process will look something like this:
foobar:~# apt-get install mdadm Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
mdadm can notify you by email when your RAID fails, but it does not include a mailer in it, hence the recommended MTA below.
Recommended packages: mail-transport-agent
The following NEW packages will be installed:
mdadm
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 230kB of archives.
After unpacking 484kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu stable/main mdadm 2.5.6-9 [230kB]
Fetched 230kB in 1s (178kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package mdadm.
(Reading database ... 15786 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking mdadm (from .../archives/mdadm_2.5.6-9_arm.deb) ...
Setting up mdadm (2.5.6-9) ...
Generating mdadm.conf... done.
The following eight lines are specific to my hardware platform – NSLU2/Slug – and its somewhat byzantine boot process via initramfs.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-ixp4xxW: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.
W: mdadm: no arrays defined in configuration file.
W: mdadm: falling back to emergency procedure in initramfs.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-4-ixp4xx
W: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.
W: mdadm: no arrays defined in configuration file.
W: mdadm: falling back to emergency procedure in initramfs.
Notice that the installer thoughtfully starts the monitoring service for you
Starting MD monitoring service: mdadm --monitor.
There are no RAID arrays yet, so yes, an attempt to assemble one will fail.
Assembling MD arrays...failed (no arrays found in config file or automatically).foobar:~#
Your mdadm is now installed and running. You can confirm this by issuing ps aux command: closer to the end of its output you will notice /sbin/mdadm –m – it is already monitoring your RAID arrays! It would be a shame to let all that effort go to waste, so let’s create an array for mdadm to monitor.
Step Three: Create your RAID array.
If you haven’t dealt with it before, take advantage of the following excellent sources (I would have never succeeded in this adventure without them):
mdadm: A New Tool For Linux Software RAID Management by Derek Vadala
BTW, there is only one step:
http://man-wiki.net/index.php/8:mdadm
