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[SOLVED] Setup RAID 1 on existing system

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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cds60601
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[SOLVED] Setup RAID 1 on existing system

#1 Post by cds60601 »

Folks - I am currently running Debian 9 on a server. Besides the main drive, I have 2 additional 1TB drives that currently are just simply setup like this:

sda1 - Holds the OS
sdb1 - 1TB currently has 500+ gig of user files mounted as /media/Data
sdc1 - 1TB used as a backup of sdb1 mounted as /media/Backup

rsync runs nightly and duplicates sdb1 to sdc1

What I would like to do is setup raid 1 but would like to do this without destroying the data on sdb1
Is this even possible without somehow storing the data off elsewhere before installing and configing mdadm?

I viewed this link https://www.howtoforge.com/software-rai ... ebian-etch but I'm somewhat confused as this may not be a fool-proof way of doing this to a live/working system.

Most other links I read all reflect on raid being setup on empty drives. I can do this but would take a lot of work to save off the data elsewhere but was hoping that someone here may have done this in the manner I am hoping to accomplish this.

TIA and cheers
Chris
Last edited by cds60601 on 2018-01-11 23:22, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Setup RAID 1 on existing system

#2 Post by cds60601 »

Ah - I found this link https://debian-administration.org/artic ... r_on_Sarge and this clears up the confusion I had with the previous link from the previous message.

The trick is to mark sdb1 as "missing" then once mounted, copy the data from sdb1 to sdc1 etc.

i just should have held off posting the message for a bit longer, lol
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Re: [SOLVED] Setup RAID 1 on existing system

#3 Post by p.H »

cds60601 wrote:Is this even possible without somehow storing the data off elsewhere before installing and configing mdadm?
It is even possible to avoid the copying operation.

But are you sure you want to replace a backup with RAID 1 ? They do not have the same purpose.
RAID 1 does not protect against deletion or corruption.

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Re: [SOLVED] Setup RAID 1 on existing system

#4 Post by cds60601 »

p.H wrote: But are you sure you want to replace a backup with RAID 1 ? They do not have the same purpose.
RAID 1 does not protect against deletion or corruption.
Actually, no - and your point is well taken.
So after thinking this through and with a minimal investment, I am going to opt to install an additional drive that will specifically house a backup of the data with a nightly rsync (whether it be rsync or perhaps rsnapshot).

I think this will give me the best of both worlds. But for now (untill I purchase another TB drive) I will let the nightly rsync go as is.
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