File Server and Raid

[Johan Ramm-Ericson]

On Wed, November 15, 2006 13:00, Richard Brown wrote:
> Hi Johan
>
> On 15/11/06, Johan Ramm-Ericson <ubuntu at ramm-ericson.se> wrote:
>> On the whole, I agree with your description Russel. However; Richard,
it
>> might be a good idea for you to read this :
>> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html
>> It's sort of dry and technical (most manuals are) but getting some
understanding of what's involved will probably save you headache
later...
> Thanks for the link. I haven't read it yet but will do. It seems that I
made a mistake at some point. Is it possible to format the drives as ext
2/3 and swap and then raid array the drives after that. In my drop down
menu when partitioning the drives it actually states raid as an option
in partitioning and that is what I thought I should select. The reason I
ask is that I can easily start again - I want to get it right and I know
that I could troubleshoot but I feel it is better to start from a good
point rather than trying to troubleshoot a flawed install.

I began writing an explanation and realised that the whole issue of
setting up RAID devices is one that should have been answered before in
Linux / Ubuntu on the 'net. A few (not very thorough) google searches
later confirmed that - but poorly... It seems there are too many ways to
go about this for a given manual to be generic enough to apply to
everyones particular setup. Still, I do realise this may be hard to
accomplish.

Having said that, the URL I posted is valid - but a bit outdated. For
example; it's pre-Ubuntu... ;-)

Now, to answer your question; barring going right back to the beginning
and reinstalling your system from scratch, I would scratch the partitions
you currently have set up for RAID and then go with the posted How-To.
You'll probably learn the most that way..

As a mental note to myself (and anyone else listening) it looks like it's
high time to post some info on the Ubuntu wiki that could explain and
describe the simpler and most common RAID system setups. I think everyone
would benefit - or should I say: "ubuntu"  :-)

/johan