moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Max Waterman]

Hi,

I have a nicely working RAID5 (8 200GB drives), so I'm not completely 
new to this game...

However, I think I now have a failing system disk. I'm getting seek 
errors/etc in syslog; however, smart tests complete without any problems.

Anyway, I am thinking of buying two new drives and making a RAID1 system 
disk.

My failing disk is a Maxtor 80GB, and I am thinking of getting Western 
Digital WD800JB (my 200's are all WD2000JBs) - though the warranty on 
Western Digital is only one year (in my location). Any advice on choice 
of drive?

What would the procedure be for moving the data off my Maxtor onto a 
RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?

Max.

Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Max Waterman]

Max Waterman wrote:
> 
> What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor onto a 
> RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?
> 
> Max.

Well, I didn't get a response to this question :|

I wonder if I should just use the fedora installation disk to create a 
RAID1 from the two WD disks and install it on there, then somehow copy 
over the data from the Maxtor (perhaps while booted from a Live Linux CD)?

What do you think?

Max.

Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Andy Smith]

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On Sat, Dec 24, 2005 at 09:27:28AM +0800, Max Waterman wrote:
> Max Waterman wrote:
> >
> >What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor 
> >onto a RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?
> >
> >Max.
> 
> Well, I didn't get a response to this question :|

All three disks are in the same machine?  If so, create the RAID 1
and then copy the files over onto it..  Sorry this seems too simple
so I probably have misunderstood the question.

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Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Max Waterman]

Andy Smith wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 24, 2005 at 09:27:28AM +0800, Max Waterman wrote:
>> Max Waterman wrote:
>>> What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor 
>>> onto a RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?
>>>
>>> Max.
>> Well, I didn't get a response to this question :|
> 
> All three disks are in the same machine?  If so, create the RAID 1
> and then copy the files over onto it..  Sorry this seems too simple
> so I probably have misunderstood the question.

Maybe, maybe not...

The gotcha, in my mind, is that this is the boot disk (to all intents 
and purposes, the only disk in the machine).

But maybe it's still simple?

Max.

Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Henrik]

Hi Max

If you are moving you data archives it is "that simple". If you want to run your entire system on top of a software RAID1 I suggest one of the many "run-root-ontop-of-software-raid" tutorials out there.

http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~mr349/ide_raid_howto.html (one of them). 

A bunch of others: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/os.html
(search for "root" inside document).

If you are using debian you are (as usual?) blessed: http://alioth.debian.org/download.php/668/rootraiddoc.97.html

That will get you started and we'll wait for the "not so simple" questions that might arise.

Obviously the easist way is to first get the RAID1 running, than copy the data and finally- the delicate details of making a bootup possible from the RAID1.

Good luck and merry christmas by the way! :-)

/Henrik Holst

-----Original message-----
From: Max Waterman davidmaxwaterman+gmane@fastmail.co.uk
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 09:07:19 +0100
To: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

> Andy Smith wrote:
> > On Sat, Dec 24, 2005 at 09:27:28AM +0800, Max Waterman wrote:
> >> Max Waterman wrote:
> >>> What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor 
> >>> onto a RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?
> >>>
> >>> Max.
> >> Well, I didn't get a response to this question :|
> > 
> > All three disks are in the same machine?  If so, create the RAID 1
> > and then copy the files over onto it..  Sorry this seems too simple
> > so I probably have misunderstood the question.
> 
> Maybe, maybe not...
> 
> The gotcha, in my mind, is that this is the boot disk (to all intents 
> and purposes, the only disk in the machine).
> 
> But maybe it's still simple?
> 
> Max.
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Max Waterman]

Thanks for the links.

One last question....does the fedora core (specifically version 4) 
installation's RAID install use md for RAID?

(I guess I'm a little unclear on how the different Linux raid solutions 
differ, if at all).

Max.

Henrik wrote:
> Hi Max
> 
> If you are moving you data archives it is "that simple". If you want to run your entire system on top of a software RAID1 I suggest one of the many "run-root-ontop-of-software-raid" tutorials out there.
> 
> http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~mr349/ide_raid_howto.html (one of them). 
> 
> A bunch of others: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/os.html
> (search for "root" inside document).
> 
> If you are using debian you are (as usual?) blessed: http://alioth.debian.org/download.php/668/rootraiddoc.97.html
> 
> That will get you started and we'll wait for the "not so simple" questions that might arise.
> 
> Obviously the easist way is to first get the RAID1 running, than copy the data and finally- the delicate details of making a bootup possible from the RAID1.
> 
> Good luck and merry christmas by the way! :-)
> 
> /Henrik Holst
> 
> -----Original message-----
> From: Max Waterman davidmaxwaterman+gmane@fastmail.co.uk
> Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 09:07:19 +0100
> To: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1
> 
>> Andy Smith wrote:
>>> On Sat, Dec 24, 2005 at 09:27:28AM +0800, Max Waterman wrote:
>>>> Max Waterman wrote:
>>>>> What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor 
>>>>> onto a RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?
>>>>>
>>>>> Max.
>>>> Well, I didn't get a response to this question :|
>>> All three disks are in the same machine?  If so, create the RAID 1
>>> and then copy the files over onto it..  Sorry this seems too simple
>>> so I probably have misunderstood the question.
>> Maybe, maybe not...
>>
>> The gotcha, in my mind, is that this is the boot disk (to all intents 
>> and purposes, the only disk in the machine).
>>
>> But maybe it's still simple?
>>
>> Max.
>>
>> -
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
>> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 

Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Andrew Burgess]

>> What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor onto a 
>> RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?

>I wonder if I should just use the fedora installation disk to create a 
>RAID1 from the two WD disks and install it on there, then somehow copy 
>over the data from the Maxtor (perhaps while booted from a Live Linux CD)?

Create the raid1 and mkfs. Then 
  cp -aux / /raid
then boot single user and do it again to get the few files that have changed
(logs etc)

then adjust your boot program to boot from the raid

Re: moving failing system disk to 2xnew RAID1

[Max Waterman]

Andrew Burgess wrote:
>>> What would the procedure be for moving the data off my (single) Maxtor onto a 
>>> RAID1 of 2 WD800JBs?
> 
>> I wonder if I should just use the fedora installation disk to create a 
>> RAID1 from the two WD disks and install it on there, then somehow copy 
>> over the data from the Maxtor (perhaps while booted from a Live Linux CD)?
> 
> Create the raid1 and mkfs. Then 
>   cp -aux / /raid
> then boot single user and do it again to get the few files that have changed
> (logs etc)
> 
> then adjust your boot program to boot from the raid
> 

OK, sounds straight forward, but what about the /boot and swap partitions?

Max.