{"id":250,"date":"2012-05-31T22:45:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T14:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/?p=250"},"modified":"2012-05-31T22:45:52","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T14:45:52","slug":"building-a-raid-5-storage-system-using-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"Building a RAID 5 Storage System using Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAID improves storage performance and storage is important, but what’s more important is the data that is being contained. So I’ve decided to build a proof of concept in a Visualized en environment before hitting the real thing.<\/p>\n

so after “installing” your disk, check for your disks using this command<\/p>\n

fdisk -l<\/pre>\n
You’ll see things like this<\/p>\n
Disk \/dev\/sdb: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 2610 cylinders\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes\nI\/O size (minimum\/optimal): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes\nDisk identifier: 0x00000000\n\nDisk \/dev\/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table\n\nDisk \/dev\/sdc: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 2610 cylinders\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes\nI\/O size (minimum\/optimal): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes\nDisk identifier: 0x00000000\n\nDisk \/dev\/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table\n\nDisk \/dev\/sdd: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 2610 cylinders\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes\nSector size (logical\/physical): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes\nI\/O size (minimum\/optimal): 512 bytes \/ 512 bytes\nDisk identifier: 0x00000000\n\nDisk \/dev\/sdd doesn't contain a valid partition table<\/pre>\n
Make sure that these are the drives that you’re going to work on for the RAID.<\/p>\n
Now create a new partition (in this case the partition is going to be on \/dev\/sdb)<\/p>\n
fdisk \/dev\/sdb<\/pre>\n
Press ‘n’ for new partition<\/p>\n
n<\/pre>\n
Press ‘p’ for primary partition and ‘1’ for the 1st partition<\/p>\n
p<\/pre>\n
1<\/pre>\n
After creating partitions change it to lo Linux raid auto detect<\/p>\n
Press ‘t’ to change partition type<\/p>\n
t<\/pre>\n
Press ‘fd’ to change it to “Linux RAID auto”<\/p>\n
fd<\/pre>\n
Press ‘w’ to save and write the configuration<\/p>\n
w<\/pre>\n
Repeat the above steps for the other hard disks also.<\/p>\n
After getting the partitions up, it’s time to build the raid and it’s a simple 1 liner. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
mdadm --create --verbose \/dev\/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=3 \/dev\/sdb1 \/dev\/sdc1 \/dev\/sdd1<\/pre>\n
Then you persist the RAID settings into a mdadm.conf file using this<\/p>\n
mdadm --detail --scan >> \/etc\/mdadm.conf<\/pre>\n
Then it’s time to format the new RAID<\/p>\n
mkfs.ext4 \/dev\/md0<\/pre>\n
Then it’s time to mount somewhere create a directory<\/p>\n
mkdir -p \/mnt\/raid<\/pre>\n
mount \/dev\/md0 \/mnt\/raid<\/pre>\n
After that find the UUID of the raid device<\/p>\n
ls \/dev\/disk\/by-uuid -alh<\/pre>\n
Then add it into \/etc\/fstab by editing the file using a text editor like vim<\/p>\n
vim \/etc\/fstab<\/pre>\n
add this line at the end of the file<\/p>\n
UUID=<<YOUR UUID>> \/mnt\/raid ext4 defaults 0 0<\/pre>\n
And there you have it! a RAID 5 storage system ready to be used! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Do take note that RAID is not a backup, it is merely redundant storage with performance. You’ll still have to backup regularly into another drive which I’ll touch on later.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RAID improves storage performance and storage is important, but what’s more important is the data that is being contained. So I’ve decided to build a proof of concept in a Visualized en environment before hitting the real thing. so after “installing” your disk, check for your disks using this command fdisk -l You’ll see things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.yaojun.sg\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}