Installation on a MDADM RAID Array

[gianlucarenzi]

Hello,
I was wandering if there is any chance to install LMDE 201109 32 bit on a pre-configured md software raid. Actually this workstation has Bodhi Linux installed, but I wish to switch over Linux Mint Debian Edition, but I am unable to find out how to install it on a RAID Array.
Other issue will be to use ext4 as FileSystem and DO NOT FORMAT the existing data, as /home folder is NOT a separate partition.
/dev/md0 /boot
/dev/md1 swap
/dev/md2 /

Any help?

Best regards,
Gianluca

[skogs]

I wish you luck my friend. I wish I knew more. This is the 3rd time I've downloaded a new lmde install image, burned it, and booted...desperately trying to get mdadm to work correctly.

All I can really say is that I now have more respect for the guys that make the installer files for the other distributions. I also agree with several other posters that, as a more robust focused distro, it really makes no sense to NOT support mdadm out of the box with the installer. I've spent way too many hours trying to resurrect other people's data to ever try it again on my own data. Everything I have is raided. Usually twice or three times if you consider the automated backups.

I can install mdadm into the live environment...but I cannot point the installer at it.

[kseise]

Yes, it should be possible, but you need to install mdadm with a chroot. Check out the following. You probably need to start around Step 3 or so because you already created the arrays.

http://www.howtoforge.com/install-ubuntu-with-software-raid-10

Yes, it can be done, I have this working on mine using this guide.

[skogs]

Yeah...I'm not going to hand jam it. While I am perfectly capable of restoring from a backup and rebuilding, I choose to continue waiting for mdadm to be added to the live image. I can boot to the live disc, install mdadm, mount both md0 and md1, see what is in there...but I don't want to leave fragments of stupidity behind installing to one ext4 partition and then trusting mdadm to rebuild the entire thing onto the other drive after the fact.

mdadm or not, drives are more likely to fail during a rebuild than any other time just because of the heavy load and heat applied.

What is more interesting to me is that somebody wrote the how to for ubuntu. My particular machine is currently running (ancient) ubuntu with a pair of raid drives. I know I didn't have to hand jam that one. And that has been migrated, right over the top, from fedora, to suse, and then to I think 3 different ubuntus. I will wait (beg) for a couple of smart guys to add md devices to the installer.

[kseise]

I thought I saw a rumor on the forums about a plan for adding RAID capabilities to the installer. I dread the thought of having to manually do the install again if I have to. Good luck!

[skogs]

I saw that too...a good year ago. Actually one of the main reasons I use linux at all is because M$ hasn't figured out how to let the rest of the world do a simple drive mirror yet. I don't trust cheap controllers, and I don't want to afford the good ones for a regular workstation. I've had a fair number of machines relying on mdadm for years now with not a single lost bit...I like that. All that costs is a bit of knowledge and a second or third HDD.