Recommended procedure to install on NVMe replacing old RAID

[SteveTalent]

I am preparing to upgrade from Linux Mint 18.3 to 20.2. At the same time I want to replace my old hardware RAID controller and associated drives with a 256GB NVMe M.2 (PCIe) SSD.

Also, I plan to move my /home partition from its current location on an existing 256GB SATA SSD to a new 1TB SSD. That can wait but I mention it in case anyone might recommend doing that first.

I'm looking for suggestions on a safe way to do this in case my plan outlined below is flawed.

Does the installer depend on anything from the old installation?

Here is my current drive configuration:

Code: Select all

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdd      8:48   0 279.4G  0 disk 
├─sdd2   8:50   0    24G  0 part [SWAP]
├─sdd3   8:51   0   513M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sdd1   8:49   0 142.3G  0 part 
└─sdd4   8:52   0 112.6G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   0   5.5T  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0   5.5T  0 part 
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
loop0    7:0    0   2.5M  1 loop 
sdc      8:32   0 465.8G  0 disk 
sda      8:0    0 232.9G  0 disk 
├─sda2   8:2    0 232.7G  0 part /home
└─sda1   8:1    0   244M  0 part 

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$ lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE LABEL UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sdd                                                      
├─sdd2 swap         03c393e0-2781-4e38-abee-46262931d090 [SWAP]
├─sdd3 vfat         FA86-55AC                            /boot/efi
├─sdd1 ext4         5db6aca3-3a11-4dfa-ac5b-c8d76aa6bb2b 
└─sdd4 ext4         be221b14-ca30-4f39-a89e-0b1265b8ea85 /
sdb                                                      
└─sdb1 ext4         3b905821-2464-45b3-a15e-111bf7083615 
sr0                                                      
loop0                                                    
sdc    vfat   WD500 C580-7C9A                            
sda                                                      
├─sda2 ext4         263eb38d-8c5a-4519-934a-d7da57e74e4e /home
└─sda1

/dev/sdd uses an LSI 3ware 9690SA-4I PCI Express 1.1 RAID controller configured as a 10 RAID. I've been using it for at least 12 years and it has been very reliable. SSDs weren't available at that time and the RAID was as fast as the first SSDs that came to market. It uses four 7200 rpm Seagate Baracuda HDDs. When I'm done, the 3ware controller and those four HDDs will be gone.

/dev/sdd1 is not mounted. This is left over from when I upgraded from Linux Mint 17.3 to 18.3 over 3 years ago. It appears that the installer left it behind as a backup. I temporarily mounted that partition and found /etc/linuxmint/info containing the reference to 17.3. This is just wasted space now as far as I can tell.

/dev/sdb1 is mounted only when I want to archive stuff or create a spare backup.

/dev/sdc will be removed since I don't use it any more.

Here is what I'm thinking but I'm not sure if it will work or is the best way of doing it.

• Backup everything
• Install NVMe on MB
• Install Mint 20.2 on NVMe using USB Live Boot and use the "Something else" option to keep my current /home intact
• Reboot from NVMe and verify things work
• Shut down and physically remove RAID controller and associated HDDs
• Boot and verify

If there is a better way or if there are flaws in my plan, I hope to hear back on this thread.

Thanks!

[SteveTalent]

Just a quick update on progress.

I decided to move my /home partition before doing anything else. One reason for doing so was that the 1TB SSD I ordered to serve as my new /home arrived first. I'm still waiting for the NVMe which I plan to use for the system install. Since my old /home was the only partition on a separate drive, it was a very easy process.

After reading and studying other threads I decided the easiest way to move my /home was to boot from the Mint Live USB and use GParted:

• Physically install new 1TB SSD
• Boot from Mint LIVE USB
• Use GParted GUI to create GPT partition table on the new SSD
• Use GParted GUI to copy/paste old /home partition to free space on new SSD and resize that copied partition
• The copy also copies the UUID to the new drive so there's no need to edit /etc/fstab
• Shutdown and remove Mint LIVE USB stick
• Physically remove old SSD (don't want two drives with same UUID on next boot)
• Restart and verify

The entire process took about 10 minutes.

I will probably recycle the old 256G SSD after upgrading to the latest Mint and use it for Timeshift backups.