RAID 5

RAID 5 on Amahi

Introduction

There are several reasons why one would want a RAID 5 configuration for your Amahi server if one has the money to buy at least 3 drives needed. The main reasons, however, are performance and redundancy. A RAID 5 array splits up a given file and its parity and distributes it across all the disks. The bad news is that if one has N disks, each with capacity C, the total array capacity is (N - 1) * C - one disk is lost to parity. On the other hand, a RAID 5 array has almost RAID 0 performance, and can survive the loss of one disk without loss of data. One thing that must be kept in mind with any RAID array (and one thing I didn't know about until it happened to me) is that RAID arrays are susceptible to data loss if not shut down correctly. A sudden power outage can result in data loss, so if a RAID array is used, it is important to use a UPS.

This wiki entry is for the installation of a software RAID 5 array using 3 disks that are the same size, 2 TB. At the end, the RAID array will be used to host all the shares on the server. My server has a separate hard drive on which I installed Fedora 12 and the Amahi software. The Amahi software should be installed and working correctly before the RAID array is created. Technically, it doesn't matter that Amahi is running first, but it makes it slightly easier to set up.

Sources Used

Here are the sources I used while installing my array, and writing this entry:

• http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch26_:_Linux_Software_RAID

• http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Adding_a_second_hard_drive_to_your_HDA

Installation Steps

1. Install your disks
   • Your computer's BIOS should list all disks on startup.
2. Find out your available partitions:

   • su -

   • fdisk -l

   • What you are looking for is probably going to be something like /dev/sd**some letter**. In my case, since I installed Fedora on one hard drive first before installing my 3 other disks RAID disks, the above command returns that I have disks labelled /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdc and /dev/sdd. I, of course, won't be using the hard drive on which I installed Fedora (/dev/sda), so my array will be created using the /dev/sdb /dev/sdc and /dev/sdd disks.
3. Unmount the partitions:

   • umount /dev/sdb

   • umount /dev/sdc

   • umount /dev/sdd

4. Remove the old partitions, and prep the disks using fdisk:

   • fdisk /dev/sdb

   • Type t to change the disk's partition type, type 1 to select the first partition, and type fd to select the Linux RAID auto detect ID.
   • Make sure that you got the correct settings by typing p.
   • Finalize the changes by typing w.
5. Repeat the same process for all of your disks.
6. Create the RAID array:

   • mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=3 /dev/sd[bcd]

   • Type y to start the creation process.
   • The array has to build before you can continue with anything, and depending on how much storage space you have, it can take a looooong time. For my array, it takes some 20 odd hours. You can check on the progress by typing 'cat /proc/mdstat'.
7. Format the RAID set:

   • mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0

   • You can format the RAID set into another filesystem, if you so choose.
   • This also can take a really long time, as well, but not nearly as long as creating the array itself.
8. Unfortunately, Linux does not automatically remember your RAID settings, so you need to create a configuration file so that Linux knows that to do. Fortunately, you don't need to know (or type) the specifics, which mainly involves a really long alpha-numeric ID string:

   • mdadm --detail --scan --verbose > /etc/mdadm.conf

9. Now, move all your shares to the RAID array:

   • mv /var/hda/files/* /dev/md0

10. Unmount the array:

    • umount /dev/md0

11. Edit the /etc/fstab file, so that the shares get mounted to the array on startup:

    • nano /etc/fstab

    • Edit the line containing '/var/hda/files' to read '/dev/md0 /var/hda/files ext4 defaults 1 2'.
      • If you used a different filesystem other than ext4, place that filesystem name in place of the 'ext4' above.
12. Now, finally, mount your array:

    • mount -a

That is it! Enjoy your new large storage array!