Working Software Raid5 with karmic some questions

[attila_66]

Since Karmic I was using kubuntu 8.10. (still have it as master system) (160gb hdd)
After that I want to have a fast and safe system.
Then I tested Karmic and found it good to upgrade. (quick boot time hi speed graphics etc.)
Because of safety I choosed Raid5.
I installed system on 3x160gb hdd's grub loaded to bootsectors of all 3 hdd's (great).
I learned that after first startup all hdd's sync theirself. (long time hdd led is on even system is idle)
While syncronizing I had some errors on console screen.
(errors may be caused I used unformatted drives)
Now system seem normal.

cat /proc/mdstat command retorns as follows:

attila@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid10]
md0 : active raid5 sdc1[2] sdb1[1] sda1[0]
312576512 blocks level 5, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [3/3] [UUU]

unused devices: <none>

Now I plan to move all my data to Karmic Raid5.

Do you think that my system is normal and safe??

Is there a command that I can check the Raid5 system??

[dibl]

Re: Working Software Raid5 with karmic some questions

I don't recall knowing that there is a regular forum member with expertise in RAID installations -- I have never built a RAID in Linux.

There's no obvious error reported in your listed outputs. If it were me and my data, I would test it -- install the OS, throw a copy of some data on it, and "break" it, by pulling a power plug or data cable off a hard drive. Then reconstitute your RAID and see what you have. There's nothing like empirical results to raise your confidence that your system is stable.

[attila_66]

Re: Working Software Raid5 with karmic some questions

install the OS, throw a copy of some data on it, and "break" it, by pulling a power plug or data cable off a hard drive. Then reconstitute your RAID and see what you have. There's nothing like empirical results to raise your confidence that your system is stable.

Yes Dibl this is great idea.

I didnt thought about this test until one of the drives fail. (may be too late)

I will make this test just after this post and reply the result here asap.

[attila_66]

Re: Working Software Raid5 with karmic some questions

Now i am writing this message from my software Raid5 system with only 2 hdd's.
As you suggested I took off the data cable of one drive tried to boot system.
Some warning messages came on screen:
System may boot with 2 hdd but performance will be low yes boot no stop.
I choosed yes and all data is here.
Now another test what will happen when I plug the missing hdd.
Everything is ok after adding missing Hdd.

In any case I can backup all data by booting 2 hdd's.
System seems safe enough to me.