[TriLUG] Ubuntu FakeRAID or Software

[matt at noway2.thruhere.net]

>From the original post, your plan is to install Ubuntu Server Edition. 
Based on this, my advice would be to create the RAID during the disk
partitioning phase of the install.  If I recall correctly, you will need
to create the array, add the volumes to it, and then do the install.  This
way, mdadm and such gets loaded into the kernel image from the start and
the file system type gets set then too.  From there, the install is just
like normal.

Regarding the time I had trouble (From Steve Pinkham's question:

"Did you let MD sync first? if not, then yes, you would definately cause
corruption this way. "cat /proc/mdstat" to make sure all disks are
synced before pulling one ;-)"

I am pretty sure the drives were synced, but I suspect I needed to command
mdadm to remove the device from the array before I powered down. I suspect
that by just shutting down and removing the device that it came up in an
unexpectedly degraded state, rather than a sane one.

So Brian, if you are ever think of testing it in this fashion, be sure to
use the mdadm commands to remove the device first.

> Thank you everyone. When I get home tonight I will look at going the
> softwareRAID route and see what happens. I see the pluses and minuses
> to each, but the FakeRAID right now doesn't want to cooperate.
>
> Any one know a good softwareRAID how-to? I've found a few on Google
> and will use those unless some one can point me to a good definitive
> how-to.
>
> I will definitely look at the Webmin page for mdadm.
>
> Brian
> --